Hockey beginning
Coming to you from the Vancouver Media Centre. Just got back from GM, I mean, Canada Hockey Place, where in a row the Russians, Canadians and Americans practiced this afternoon and evening.
Here are your lines:
United States
Zach Parise-Paul Stastny-Patrick Kane
Bobby Ryan-Chris Drury-David Backes
Dustin Brown-Ryan Kesler-Jamie Langenbrunner
Ryan Malone-Joe Pavelski-Phil Kessel/Ryan Callahan
D pairings
Ryan Suter- Brian Rafalski
Tim Gleason-Erik Johnson
Jack Johnson-Brooks Orpik
Ryan Miller in goal; Tim Thomas; Jonathan Quick
Canada
Rick Nash-Sidney Crosby-Patrice Bergeron
Patrick Marleau-Joe Thornton-Dany Heatley
Eric Staal-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Mike Richards/Brenden Morrow-Jonathan Toews-Jarome Iginla
D pairings
Chris Pronger-Boyle
Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook
Scott Niedermayer-Shea Weber
Drew Doughty
Roberto Luongo vs. Norway; Martin Brodeur vs. Switzerland; Marc-Andre Fleury
Russia
They'll go by five-man units
Alex Ovechkin-Pavel Datsyuk-Alexander Semin-Denis Grebeshkov-Konstantin Korneev
lya Kovalchuk-Evegni Malkin-Maxim Afinogenov-Fedor Tyutin-Sergei Gonchar
Sergei Fedorov-Viktor Kozlov-Alex Radulov-Dmitry Kalinin-Anton Volchenkov
Danis Zaripov-Segey Zinovyev-Alexey Morozov-Andrei Markov-Ilya Nikulin
Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Bryzgalov, Semen Varlamov in goal
Finns are practicing now. Czechs, I talked with Marty Havlat for a story for Tuesday's paper, and he's skating with good friend Patrik Elias (his World Cup linemate) and Tomas Plekanec.
Lots of excitement down at GM Place. Great setup for the media. Thousands of dollars were thrown out the tubes. Entire lower bowl one side center ice is a press box now, with a press work area right behind the stands as well.
So we'll be comfortable
U.S.-Swiss at 2 CT; Canada-Norway at 6:30 CT; Russia-Latvia at 11 p.m. your time.
If you want real-time updates, Twitter is the place to be at www.twitter.com/russostrib.
Great stuff today from Canada, Russia and US that you'll be reading about all week. Erik Johnson, from Bloomington, was real good today, and I'll be writing him up in the next few days. I wish that kid played for the Wild. Just a good guy, good quote. Brian Burke had some interesting stuff to say today about Bobby Ryan, crediting Chuck Fletcher for Anaheim's decision to draft the star.
Lots of other good stuff you can read in the paper and throughout the tourney. Can't wait for the puck to drop.
Talk to you Tuesday.
Kirill Kaprizov should become the Wild’s franchise scoring leader shortly after the team returns to action on Feb. 26.
