Russia v Latvia Live

Without any doubts, Russia's national hockey team is under considerable pressure to bounce back from their rather disappointing 4^th place finish in 2006. Confidently heading into their first game of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Alex Ovechkin and company will face Latvia on Wednesday at 5 a.m. GMT.

Albeit Latvia has shown in the past that they are a decent hockey team, containing Russia's explosive offense might be a little bit too much to handle in their first game in Group B. More precisely, Russia has a wide range of excellent NHL forwards such as Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk as well as Sergei Fedorov who went back to the Russian KHL after many years in Detroit. That said, it remains to be seen how coach Vyacheslav Bykov's squad will perform at the other end of the ice. With Sergei Gonchar from the Pittsburgh Penguins being Russia's only serviceable NHL defender, the Latvians might get a few good looks at the net. However, it is highly unlikely that said defensive shortcomings will outweigh the offensive show Alex Ovechkin and the Russia team are planning to put on.

You can watch all games of 2010 Winter Olympics right here on www.watchlivenhl.com, the home of NHL live streaming.