Faceoff Factor

Olympic Report: 2/16

Matt Bodenschatz | General Hockey (IIHF, Olympics, etc)

Feb 16, 09:55 AM | Hype this story!

Zach Boslett contributed to the completion of lines, below.

Starting today, and hopefully everyday until the Olympics end, I’ll put together a compilation of hockey-related tidbits out of Vancouver.

While these reports will vary day-by-day, two constants will be results from the previous day and a schedule for the day ahead.

If anyone has unique, interesting, fun, etc tidbits they’d like to share, please use FF’s Contact Page, or comment below.

I hope everyone enjoys what promises to be some fantastic hockey!

Today’s Schedule

• USA vs. Switzerland – 3:00 pm EST on USA Network

• Canada vs. Norway – 8:00 pm EST on CNBC

• Russia vs. Latvia – 12:30 a.m (2/17) on CNBC

Yesterday’s Results

Obviously, today marks the start of the tournament, so no games have been played as of yet.

FF Updates

All Olympic rosters have been updated to the best of my ability. I am not perfect with scribe work, as those who read my Penguin game previews will attest, so there quite possibly could be errors.

Check out the front page of FF for links to each roster (within the gray middle bar), and please feel free to let me know if there are any mistakes!

Also, to the right, you’ll notice a new NBC Olympics widget. This should be a nice way for FF’s readers to keep up with the latest on the Olympics, as I simply won’t have the time to report on everything.

Heads-Up

Additionally, for those looking for a Pittsburgh angle when reading about the Olympics, look no further than Dejan Kovacevic: At The Olympics, an impromptu blog at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by a man who loves his job.

Quite simply, I’m not sure you’ll find better coverage with more passion than you will from Kovacevic. For those unaware, Kovacevic covers the Pittsburgh Pirates in a very fair and unbiased manner, despite his lifelong love for all things Pittsburgh. Prior to his gig covering the Buccos, he was the PG’s beat writer for the Penguins, making him a great source for Pittsburghers.

If you like Seth Rorabaugh of Empty Netters (how couldn’t you?), you’ll love Kovacevic.

Lineups News and Notes

Kovacevic brings us a glimpse of the Russian squad’s top two lines (with an updated look at the third lines and defense pairings from various reports).

• Alexander Ovechkin – Pavel Datsyuk – Alexander Semin
• Ilya Kovalchuk – Evgeni Malkin – Maxim Afinogenov
• Alexander Radulov – Sergei Fedorov – Viktor Kozlov
• Danis Zaripov – Sergei Zinoviev – Alexei Morozov

• Sergei Gonchar – Fedor Tyutin
• Denis Grebeshkov – Konstantin Korneyev
• Andrei Markov – Nikolai Nikulin
• Anton Volchenkov – Dmitri Kalinin

• Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov are likely to split time in goal

He also took a look at who Sidney Crosby appears to be skating with for Team Canada (other reports have filled in the bottom three lines and defense pairings).

• Rick Nash – Sidney Crosby – Patrice Bergeron
• Eric Staal – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
• Patrick Marleau – Joe Thornton – Dany Heatley
• Brendan Morrow – Jonathan Toews – Jarome Iginla

• Dan Boyle – Chris Pronger
• Duncan Keith – Brent Seabrook
• Shea Weber – Scott Niedermayer

• Roberto Luongo vs. Norway
• Marty Brodeur vs. Switzerland

Kovacevic reports that Team USA, interestingly, emphasized speed and quickness and spent little/no time working with specific line combinations and defense pairings. NHL.com and a combination of Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy and Matt Reitz of View from My Seats meanwhile, reported the following lines and defense pairing…

• Zach Parise – Paul Stastny – Patrick Kane
• Ryan Malone – Joe Pavelski – Phil Kessel
• Dustin Brown – Ryan Kesler – Jamie Langenbrunner
• David Backes – Chris Drury – Ryan Callahan – Bobby Ryan (all 4 skated in practice)

• Ryan Suter – Brian Rafalski
• Tim Gleason – Erik Johnson
• Jack Johnson – Brooks Orpik

• Ryan Miller appears to be the clear-cut starter in goal

Tomas Jandik, a regular contributor at LetsGoPens.com reported the following lines for the Czech Republic:

• Martin Havlát – Tomáš Plekanec – Patrik Eliáš
• Jaromír Jágr – Roman Červenka – Petr Čajánek
• Martin Erat – David Krejčí – Tomáš Fleischmann
• Milan Michálek – Josef Vašíček – Tomáš Rolinek

Lastly, we have a compilation of Team Finland’s lines from various reports:

• Valtteri Filppula – Mikko Koivu – Tuomo Ruutu
• Jere Lehtinen – Saku Koivu – Teemu Selänne
• Niklas Hagman – Olli Jokinen – Antti Miettinen
• Ville Peltonen – Niko Kapanen – Jarkko Ruutu

• Kimmo Timonen – Sami Salo
• Joni Pitkänen – Lasse Kukkonen
• Toni Lydman – Sami Lepistö

• Game 1: Miikka Kiprusoff
• Game 2: Niklas Bäckström
• Game 3: Miikka Kiprusoff