Roster revelations to spark Olympic excitement

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Alex Ovechkin will lead world champion Russia into the Vancouver Winter Olympics and a host of his fellow National Hockey League superstars will follow him onto team rosters in the next week.
Washington Capitals playmaker Ovechkin, named the NHL’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, and fellow stars Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar were named Thursday to Russia’s 23-man provisional Olympic roster.
Other global powers will follow in the next few days, with defending Olympic champion Sweden announcing Sunday, Slovakia revealing its lineup Tuesday, Czech Republic, Finland and Canada following Wednesday and the Americans next Friday.
Decision makers have used the first three months of the NHL season as an audition period, looking to see if injured players have regained their form and young talents have improved their skills enough to join the quest for gold. Sweden beat Finland in the 2006 Turin Olympic final with the Czechs beating Russia for bronze and Canada finishing a disappointing seventh, one spot above the Americans.
Russian talent won eight Olympic gold medals, most recently in 1992 as the Unified Team, but defeating Canada in the past two world championship finals has brought bragging rights and a sense the Olympic drought might end in 2010.
“A lot of hopes and expectations have been placed on the Russian national team. A lot of people see us as favorites. This doesn’t bother us,” Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov told Russian Television.
“Canada will be looking for revenge and won’t need any extra motivation. We won’t be frightened by them as we know we can play with them and we know we can beat them.”
Ovechkin, who has 23 goals in 28 games this season, joined Capitals teammate Alexander Semin and ex-teammate Sergei Fedorov as a line at last year’s worlds and could reunite in Vancouver.