Pretty silly how the nhl left them off just due to silly politics. This team is absolutely on par with Finland if not better. In a perfect world there would be 6 teams with a team Europe that featured Czech players along with guys from countries with no nhl depth like Draisaitl, Josi, Ehlers and Kopitar.
Hypothetical team Russia Roster from Steven Ellis
- Thread starter olli
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Pretty silly how the nhl left them off just due to silly politics. This team is absolutely on par with Finland if not better. In a perfect world there would be 6 teams with a team Europe that featured Czech players along with guys from countries with no nhl depth like Draisaitl, Josi, Ehlers and Kopitar.
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WarriorofTime
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Russia better forwards, defense and goaltending than Finland. Lindell, Ristolainen, Mikkola is a very poor 2-4 defensemen for the 4 nations. Russia has 3 forwards better than anyone from Finland and better depth as well.
Russia is pretty close with Sweden with Finland a pretty clear weak link at the moment.
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I said that Finland is 26 times smaller yet can compete with Russia when it comes to rosters. There's zero excuse for Russia to have one as weak as this.
But, Finland tends to always overperform and Russia under when it comes to international tournaments.
WarriorofTime
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Russia hypo roster is not weak though. Just people saying nonsense because it’s all hypo. The goaltending is great and the forwards carry big star power with good depth. The defense isn’t too bad as they have a full slate of quality nhl defensemen, much better than when it was relying on KHLers a decade or so ago.
Czechboy
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The goalies and wingers are insanely good. I like the d more than most. I like mintyukov a lot so glad he's on the list.
Cs are the Achilles heel. And team play and living up to expectations. Canada and Finland are very good at that.
Barkov might be better overall player than any other russian player ofc not points wize but overall hockey ability defifinely much better player than Panarin..
frontsfan67
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Pretty weak defensively but great forward group as always and easily the best group of goalies of any country.
Should be a 5 teamer but of course hockey loves its politics. Russia is 100% better than Finland.
Zub instead of Zadorov... if Zub is healthy. Otherwise it's Nikishin. But Nikishin anyway even if Zub is healthy. Instead of probably Orlov.
jcbio11
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Oh I agree. We probably don't agree on the party responsible for the said ruining though.
All three are having solid seasons? No worse than a Devon Toews, or a Jaccob Slavin and those are top 4 for the two favorites.
Why did he fall? It's just you need to choose someone out of the bunch. Nikishin should be on the roster (yeah, he plays in the KHL, but he's a top NHL prospect after all), so you need to remove someone, and for me it's Orlov.
What a f***ing shame . I am not sure who I hate more politicans or the brain dead masses who enable them.
Svedu
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I actually still Finland would beat Russia in both a single game and in a playoff serie best of 7. Close and everything can happen of course.
Against those other three we would be clear underdogs, at least against both the US and Canada. With minimal chances of winning a serie.
For me, Russias current roster is the weakest out of the 5 best. I think Czechia are almost as close to Russia as Russia is to Finland, close, but the same gap. And it's all because of your centers. Also, I think some of you seem a bit delusional or something when it comes to rating your own D. Making it sound like you guys have the talent of team Sweden there. And that there is nothing but incorrect.
Vasilievsky is the best, Shestorkin is great. But Saros is known. UPL had plenty of shutouts last year in front of a lousy Sabres system and D's and Lankinen hasn't been bad this year and has already won gold medals for Finland. I don't doubt our goalies whatsoever. They are capable of stealing games and especially with the known Finnish system.
I understand Kucherov and Kaprizov are insane. But neither Malkin, Ovechkin or Panarin is what they were. And no one touches Datsyuks level amongst your current centers either.
You have great goalies yes, but do I trust all our three goalies against Russia? In fact I do. You mention Mikkola being poor and Lindell. But they can get it done in their own zone. Mikkola won the Stanley and contributed. Dallas always being in the playoffs and it's not like Lindell hasn't been important for Dallas these last years.
Ristolainen being weak is true but who knows if he will be an option next time you guys even can compete. Because I don't think he will be a piece in upcoming rosters.
Also, it's not like Russian D's have trended upwards the last season or this one. Mintyukov being the exception for me.
Heiskanen is clearly better than all your options. Kucherov is better than Rantanen but I would pick Rantanen before Kaprizov. All our centers are better than yours. Malkin perhaps being better than Lundell still. But not Hintz, Aho or Barkov.
If Laine keeps this going he's not that much worse than say the current Panarin, if at all quite frankly. The Habs fans think he has been great in every game and their best player overall.
And as mentioned and we all know. Finns come out to play against the Russians. Compact team play with their hearts on their sleeves. No, I think you are underrating Finland as Russians, especially in here, often seem to do.
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Svedu
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Agreed regarding the politics. But instead of a team Europe I would've enjoyed a team CzechoSlovakia even more tbh
Feel like they would play with more pride or at least prestige.
Czechboy
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I'm opposed to it but them (and the German's) make the Czechs a Top 6 contender (with Russia)Agreed regarding the politics. But instead of a team Europe I would've enjoyed a team CzechoSlovakia even more tbh
Slovaks give us Cehlarik, Cermak, Nemec and Slaf. We look a lot better with those 4. Our D no longer sucks.
Germany would give us Drai, Stutz, Peterka and Seider.
I've also been told that a German/Swiss mix would be an elite team.
Svedu
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Valid point.
They make Lindell and especially Mikkola sound like AHL players and it's silly. If people would grade these 2 last seasons they would understand that their opinions are far form the truth. Also... Seems like people seem to forget that D's most important strengths should be to what? DEFEND.
I've often seen swedes getting insane at EK65 and his actual defending ability trough the years.In a whole season some players can shine but not all of them will be the most reliable in a short tournament. Also something people tend to neglect.
Yeah, German/swiss too why not. 6 teams. Europe just makes it too unserious for me personally.
Svedu
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Yep, you are probably right. But I remember the 2011 gold. He sure did some mistakes and that is a part of his game.
He's great but I do think Sweden have some better overall D's. The US as well.
But yeah in PP and so on he will nothing more than superior.
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