2010 Olympics: Russia – Slovakia preview (Photo © Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
On Tuesday night Team Russia will play its second match in the 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament. After the 8-2 win over Latvia in the inaugural match, Team Russia‘s opponents will be Team Slovakia.
Team Russia’s starter is going to be Ilya Bryzgalov.
Slovakia’s goaltender will be Montreal Canadiens’ Jaroslav Halak. “He is a very technique sound goaltender”, said Evgeni Malkin. “He also has a good stickhandling. You need to shot a lot against him. We have to take the initiative and concede no rooms to our opponents.”
Vyacheslav Bykov has also decided to try powerplay special team and in the latest practice he iced Alexander Ovechkin, Malkin, Alexander Semin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Sergei Gonchar in the same unit.
Pavel Datsyuk didn’t train with the team, spent time in the gym instead.
“Team Russia is one of the best teams in this tournament”, Slovak superstar Marian Gaborik declared. “Its lineup has plenty of stars. We will need to stay focus on defense and stay off bad penalties.”
The puck is going to be dropped at the local 9PM.