MOSCOW – A change in coach has led to a change of emphasis in Russia’s national hockey team – with Zinetula Bilyaletdinov setting out on the long road to Sochi 2014 by resting some of the stars of Vyacheslav Bykov’s World Championship winning sides and casting around for new talent to prepare for the latest bid for glory.

The first phase of this season’s Eurotour is about to start – and when the Karjala tournament gets underway in Finland on Thursday Russia will be giving the first clues about its progress under new coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov.

Coach Bill, who replaced double world champion Vyacheslav Bykov after the great bear stumbled to a disappointing fourth place in Slovakia back in May, has been charged with bringing Russia a much sought-after Olympic gold on home ice in Sochi in 2014. And, in order to do so, he’s stated a need to put the focus on youth in the international set-up.

Changing the guard

The most striking thing about the Karjala line-up is the players who are missing. No Alexei Morozov – long-serving captain of Russia, and Bilyaletdinov’s on-ice leader for several seasons at Ak Bars Kazan. Other time-served stars, including Salavat Yuleav trio Maxim Sushinsky, Danis Zaripov and Sergei Zinoviev, and Sergei Mozyakin and Alexei Kaigorodov of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, are all sitting out the Finnish games.

It ties in with Bykov’s own comments almost a year ago after Russia powered to victory in the Channel 1 Cup in Moscow with a team of old-stagers delighting home fans – Russia needs to bring new faces into the squad and move away from the back-to-back world champions of 2008-09 if it is to make the dramatic improvements necessary to banish the bitter memories of the 2010 Olympics.

So who is coming into the squad, and who looks set to keep the double-headed eagle flying in Sochi?

Following the under-20s’ thrilling success in last year’s U20 World Championship, all eyes are on that squad. Cup-winning captain Vladimir Tarasenko is among the KHL’s leading point scorers, notching 10+11=21 for Sibir Novosibirsk so far. He is back in the squad after notching his first senior international points during February’s Swedish Hockey Games and featuring in the 2011 IIHF World Championship campaign.

Less prolific, but arguable more eye-catching, Traktor Chelyabinsk’s 19-year-old forward Yevgeni Kuznetsov has been instrumental in a transformation at his club. Last season the team from "Tankograd" tanked on the ice – failing to reach the KHL play-offs. But rather than pressing the panic button, the directors stuck with head coach Valery Belousov and his vision of developing an exciting young team.

With Kuznetsov at the heart of that roster, weighing in 10+5=15, Traktor has bulldozed its way to a place among the league leaders.

Meanwhile the man himself has earned instant YouTube fame with a spectacular strike against Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, surging forward from halfway, carving a path through the defense and circling the goal before rattling the puck home off goal tender Tuomas Tarkki’s skates – something to whet the appetites of Washington Capitals’ fans hoping their draft pick might rival Alexander Ovechkin for attacking flair.

Kuznetsov is also eligible for the upcoming U20 World Championship in Canada.

Returning to Russia

These two are not the only exciting young Russian talents to watch out for. Sergei Shirokov has returned to CSKA after a spell in Vancouver, and while he may not have muscled his way into regular NHL action, he has returned to Moscow to become a real leader for the Army Men.

At age 25, Shirokov is something of a veteran among a youthful roster drawing heavily on last season’s Youth League champions Krasnaya Armia – and he’s top of the Army Men’s stats with 9+14=23. That’s earned him his first full international call-up, shortly after returning from two years of limited NHL opportunities with the Canucks and more impressive AHL stats with Manitoba Moose.

While Shirokov is likely to continue his profitable partnership with CSKA team-mate Ilya Zubov in Helsinki, he’s also joined in the squad by another emerging star – Vadim Shipachev of Severstal Cherepovets. Shipachev, 24, is the leading Russian point-scorer in the KHL with 12+13=25 – a return which puts him between Amur Khabarovsk’s Czech duo of Jakub Petruzalek and Petr Vrana on the league leaderboard. It’s also earned him a first senior tournament call-up and marked him out as another potential star of the future.

Bilyaletdinov’s former charges at Ak Bars have not been forgotten either, but instead of the veterans of old it’s time to welcome fresh faces such as Kirill Petrov.

Petrov, 21, has been a revelation this season, reveling in regular ice time and scoring regularly. The potential which saw him help Russia’s under-18s win World Championship gold in 2007 before going on to captain the under-20s is being realized at senior level, and his climb to second place among the Ak Bars scorers has not just been fed with cheap goals – they include game-winning contributions such as last month’s last-gasp clincher at Spartak.

With Alexander Radulov still in his mid-20s there’s plenty of attacking options for the future.

Defence has often been identified as Russia’s weakness, leaving the team over-reliant on swashbuckling attacking exploits. This time the back line brings a mix of experience and new faces.

The old guard is represented by the likes of Konstantin Korneyev and Ilya Nikulin, veterans of Russian campaigns in recent years. But there are new faces too, including Severstal’s Maxim Chudinov. The 21-year-old, picked out in the 2010 draft by Boston, has impressed for his club this season and joins Shipachev in a Eurotour squad for the first time.

Yevgeni Biryukov, 25, of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, is another new face, as is 23-year-old Ivan Vishnevski, playing his first KHL season with Atlant Mytishi after graduating from Canada’s Queen Mary Junior league to join Dallas Stars and rack up game time in the AHL over the past three seasons.

ANDY POTTS