|
Czech Republic (2-0-0-0, 6 points) vs. Russia (1-0-1-0, 4 points) What to watch --Czech Republic -- In theory, assigning the ultra-reliable Pavel Datsyuk to center Ovechkin and Semin made sense. In practice, it didn't work that well. Ovechkin scored twice in the opening game rout of Latvia but nobody on that top line hit the scoresheet in the shootout loss to Slovakia.So the Russian lines will b game football e reconfigured to face the Czechs. Evgeni Malkin, whose off-ice relationship with Ovechkin has been the subject of much interest, gets the job of playing middle man for Ovechkin and Semin. Datsyuk -drops down- to play with Ilya Kovalchuk and Maxim Afinogenov.So far, the decision by GM Vladislav Tretiak to have so many KHL players on his roster has not backfired. Russia-s third and fourth lines app game football eared to draw upon the familiarity they have from having played together for months. But now that the competition gets stiffer and the games get more important, there can be no substitute for top-end talent.Nabokov kept focused for two periods against Latvia in the opener and then let his mind wander and gave up a couple of third-period goals. Bryzgalov was similarly sharp through 40 minutes and t game football hen less so late against Slovakia.Bykov goes back to Nabokov for this game in a decision that was hardly obvious. Total NHL players in game: Jagr said that pre-tournament predictions, though understandable, don't mean much on a game-to-game basis. -You saw it the last two days: it's not easy,- Jagr said. -Canada found out (in needing a shootout to beat Switzerland). Russia found out (in losing in game football a shootout to Slovakia). You have to battle to the end and you have to be lucky to win the tournament. It's not good enough only to be good, because everybody is good.-Prediction -- game football
|