Sportsbook odds should be exciting on the 2010 Olympic hockey games with Russia one of the favorites led by superstar Alex Ovechkin. Russia is the defending world champ and will have an excellent team that should do well versus the odds at the offshore sportsbook.
Sportsbook lines are definitely impacted by Ovechkin’s play. He has won the NHL MVP award the past two seasons and can dominate a game. He will lead a very talented Russian team that will be among the sportsbook favorites in the 2010 Olympics. Also as part of the squad will be Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk. There will be no question that Russia can score with those superstar players.
Offshore sportsbook info shows that they are also expected to have Ovechkin’s teammate Alexander Semin in addition to Maxim Afinogenov and excellent defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Markov. They will also pick up players who are currently playing in Russia. Those include Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Morozov, Danis Zaripov, Sergei Zinovyev, Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Radulov. Sportsbook stats show that one player who is not on the team is Alexei Kovalev who captained the 2006 Olympic team for Russia.
If you think that Russia is going to be all about offense then you might want to look at the goaltenders. Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Bryzgalov and Semyon Varlamov are among three of the best goalies in the NHL who can impact sportsbook odds. Nabokov was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy last sportsbook year.
Even though Russia is the current world champ, they have not won the Olympic gold medal since 1992. Russia has won the world championships the last two times against Canada but they have not won Olympic gold. They are hoping to change that this time in offshore sportsbook results. Ovechkin wants to meet Canada in the final. “That’s the game everyone wants to see,” he said, “No doubt, they [Canada] would be very motivated playing on home ice and also gunning for revenge. But we’ll be just as hungry as them.” It should be exciting as Russia and Canada have some of the best players in the world on their teams.
It is very possible that the hockey final at the offshore sportsbook in the 2010 Olympics will pit Russia against Canada. Those two teams are the likely sportsbook favorites to win the gold medal.