BEIJING (AP) — Whatever you call them this time around, the Russians are again going to be hard to beat in men’s hockey at the Beijing Olympics.
BEIJING (AP) — Whatever you call them this time around, the Russians are again going to be hard to beat in men’s hockey at the Beijing Olympics. The team is playing as ROC at the 2022 Games, short for Russian Olympic Committee. Four years ago at the Pyeongchang Games, they won the gold medal playing as Olympic Athletes from Russia. The name keeps changing because of past doping violations. The results on the ice seem to stay the same. On Wednesday, the Russians played the opening game of an Olympic tournament being held on NHL-sized ice but without NHL players. Unspectacular as it may have been, it was a victory nonetheless — 1-0 over Switzerland. “Everyone was excited to play. We were a bit rusty,” said Mikhail Grigorenko, who skated in 249 NHL regular-season games. “We’re going to be better around the net, and we’re going to try to score more goals in each game.” The Swiss outshot the Russians 33-30, but they couldn’t get any of those past Russian goalie Ivan Fedotov. Coming into the Olympics, the Russian team’s only scheduled tuneup game was canceled after suspected coronavirus cases for Latvia. That could account for the sluggish start against the Swiss.
