Russia names Olympic men's hockey roster going for repeat gold in Beijing
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Russia’s Olympic men’s hockey team, favored for repeat gold in the NHL’s absence, is again wholly KHL players, including seven returnees from the 2018 champion team.
Coached by three-time Olympic forward Alexei Zhamnov, Russia was the biggest beneficiary from the NHL’s withdrawal in late December.
It drew from its stable of players in the KHL, its domestic league that is regarded as the world’s second-best after the NHL.
In 2018, the Russian team was also made up entirely of KHL players, including longtime NHL stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk, who are no longer playing.
It lost its first game to Slovakia in South Korea, then ran the table, beating Germany in the final on Kirill Kaprizov‘s overtime goal. Kaprizov is now an All-Star with the Minnesota Wild.
Defensemen Slava Voynov, Nikita Nesterov and Egor Yakovlev and forwards Mikhail Grigorenko, Sergei Andronov, Nikita Gusev and Vadim Shipachyov return to the Olympic team after taking gold in 2018.
Vasily Koshechkin, Russia’s No. 1 goalie in 2018, wasn’t named to the team. The 38-year-old has played in 14 of his KHL club’s 48 games this season.
Russia is grouped with the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Denmark in Beijing.
Russian athletes in all sports will compete under the acronym ROC for the Russian Olympic Committee as part of sanctions for the nation’s well-documented doping and cover-ups.
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