Defense a question for Team Russia

PITTSBURGH --When addressing the media at Yubileyny Sports Palace on Wednesday, Russian Ice Hockey Federation vice president Roman Rotenberg proudly announced Team Russia's slogan for the World Cup of Hockey 2016 will be, "Red Machine, Made in Russia."
The Red Machine has had some success at the IIHF World Championship, winning a medal each of the past three years, but hasn't rolled recently when it comes to these best-against-best tournaments. Russia has failed to win a medal in each of the past three Olympics and disappointed as host of the 2014 Sochi Olympics by losing in the quarterfinals to Finland.
For that reason, Team Russia has something to prove in the World Cup, which begins Saturday at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Alex Ovechkin and Co. will have some work to do to earn a berth in the semifinals by finishing in the top two in its group with Team Sweden, Team Finland and Team North America.

Here's a look at how Team Russia looks heading into the tournament:

Forwards
Team Russia sports an impressive array of talent at forward headed by Ovechkin (50 goals last season with the Washington Capitals), Vladimir Tarasenko (40 goals with the St. Louis Blues), Artemi Panarin (30 goals with the Chicago Blackhawks) and Nikita Kucherov (30 goals with the Tampa Bay Lightning).
Not to be forgotten are Evgeni Malkin (58 points in 57 games last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins) and Pavel Datsyuk (49 points with the Detroit Red Wings).
The expectation is they will produce plenty of goals, but a similar group sputtered in Sochi, so there has been an emphasis on chemistry. That's why, instead of playing with Blackhawks teammate Artem Anisimov, Panarin is playing with Vadim Shipachyov and Evgeny Dadonov.
Panarin, Shipachyov and Dadonov had great success as a line with SKA St. Petersburg, leading the Kontinental Hockey League team to the Gagarin Cup in 2015.
"I've never stopped feeling chemistry with those guys," Panarin said. "Of course, when you don't play together for a while, feelings are not so sharp, but we don't have any problems."
That was evident when the line combined for two goals and four assists in Team Russia's first pretournament game against Team Czech Republic on Thursday, a 4-3 victory. Team Russia is hoping for similar results from its other lines by using other players together who are familiar with each other.
In pretournament games, Ovechkin has been skating on the top line with Capitals teammate Evgeny Kuznetsov and Kucherov. The second line has Nikolay Kulemin with Malkin and Taresenko.
Malkin and Taresenko have played together on the Russian national team before.
"It's a great line," Kulemin said. "We have unbelievable depth. All four lines can score and everybody can play in each role. I've played with Malkin a little before and it feels great to play with him, and I played Tarasenko a couple times before with the national team, too. So it's not like it's the first time I've played with those guys. Hopefully, we'll find chemistry right away."
Defense
This is Team Russia's biggest question mark. In comparison to the star power it has at forward, no names jump off the page from a defense corps that includes Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, Dmitry Kulikov, Alexey Marchenko, Nikita Nesterov, Dmitry Orlov and Nikita Zaitsev.
There is puck-moving skill in that group, but will it be enough for Team Russia to have success? The wealth of offensive skill it has won't be nearly as dangerous if it has to spend extended stretches in the defensive zone. So moving the puck up quickly and efficiently will be essential for the defensemen.
"We need to make quick decisions with the puck and give it to our forwards because that's the most important [thing]," Orlov said. "We have good forward lines and I think we need to play more in the offensive zone and give our forwards a chance to make some plays and score goals. Tarasenko, Ovechkin and Malkin, all these guys are stars in the NHL, so the quicker you give them the puck, they can make a play."
The World Cup will give Zaitsev a taste of playing in his new home. He will join the Toronto Maple Leafs this season after seven seasons in the KHL. Zaitsev, 24, led CSKA Moscow's defensemen in points each of the past four seasons and had eight goals (seven on the power play) and 18 assists in 46 games last season.

