STOCKHOLM – The last time a Russian team won the World Championship on Finnish ice, it was 1982. A 27-year-old Dynamo Moscow defenceman named Zinetula Bilyaletdinov earned the fourth of his six career world titles with the Soviet Union.

At that time, Bilyaletdinov was overshadowed by top-pairing blueliners Vyacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov. Today, however, the 57-year-old is squarely in the spotlight as he begins his World Championship quest in Stockholm as Russia’s new national team coach. It’s a role he also filled at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, where the Russians fell to the Americans in the quarter-finals.

However, this year’s IIHF World Championship is significantly more important, since the results will determine the seeding for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the first-ever Winter Games to be staged in Russia. Handling a roster largely composed of familiar names, Bilyaletdinov must get them all pulling in the same direction. It’s not necessarily an easy task with this combustible mix of talents and egos. Russia is hungry to reassert its supremacy after finishing second in 2010 and fourth in 2011.

Goal

Coming off his first season as a starting NHL goalie, 24-year-old Semyon Varlamov of the Colorado Avalanche will get his second chance to prove he can backstop Russia to gold. It was close but not quite in 2010, when Varlamov posted a sparkling 1.41 GAA and 95.1 save percentage, but Russia fell to the Czechs in the final. It’s an important Olympic audition for the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl product, who will have to outshine the likes of Philadelphia netminders Ilya Bryzgalov and Sergei Bobrovski to get first-string duties in Sochi.

Konstantin Barulin, who replaced Yevgeni Nabokov at last year’s Worlds in Slovakia after the two-time Olympic starter withdrew with a groin injury, will back up Varlamov. Barulin, 27, is a KHL All-Star who just signed with Ak Bars Kazan. The third goalie is Yugra Khanty-Mansisk’s Mikhail Biryukov, who earned three wins as a backup en route to gold at the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Canada.

Defence

Only two active NHLers – Nikita Nikitin of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Alexei Yemelin of the Montreal Canadiens – grace this year’s Russian blueline. Yet while this may not be the most hard-hitting group of rearguards you could imagine, the core players have nonetheless proven they can deliver the goods at the IIHF World Championship.

KHL veterans Ilya Nikulin, Dmitri Kalinin, and Konstantin Korneyev all played important roles in Russia’s back-to-back championships in 2008 and 2009. They can all skate, shoot, move the puck, and get physical when need be. As a group, however, the Russian defence could be susceptible to a heavy forecheck.

Forward

As usual, the Russians will ice one of the World Championship's most powerful attacks. Leading the way will be NHL scoring champion Yevgeni Malkin, coming off a 109-point season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings, arguably the world's most gifted stickhandler and best two-way forward. The last time these two appeared at the Worlds (2010), they were named tournament all-stars.

Emerging KHL-weaned hotshots like Vladimir Tarasenko and Yevgeni Kuznetsov – both gold medalists and scoring sensations at the 2011 IIHF World U20 Championship in Buffalo – will also bolster Russia's firepower.

How much will these fleet-footed snipers come back to help out their defencemen? It’ll be interesting to monitor as the tournament progresses. Few of the Russian forwards are renowned for their defensive awareness, with perhaps the exception of Toronto’s Nikolai Kulemin, who fell from 30 goals in 2010-11 to seven this season.

Coaching

Bilyaletdinov takes over from Slava Bykov, who was relieved of his duties after Russia's fourth-place finish at the 2011 IIHF World Championship in Slovakia. A three-time Russian champion as the head coach of AK Bars Kazan since 2005, “Coach Bill” knows the game from all angles. He also worked in the NHL as an assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes between 1993 and 1997.

Behind the bench as an assistant internationally, Bilyaletdinov’s highlights so far have included two Olympic medals, silver in 1998 and bronze in 2002. But in that role, he also had to stomach the horror of the home-ice collapse at the 2000 IIHF World Championship in St. Petersburg. At this tournament, his capable assistants include former NHLer Dmitri Yushkevich, Igor Nikitin and Valeri Belov.

Projected Results

Are the Russians truly committed to playing the two-way game that Bilyaletdinov has promised? If so, they should vie for top spot in the Stockholm group along with host Sweden and the Czechs, and then we’ll see what happens. Even with the traditional question marks on the back end, this Russian team has an excellent chance of ending a gold medal drought that dates back to 2009. Anything less than a medal, certainly, would be a major disappointment.

LUCAS AYKROYD