Credit to PittBlueDevil for jumping on this earlier.
Is anyone really surprised? I initially read some news on Christmas Day regarding this, but the Penguins are now officially confirming that both guys will, in fact, be members of Russia's 2010 team. I don't think many people doubted this, but I still think it's a pretty nice Christmas gift. Or at least a state-side Christmas gift, since my friend advised me the other day that January 7th is Russian Christmas. So I gladly accepted her gift, and then followed up by insisting that she wait another two weeks before I give her hers. After all, it has to be official.
Final rosters have to be submitted by February 15th, but as of right now the Russian provisionary roster is also joined by the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Sergei Fedorov, to name a few. PittBlueDevil included a solid list of the players in this fanpost.
We'll dive more into the Olympics stuff over the next month or so. And by we I mean mostly Hooks, because his knowledge of what's going down in Vancouver is pretty much unmatched by anyone I know around the ol blogosphere (or even outside of it for that matter). So I can assure you that you'll be in good hands here on Pensburgh.
For those who celebrate, I hope everyone had a good holiday, and I hope you're all enjoying some time off. Business will resume as usual tomorrow against the Maple Leafs. Preview and thread to follow.