Russia (bbabo.net), - On Monday, January 17, the Russian national ice hockey team will begin preparations for the Olympic tournament. In addition, on January 17, the expanded composition of the team will be officially announced, from which the coaching staff, headed by Alexei Zhamnov, will select players for the final application for the Olympics.

However, the extended list hit the press the day before. It has 36 names. Here's what the list looks like.

Goalkeepers: Yaroslav Askarov, Alexander Samonov (both SKA), Timur Bilyalov (Ak Bars), Ivan Fedotov (CSKA), Dmitry Shugaev (Severstal).

Defenders: Dmitry Vishnevsky, Alexander Nikishin (both Spartak), Vyacheslav Voinov (Dynamo Moscow), Alexander Yelesin (Lokomotiv), Artem Minulin, Yegor Yakovlev (both Metallurg), Shakir Mukhamadullin (Salavat Yulaev"), Daniil Pylenkov (SKA), Nikita Nesterov (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Telegin ("Tractor"), Semyon Chistyakov, Damir Sharipzyanov (both - "Vanguard").

Forwards: Sergey Andronov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Pavel Karnaukhov, Sergey Plotnikov, Anton Slepyshev (all - CSKA), Anton Burdasov, Nikita Gusev, Andrey Kuzmenko, Kirill Marchenko (all - SKA), Stanislav Galiev, Vadim Shipachev (both - Dynamo) Moscow), Artem Galimov, Dmitry Voronkov (both Ak Bars), Arseny Gritsyuk, Kirill Semenov (both Avangard), Alexander Kadeikin (Salavat Yulaev), Artur Kayumov (Lokomotiv), Vladimir Tkachev ( "Tractor"), Andrey Chibisov ("Metallurg").

There are questions about the composition of almost every line. For example, the extended list includes five goalkeepers at once. There are no questions about the candidacies of Ivan Fedotov and Timur Bilyalov, and Dmitry Shugaev, who is spending a good season at Severstal, can also be explained here. But what the goalkeepers Alexander Samonov and Yaroslav Askarov do on the list, who in SKA are at best on the sidelines, is unclear. Perhaps the most logical choice seems to be on defense, but on attack questions begin again. Why was there no place at least in the extended list for the fourth scorer of the Continental Hockey League season, Damir Zhafyarov from Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, or for what reasons the most valuable player of last year's KHL playoffs Sergey Tolchinsky, whose creativity would not interfere with the national team in any his condition.

The coaching staff of the national team will announce the final application for the Olympics on January 23

And, finally, many were waiting for 17-year-old Matvey Michkov, the main wunderkind of domestic hockey, as part of the national team. But, apparently, the coaching staff considered that it was too early for a junior to go to a tournament with such a colossal responsibility as the Olympics.

It should be noted that the coaching staff will announce the final squad for the Games in Beijing on January 23.

Meanwhile

The Russian captain of the Washington Capitals Alexander Ovechkin scored the 25th goal in the current season of the National Hockey League. The New York Islanders suffered from it, which lost in the match against the Capitals with a score of -0:2.

Thus, Ovechkin has scored at least 25 goals for 16 seasons in the NHL. Throughout his overseas career, the Russian only once did not reach this mark: in the last, shortened season, he scored 24 goals. Only three have more seasons with 25+ goals: Gordie Howe (20), Jaromir Jagr (18) and Mike Gartner (17).

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