Team Russia lineup appears set for opener

TORONTO -- Having completed its World Cup of Hockey 2016 pretournament schedule and taken a day off to rest, Team Russia got back to work Friday at Ricoh Coliseum.
There remain some areas Team Russia wants to clean up before playing its first World Cup preliminary-round game against Team Sweden at Air Canada Centre on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVA Sports).
"I think we just have to be solid on the little details," captain Alex Ovechkin said. "We had a meeting and we talked about it. We watched the video. We have a couple more days before the first game and we're going to get prepared and we're going to be ready for that."

Team Russia will have another day to practice, but its lineup appears set. After coach Oleg Znarok said Thursday that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky will start against Team Sweden, assistant Harijs Vitolins confirmed Friday that defenseman Nikita Nesterov and forward Vladislav Namestnikov will be the two healthy scratches.
That means Team Russia will go with the same lineup it dressed for its final pretournament game against Team Canada on Wednesday. The line combinations from that game remained the same at practice Friday.

After skating on a line with Washington Capitals teammate Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nikita Kucherov in the first two pretournament games against Team Czech Republic, Ovechkin played with Pavel Datsyuk and Kucherov against Team Canada and scored a power-play goal in a 3-2 overtime loss. That line remained together Friday; Kuznetsov skated again at right wing on the fourth line with Ivan Telegin and Artem Anisimov.
Ovechkin said he has played with Datsyuk "a couple times" previously in international competition.
"They're both good players," Ovechkin said of Datsyuk and Kuznetsov. "It's the coach's decision. [Datsyuk] knows how to play. He has experience and it's nice to play with him."
Team Russia likes the experience and the poise that, Datsyuk, 38, can bring to the top line. Although Kuznetsov, 24, and Ovechkin had some success playing together with the Capitals last season, Ovechkin was held without a point and had three shots on goal in the first two pretournament games.
Ovechkin, who led the NHL again last season with 50 goals, had four shots on goal Wednesday, but three of them came on the power play.
"We're just trying different combinations and trying to find the best combinations," Vitolins said. "We just think Pavel Datsyuk maybe has a cooler head and the type of personality that he can play really well on that line."
Among the areas Team Russia worked on at practice were faceoff coverage and defensive-zone coverage.
"Just little things that we need to tune up before the first game," defenseman Dmitry Kulikov said.

Team Russia's defense is its biggest question mark entering the World Cup. In comparison to the big names it has up front with Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Kucherov, Evgeni Malkin, Vladimir Tarasenko and Artemi Panarin, Team Russia has a pedestrian collection on defense with Kulikov, Dmitry Orlov, Nikita Zaitsev, Alexey Marchenko, Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin.
That group will be challenged by Team Sweden's speed and skill at forward and multiple scoring threats from its defense, including Erik Karlsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Victor Hedman. That means being crisp and quick in the defensive zone will be essential.
"The [pretournament] games showed that we aren't playing fast enough," Kulikov said. "I think we have to cover the opponent a lot quicker, don't give them too much time and space. I think that comes with communication. We just need to talk to each other and sort it out quicker."
Team Russia also worked on its power play, which clicked for Ovechkin's 5-on-3 goal against Team Canada, but finished 2-for-16 in pretournament play. Special teams might turn out to be the difference in what is expected to be a tight-checking tournament at even strength.
"Like always, you have to pay attention to the [penalty kill] and the power play," forward Nikolay Kulemin said. "It makes a big difference in the games and it's going to be tight games. It will be tough to score 5-on-5, so we need to work on that a little bit."
Having another chance to practice Saturday, while the four teams in Group A -- Team USA, Team Europe, Team Canada and Team Czech Republic -- begin preliminary-round play, might prove beneficial down the road.
"I think it's good for us and for every team," Kulikov said of getting another day to practice. "You play your last exhibition game and then you get a day off and a chance to practice a couple more times, tune up the things that you need to work on and be ready to go."