Goalies

With Sergei Bobrovsky, Semyon Varlamov and Andrei Vasilevskiy, goaltending is a potential strength for Team Russia.
Entering training camp, it appeared Bobrovsky, the 2012-13 Vezina Trophy winner, had the inside track to the No. 1 job after playing for coach Oleg Znarok at the World Championship the past three years. But Varlamov gave Znarok something to think about with his 33-save performance in a 2-1 shootout loss to Team Czech Republic in a pretournament game in Prague on Saturday.
Bobrovsky looked rusty initially in his pretournament start Thursday before finishing strong in making 29 saves in the win against Team Czech Republic.
Neither Bobrovsky nor Varlamov played his best last season. Bobrovsky's 2.75 goals-against average and .908 save percentage with the Columbus Blue Jackets were his worst since 2011-12. Varlamov's 2.81 GAA and .914 save percentage with the Colorado Avalanche were his worst since 2012-13.
Vasilevskiy, 22, played well for the Tampa Bay Lightning in place of the injured Ben Bishop in the Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, but appears to be Team Russia's No. 3. Although Znarok said he hoped to give all three goaltenders a look in pretourmament play, it will be interesting to see if he goes back to Bobrovsky for the final tune-up game against Team Canada in Pittsburgh on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports).
"We'll see who is going to play the next game," Varlamov said. "I'm going to be focusing on my own game that I played [Saturday]. Then, we'll see who is going to play against Team Canada."

Special Teams
A first power play of Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Tarasenko, Kucherov and Markov is enough to give any opponent headaches, but they have yet to find their rhythm through the first two pretourmament games. Although Tarasenko scored a power-play goal Thursday, the unit has been guilty of overpassing at times. Team Russia went 1-for-9 with the man advantage overall in the two games.
Ovechkin, who led the NHL with 19 power-play goals last season, is always a threat from his usual spot in the left circle. Having Tarasenko, who had 12 power-play goals, on the other side of the ice should give the unit balance if they can figure out how to make it work.
"All the guys know we have Ovi," Kuznetsov said. "What we have to do is find a different way or find a moment to give it to him."
Malkin, Panarin and Orlov have been fixtures so far on the second unit with Datsyuk, Kulemin, Shipachyov and Dadonov rotating in.

Coaching
Znarok, 53, is the wild card in the World Cup because neither he nor anyone on his staff has ever coached in the NHL. Known as a demanding coach, he was the KHL's coach of the year three times with Dynamo Moscow, winning the Gagarin Cup in 2011-12 and 2012-13, and the KHL regular season title in 2013-14. He coaches a SKA St. Petersburg team that includes Datsyuk, Shipachyov and Dadonov.
Znarok became coach of the national team after Russia's disappointment at the 2014 Sochi Olympics cost former coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov his job. Previously, Znarok coached Latvia at the World Championship five times.
Znarok directed Russia to the gold medal in the 2014 World Championship, silver in 2015 and bronze this year, but hasn't coached in a best-against-best tournament like this before. He acknowledged his unfamiliarity with the NHL game following the shootout loss Saturday, saying that getting his first look at the 3-on-3 overtime would be helpful for him should Team Russia end up in an OT game during the World Cup preliminary round.
Znarok's longtime top assistant, Harijs Vitolins, played eight games for the Winnipeg Jets in 1993-94 and 70 with Moncton of the American Hockey League that same season, but spent most of his playing career in Russia and Switzerland.
"We have really good coaches and management," said Tarasenko, who played for Znarok at the 2015 World Championship. "They're always nice to the players. They help us. You just have to do what they tell you."
Projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Nikita Kucherov
Nikolay Kulemin - Evgeni Malkin - Vladimir Tarasenko
Artemi Panarin - Vadim Shipachyov - Evgeny Dadonov
Ivan Telegin - Pavel Datsyuk - Vladislav Namestnikov
Artem Anismisov
Dmitry Orlov - Nikita Zaitsev
Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin
Dmitry Kulikov - Alexey Marchenko
Nikita Nesterov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Semyon Varlamov
Andrei Vasilevskiy