Say hello to the enemy...

Well, with that first WJC game in the books, a 16 - 0 drubbing of Latvia (who I am beginning to believe don't actually have ice in their home country), there's some news relevant to our beloved Twenty Ten team.

The Russians have announced their Olympic team that will hit the ice in Vancouver in 2010.

A quick look at the team...

Goalies
Ilya Bryzgalov (Phoenix), Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose), Semyon Varlamov (Washington)

Defence
Sergei Gonchar (Pittsburgh), Denis Grebeshkov (Edmonton), Dmitri Kalinin (Salavat Ufa), Konstantin Korneyev (CSKA Moscow), Andrei Markov (Montreal), Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars Kazan), Fedor Tyutin (Columbus), Anton Vonchenkov (Ottawa)

Forwards
Maxim Afinogenov (Atlanta), Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), Sergei Fedorov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk), Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta), Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Ufa), Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh), Alexei Morozov (Ak Bars Kazan), Alexander Ovechkin (Washington), Alexander Radulov (Salavat Ufa), Alexander Semin (Washington), Danis Zaripov (Ak Bars Kazan), Sergei Zinoviev (Salavat Ufa)

Surprised by some of the omissions (you can read that on the CTV site, I don't need to parrot who was left off as well as who made the squad), but I'm not too concerned, as they must feel they're giving their team the best chance to win, and there's no shortage of skill with Ovi, Malkin, Datsyuk and Kovalchuk up front.

The "other" best team in 2010...

I've made it clear from the start of my conversations with Matty about the Canadian Twentyten team that the Russians have to be the team to give Canada the most trouble at the games in Vancouver.

Yesterday, the invitees to the Russian camp were announced, and they definitely have a solid group of players going to their own little camp.

Obviously, the list is headlined by Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk. I'm not "wowed" by their goaltenders, with Nabokov really being the only one with a proven track record (though not when it matters), although Varlamov really showed some resilience in the playoffs this year, until game 7 when he put on his best Roman Cechmanek impression in game 7 versus the eventual cup champs. I was surprised to see Khabibulin not even on the camp invitee roster. Their defense will definitely have skill, but I don't know they'll have the physical ability to really challenge a lot of the players they'll have to deal with from our Canadian squad.

All in all though, with the offensive fire power these guys have, they're going to be tough to stop, but I have to believe that our boys are better than theirs.

WHAMMO!!