The Athletic asked Igor Larionov who he would have put on Team Russia if they could have competed in the Olympics, and one Montreal Canadiens made the cut.
While the league’s activities are on a hiatus for the duration of the Olympics, the Men’s hockey tournament is the talk of the town in just about any city. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a real best-on-best tournament. We did whet our collective appetite on the 4 Nations Face-Off last year, but as the name suggests, only four nations were playing. When the tournament kicks off on February 11, 12 countries will be vying for gold. Unfortunately for Ivan Demidov and his countrymen, Russia won’t be one of them since the country is still banned from international competition because of its war on Ukraine.
Still, it’s interesting to wonder who would have made Team Russia if war had been over and the country had been reinstated. The Athletic asked Ivan Larionov, former NHL player (644 points in 921 games) and current coach of SKA St. Petersburg, who would have been on his Olympic roster, and one Montreal Canadiens’ player made the cut: Ivan Demidov.
In net, the former center man would have gone with Sergei Bobrovsky, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Igor Shesterkin, leaving off Ilya Sorokin. It’s hard to argue with any of those selections. The first two have backstopped the Stanley Cup Champions for four of the last six years, while Shesterkin is the only reason the New York Rangers are not the worst team in the NHL right now. Bobrovsky would be his third-string goalie; talk about an embarrassment of riches.
On defence, Larionov would have selected former Canadiens’ defenseman Alexander Romanov if he weren’t out of action because of a shoulder surgery. However, the group he selected remains impressive and includes a former Hab: Mikhail Sergachev, Alexander Nikishin, Vladislav Gavrikov, Artem Zub, Nikita Zadorov, and Dmitri Orlov.
Commenting on his picks, the NHL legend explained that while physicality is a big part of the game, in a best-on-best tournament, you must take players that have the skill set to compete with the best – that might be a message to Team USA GM Bill Guerin, who knows.
Up front, Larionov would have Demidov skate on a line with all-time NHL leading goal scorer Alexander Ovechkin and Vladislav Namestnikov. It’s hard not to wonder what magic the youngster could create playing alongside such a fantastic goal scorer. Believe it or not, that would be his third line; that’s a scary thought.
His first line would feature Evgeny Malkin, Nikita Kucherov and Kirill Kaprizov, and his second line would put Artemi Panarin, Pavel Buchnevich and Kirill Marchenko. A wonderful top six which would have been tough for any team to face. As for his fourth line, it would have been formed by Vasily Podolkin, Fedor Svechkov and Ivan Barbashev.
His extras would have been Andrei Svechnikov, Ilya Mekheyev, Ivan Provorov, and Ilya Lubushkin. Needless to say, Russia would have been one of the favourites entering the tournament.
While I understand the ban and the need to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the conflict, I can’t help but feel for older players like Ovechkin and Malkin, who probably won’t ever have the chance to compete at the Olympics since time waits for no man. At least, Demidov is only 20, which means that he should have another opportunity somewhere down the line to live that incredible experience. The NHL has agreed to its players taking part for 12 years, which brings us to 2038. If things aren’t resolved by then, though, it could spell trouble for the Canadiens’ rookie, since there’s no guarantee that there will be another between the NHL and the International Olympic Committee.
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