On May 10, 2019, the main hockey championship of the year for national teams begins. The next Ice Hockey World Championship starts in Slovakia. For this tournament, the Russians have collected many of their stars, so the fans expect a decent result from each match.
The Russian national ice hockey team at the eighty-third IIHF World Championship was in group B. Matches of this subgroup will take place in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. The first meetings of the national teams are scheduled for the first day of the World Cup, they will begin on May 10.
The 2019 World Cup will kick off the Russian national team with one of the first matches against the Norwegian team. The game will take place on May 10 at 17:15 Moscow time. From this game, fans expect a bright debut of the national team, in which such outstanding hockey players as Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Malkin, Nikita Kucherov and many others will play.
The Russians will play their second match in the tournament within the group stage on Sunday, May 12th. Hockey players from Austria will become rivals of Ilya Vorobyov's charges. The rules of the championship determined the beginning of this game at 13:15 (Moscow time).
Many hockey experts say that the group stage calendar for the Russian national team looks very good, because in the first two meetings the Russians will not be opposed by the strongest teams. This should help the "Red Machine" find its game, finally find the optimal combinations in the links.
The first serious contender for the Russians in the tournament will be the Czech national team. Our team will meet with this team in the third round of the group stage on May 13. The start of the match was made in the daytime - 17:15 (Moscow time). The Czech national team is lucky to have a decent line-up for the 2019 World Cup; there are NHL stars among the players. This meeting may expose the problems of the Russian national team, but the Czechs do not look favorites on paper.
On the evening of May 15, the Russian national team will play their fourth match at the 2019 World Cup. The rivals of the Russians will be the Italians, who were able to break into the elite division of world hockey. This meeting is presented as an opportunity for many domestic hockey players to score a large number of points on the goal + pass system.
After the Italians, the Russians will play with the Latvian national team. Before this meeting, the tournament regulations define three days of rest. Therefore, the game of the fifth round of group B Latvia - Russia will take place on Saturday, May 18, 13:15 (Moscow time).
The last two meetings for the national team of our country seem to be very important from the point of view of the distribution of the final place in the group. On May 19, at 21:15 (Moscow time), domestic hockey players will compete with the Swiss team. The Swiss could not collect all the stars in their roster, but several leaders of the national team from the NHL still came to strengthen their team. Therefore, the Russians will not just be in the penultimate match of the group stage.
The Russian national team will play the final game in the group stage with one of the favorites of the entire tournament - the national team, which has won the hockey world championships for the last two years. Vorobyov's charges will face off against the Swedish team. This game is presented as one of the most intriguing confrontations in the Bratislava group. More than half of the Swedes are NHL players.
Of course, all the fans of the national team are waiting for the team to enter the playoff stage. The quarterfinals will start on 23 May. The semi-final games will start on May 25. The last day of the tournament in which the games for the bronze and gold medals will take place is May 26.