Alexander Ovechkin will lead world champions Russia in the 2010 Olympic ice hockey tournament after being named in a preliminary 23-man squad on Friday and the 24-year-old said he hoped for a final against Canada.
The Washington Capitals left wing, voted the National Hockey League’s MVP for the past two years, will as expected lead Russia’s high-powered offensive unit, which also includes fellow All-Stars Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk.
They will be seeking to end the country’s Olympic gold medal drought at the Feb. 12 to Feb. 28 Vancouver Games.
The hockey superpower has not tasted success since winning the last of their eight Olympic titles as part of the Unified Team in 1992 in Albertville, France.
Russia coach Vyacheslav Bykov, who led the 1992 Olympic team, also picked Sergei Fedorov, one of nine players from the domestic Continental Hockey League (KHL).
Fedorov returned home this year after an 18-year NHL career that included winning three Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings and capturing the Hart Trophy as the league MVP in 1994.
Ovechkin said he is hoping for a Russia-Canada final.
“That’s the game everyone wants to see,” he was quoted as saying by local media on Friday.
“No doubt, they [Canada] would be very motivated playing on home ice and also gunning for revenge,” he said, referring to Russia beating their arch-rivals in the final of the last two world championships. “But we’ll be just as hungry as them.”
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