The reason why Russians don't usually have any animosity towards Canadians is that Canada is a fairly small (population of 30 million, I believe) and politically neutral country.. And besides, they are the disgruntled American neighbor, in a way a political ally, really.. But in terms of hockey it just happened that Canadians played it better, and since neither of the North American nations play soccer - hockey was the sport to contest in. While the strictly athletic rivalry is there, there's no political drama that would further substantiate it.
However, Americans now appear to be much better in general and Russia much weaker.. So the rivalry longed for so long is finally emerging, on every level. Just as both nations usually literally owned the Olympic Games in the past and now, something hockey-like is definitely coming about (the disputed game in Salt Lake, this tournament, WC '96, etc..)
As far as Czechs are concerned, most Russians have no beef with them; they're a fairly small country, as well. So for them - as it is probably for the Finns, as well, it's a big deal to beat Russia, especially if you add historical and political perspectives. For Russia - eh. Not that serious. There's more people living in St. Petersburg than in Finland; and more in Moscow than in Finland and Sweden put together, and more in Moscow than in whole Czech Republic. Granted, these nations play hockey much better than all these demographic statistics would indicate - still, the "rivalrous" interest soon wanes for the Russians once they put things in perspective..
. Moscow's getting really huge lately, and if you count all the illegal immigrants and unaccounted-for inhabitants without the residency rights (also illegals, in a way, but not necessarily immigrants), it's a huge city 
