The 26-year wait is over: the Russians are Olympic champions once again.

It wasn’t the medal they came for, but a Canadian roster featuring 13 active KHL players rounded out its Olympic campaign with a 6-3 victory over the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game.

Russia’s Olympic medal drought is over – and all that remains is to discover whether Oleg Znarok’s team will win gold or silver in Sunday’s final against Germany.

In the Olympic men’s tournament, Russia marches on – a 6-1 win over Norway cements the team’s status as pre-tournament favorite. In the women’s event, though, there was disappointment as the Russians missed out in the bronze medal game, going down 2-3 against Finland.

IIHF President Rene Fasel praised the work that China is doing within the KHL as it builds to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing – and hinted at the possibility of a Korean team joining the competition to consolidate the success of the on-going tournament in PyeongChang.

Following our series of Olympic team profiles, we have one more addition – Russia, or the “Olympic Athletes from Russia,” for the politically-correct, and a team licking its wounds after its shock opening-day defeat at the hands of the Slovaks.

Russia might be ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’ here, the roster might be almost entirely different from 2014 in Sochi – but the opening period of action for Oleg Znarok’s team instantly evoked memories of how the Russians started on home ice four years ago. Unfortunately, happy reflections of a slick start in Sochi were followed by painful reminders of how Russia stuttered in its first game there. And worse was to follow: the recovery that sank Slovenia in 2014 never materialized; Slovakia made off with a shock 3-2 victory.

With just hours, rather than days remaining until the start of the 2018 Olympic hockey tournament, KHL.ru completes its preview of the teams with a look at the USA, Slovakia, Slovenia and Norway. None of the quartet would regard itself as among the favourites for gold in PyeongChang, but all four boast some highly talented players from the KHL.

In the third of our country-by-country series of Olympic previews, we sought the views of Team Finland General Manager Jere Lehtinen about putting together the roster, the role of the sixteen KHL players in the team, and the nation's hopes and expectations from the upcoming tournament.

KHL.ru continues its Olympic hockey preview with a look at the Czech Republic roster. Head coach Josef Jandac spoke to us about his players (15 of whom are from KHL clubs), their selection, and the expectations of the team as they prepare to fight for gold in PyeongChang.

How do you follow the fireworks of the Opening Ceremony? For Oleg Znarok’s Russian team, a flurry of goalscoring firepower was the answer.

KHL.ru presents a series of previews devoted to the teams competing for hockey gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The Games get underway on Friday, the 9^th of February, and the hockey tournament runs from the 14th to the 25^th. Today, we spoke to Team Sweden head coach Rikard Gronborg about his team and their expectations for the forthcoming event.