The NHL League has prepared a real gift for hockey fans in the form of the World Cup, in which all the stars of the best league on the planet can take part. The tournament starts on September 17, 2016 in Toronto, Canada.
According to the rules of preparation for the World Cup, the coaching staffs of all participating national teams were to announce at the beginning of March the composition of 16 "untouchable" players. It is these hockey players who will form the basis of the national teams.
Russian fans have learned the names of the core team of the Russian national team for the 2016 Ice Hockey World Cup. Despite the fact that this application is not final (seven more hockey players will be added to the sixteen players), the composition of the Russians for the World Cup looks impressive.
Goalkeepers
Oleg Znarok has finally decided on the goalkeeper's position. The names of three goalkeepers have been announced, who claim to be the first number in the team's goal. All three are in the NHL. These are: Sergei Bobrovsky from Columbus, Semyon Varlamov, who defends the colors of Colorado, and young and promising Andrei Vasilevsky from Tampa.
Defenders
The defense of the Russian national team for the 2016 World Cup has not yet been formed. Unlike other national teams, this line has a much smaller number of players. Only three defenders from the NHL were included in the 16 “untouchables”.
Many years veteran of Montreal Andrei Markov, having a very productive season 2015-2016, could not help but be called up to the national team. In addition to him, the team included Dmitry Orlov, performing with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov in Washington, as well as the defense of Florida Dmitry Kulikov.
Forwards
The attack of the Russian national team presents a real scattering of world hockey stars. This line in the national team looks the most convincing. Washington has delegated two forwards: Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, from Chicago Artemy Panarin and Artem Anisimov will join the national team. Also, two forwards in the Znarka team are expected from Tampa: Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov.
Pittsburgh leader Yevgeny Malkin, Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk, goal scorer from St. Louis Vladimir Tarasenko and defensive forward Nikolai Kulemin from Toronto are expected to be included in the national team.
Visually, the composition of the Russian national team for the 2016 Ice Hockey World Cup looks very promising:
It is worth noting that the national team will still strengthen by the beginning of the tournament, because there are still seven places in the roster, which can be taken, for example, by Alexander Radulov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin. The coaching staff has a choice to replenish the defense players: Medvedev, Tyutin, Nikitin, Marchenko and Nesterov play in the NHL, and the colors of the clubs Voinov, Belov, Zaitsev, Denisov and others play in the KHL.
In any case, the final composition of the Russian national team for the World Cup will be very combative and claiming solely to win in Toronto.
