Russia will have NHL-KHL balance: Tretiak
Goalie legend likes play of Brzygalov, Nabokov
Last Updated: Sunday, November 29, 2009 | 10:41 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Vladislav Tretiak, seen at the world hockey championships in May, has been taking in NHL games this week to scout Russian Olympic hopefuls. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)General manager Vladislav Tretiak predicts half of the Russian Olympic hockey team will likely come from the domestic Kontinental Hockey League, but he remains hopeful that the NHL's best will still be playing in the Olympics four years from now.
On his first scouting trip ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Tretiak was in Montreal on Saturday night to watch the centrepiece of his team, Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin, terrorize the Canadiens in a 4-3 shootout win.
He also had dinner prior to the game with injured Habs defenceman Andrei Markov, who is aiming for a return from a lacerated tendon in his ankle by early January, about a month ahead of schedule.
While the Russians will lean heavily on their NHL stars like Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk, Tretiak said he expects a significant number of unfamiliar faces on the roster as well.
"Maybe half and half, 12 and 12," Tretiak said after Saturday's game when asked how many KHL players could make the Russian squad. "The KHL is a good league, the hockey is very tough. We have maybe 10 or 12 good players.
"It's going to be very tough for the coaches to make the team because there are so many good players; there are good players in the NHL and good players in the KHL. Everybody has a shot to play for Russia."
Tretiak, who also serves as president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, is concerned about the possibility that the NHL will pull out of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk have already said they will play on home soil regardless of whether or not the NHL participates, but Tretiak hopes it never comes to that.
"It's special because the best players in the world are playing in the Olympic Games," said Tretiak, who won three Olympic golds and a silver medal over his Hall of Fame career as a goaltender for the former Soviet Union. "It's a special time for each hockey player, it doesn't matter — Canadian, American or Russian, because it's a special competition. An Olympic medal is different than a world championship. I hope everybody comes to Sochi."
Tretiak also got to watch Washington goalie Semyon Varlamov on Saturday. Varlamov's save percentage and goals-against average are comparable to fellow Russians Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose) and Ilya Bryzgalov (Phoenix). Edmonton's Nikolai Khabibulin, currently out with a back injury, is also in the mix even though he wasn't on the orientation camp list in the summer.
"It will be difficult for Varlamov because Bryzgalov is playing unbelievable, Nabokov is playing unbelievable, it's a big competition," Tretiak said. "I told [Varlamov] today he has a chance, because three goalies will come to the Olympic Games. It doesn't matter who is number one, two or three. It is important to be inside the Russian hockey team."
Russia, the two-time defending world champion, will be going to Vancouver as a favourite to snap an 18-year Olympic gold medal drought. But Tretiak warned that anything can happen in a short tournament.
"It will be very tough, because there's a lot of competition," Tretiak said. "Team Canada, the U.S., the Czechs, the Finns, Sweden, everybody has a shot to win the Olympic Games. Every game is a final for us, every game. The concentration is on the first game, then if you win, the next game. You can't look to the future. It's very important, because I have a good experience. In 1980, we looked at the U.S. and thought the U.S. wasn't a good team, so we prepared for the Czech Republic. Then Team USA beat us."
