Alex Ovechkin will lead world champion Russia into the Vancouver Winter Olympics and a host of his fellow National Hockey League superstars will follow him onto team rosters in the next week.

Washington Capitals playmaker Ovechkin, named the NHL's Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, and fellow stars Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar were named Thursday to Russia's 23-man provisional Olympic roster.

Other global powers will follow in the next few days, with defending Olympic champion Sweden announcing Sunday, Slovakia revealing its lineup Tuesday, Czech Republic, Finland and Canada following Wednesday and the Americans next Friday.

Decision makers have used the first three months of the NHL season as an audition period, looking to see if injured players have regained their form and young talents have improved their skills enough to join the quest for gold.

Sweden beat Finland in the 2006 Turin Olympic final with the Czechs beating Russia for bronze and Canada finishing a disappointing seventh, one spot above the Americans.

Russian talent won eight Olympic gold medals, most recently in 1992 as the Unified Team, but defeating Canada in the past two world championship finals has brought bragging rights and a sense the Olympic drought might end in 2010.

"A lot of hopes and expectations have been placed on the Russian national team. A lot of people see us as favorites. This doesn't bother us," Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov told Russian Television.

"Canada will be looking for revenge and won't need any extra motivation. We won't be frightened by them as we know we can play with them and we know we can beat them."

Ovechkin, who has 23 goals in 28 games this season, joined Capitals teammate Alexander Semin and ex-teammate Sergei Fedorov as a line at last year's worlds and could reunite in Vancouver.

The Russians have eight players from the 2008 and 2009 world championship squads and nine from Russia's domestic league, many of whom have NHL experience and are familiar with thinner NHL rink widths to be used for the 2010 Games.

Canada figures to counter with Pittsburgh superstar Sidney Crosby, who guided the Penguins to last season's Stanley Cup crown, and San Jose's Joe Thornton, the NHL scoring leader with 10 goals and 41 assists.

Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis are also among the likely top Canadian scorers in Vancouver while the league takes a two-week hiatus.

NHL all-time shutouts leader Martin Brodeur figures to get the nod as the starting Canadian goaltender. He backstopped Canada to 2002 Olympic gold to end Canada's half-century Olympic men's hockey title drought.

Sweden's top forwards are hurt but Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson and Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall figure to get the call along with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, star defender Nicklas Lidstrom and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

The Americans snubbed Ryan Miller in 2006 but the NHL's leading goaltender should be the Olympic netminder at Vancouver with Phil Kessel, Patrick Kane, Ryan Malone and Zach Parise providing the offense.

NHL goals leader Marian Gaborik, with 25 in 34 games, and veteran defender Zdeno Chara power Slovakia while Finland goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff should be a nemesis for scorers.

Former NHLer Jaromir Jagr, now in Russia, and veterans Patrik Elias, Milan Hejduk and Vinny Prospal power the Czech attack with Tomas Vokoun in the nets.

AAP