The questions Russia carried with it to North America for the World Cup of Hockey have officially cleared customs and remain anchored to the team. In fact, they may have multiplied somewhere over the Atlantic.
After splitting two games with the Czech Republic in Europe, Russia closed out the pre-tournament round with a 3-2 overtime loss to Canada. All along, people have suspected the Russian blue-line won’t be able to withstand the pressure from other top nations and nothing we saw on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh threw cold water on that notion.
Russia’s big boys – with the exception of the biggest – have also yet to really find their form. More on that and a few other notes in these takeaways from the setback versus Canada.
Oh, that blue-line
When you’re asking 37-year-old Andrei Markov to play the role of No. 1 defenceman, things are skewing to the bare side of thin. (Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nikita Zaitsev actually logged the most ice time of any Russian blue-liner.)
Dmitry Orlov did a nice job of encapsulating Russia’s back-end problems in the span of about 10 seconds in the first period. After losing a 50-50 puck battle to Patrice Bergeron in the high slot – really, we can give him a pass on that – Orlov recovered and quickly found the puck back on his stick. That must have caught him off guard, because by the time he decided to make another play, Sidney Crosby swooped in and stole the puck without much fuss at all. That was about the time one of Orlov’s teammates had to take a hooking penalty to stop the insanity.
Canada outshot Russia 48-26, and it would have been more lopsided had the Canadians not taken a few goofy minor penalties, including two for too many men on the ice. There’s just no getting around how flummoxed and overmatched the D-corps looks.
Which brings us too…
Nice job, Bob
Sergei Bobrovsky certainly had his hands full (of rubber) trying to stem the Canadian attack. The Columbus Blue Jackets puckstopper couldn’t be blamed on any of Canada’s tallies and, for the most part, delivered the kind of goaltending Russia will need to sneak through the round robin. His best save may have been the one he made late in the game on Brad Marchand when, with Marchand cutting in alone and moving to his backhand, Bobrovsky pushed hard to his left and stretched out his leg and glove.
Despite the loss, Bobrovsky did all he could to solidify his status as the Game 1 starter.
Reunited, and they still look good
The Russians were actually in a position to win this game when Artemi Panarin put them ahead 2-1 just over seven minutes into the third on a goal both Vadim Shipachyov and Evgenii Dadonov drew assists on.
Panarin, you know. But if you’re wondering about the two guys the NHL’s reigning rookie of the year skates with, they can play a little, too.
The chemistry between left-winger Panarin, centre Shipachyov and right-winger Dadonov dates back to a couple years ago when the trio was creating offence for SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL.
They’re doing the same thing so far in the World Cup warm-ups, as each player finished the pre-tournament schedule with three points in three games. The line last played together just a few months ago at the world championship, where they finished 1-2-3 in tournament scoring (Shipachyov, Panarin, Dadonov).
As for the NHL stars…
Yes, Alex Ovechkin sniped with a signature one-timer on a 5-on-3 power play, but none of the other lead horses caused enough Canadian headaches in the loss.
Russia is going to have to score its way out of some trouble and that means the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Vladimir Tarasenko and Evgeny Kuznetsov will need to be fully dialed in.
The good news is, that could happy in a hurry.
