Slovakia News

Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov talked about the reasons of the loss to Slovakia, stated that not all players had passion, explained why Alexander Ovechkin had three shootout attempts and talked about power play units in an interview to the Russian site gazeta.ru.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

- Do you agree that only the Zaripov-Zinoviev-Morozov line displayed some teamwork?
Bykov: "You are not far from being right. We will try and find out why it happened. I don't think that our players didn't want it. It's just that the opponent didn't give us many opportunities. But I also should notice that a lot of players lacked passion and thirst for game. At the same time I agree that it wasn't our day."

A shootout goal by Pavol Demitra gave Slovakia the edge over Team Russia in the Olympic Hockey tournament's round robin. In the Group B standings Russia retains the lead with 4 points, but with one game more than Czech Republic, who beaten team Slovakia yesterday.

Bykov's team had some chances at the start, especially with a shot from the high slot by Alexander Ovechkin, but Jaroslav Halak saved all the 10 opponents' attempts. 8 saves so far for Ilya Bryzgalov.

In the second period Alexei Morozov scored the 1-0 goal with a good one time from the right circle after another bad powerplay show by Team Russia. Bykov's team controlled most of the play in the middle stanza and got twice near to the second goalie, first with Maxim Afinogenov, then with a great rush by Evgeni Malkin, but Halak was ready in both plays. Team Slovakia had some chances too, but Bryzgalov has been steady and kept Russia up by one goal.

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.

The KHL is going to send 60 players to the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games. Latvia is topping the list with 17 players from the KHL, Belarus is 2nd with 14 and Russia is 3rd with 9 players. They only teams that don't have players from the KHL are Canada, the USA and Germany.

Among the players are Alexander Radulov, Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov for Russia, Jaromir Jagr, Petr Cajanek and Josef Vasicek for Czech Republic, Richard Zednik and Jozef Stumpel for Slovakia, as well as Mattias Weinhandl for Sweden and Martin Gerber for Switzerland.

The team that will send the most players is Dinamo Riga, with 16. Dynamo Minsk follows at 10, with Salavat Yulaev Ufa takes the third place in this classification sending seven players to Vancouver. The Olympic hockey tournament will start of February 16th, with the final match being scheduled for February 28th.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a breakdown of the KHL players at the next Olympics.

Russia's opponents in the preliminary round at the Olympic Games in Vancouver will be the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Latvia.

Games schedule:
Tuesday, 16 February. Russia - Latvia.
Thursday, 18 February. Slovakia - Russia.
Sunday, 21 February. Russia - Czech Republic.