Russia coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov says the grousing and infighting that have dashed Russian hopes in past international events will not be a problem for his charges at the Sochi Games.
"We will try to be together and play like we are together," said Bilyaletdinov Sunday during the team's first day of practice after arriving from their pre-Olympic training camp in Kazan.
After crashing out of the Vancouver Olympics with an embarrassing 7-3 loss to Canada in the quarter-finals, gold medal favourite Russia is determined to take care of some unfinished business on their home ice.
Their much-vaunted team is looking to make amends for a sixth place finish in 2010 and become the first Russian team to win gold since the fall of the Soviet Union.
"We are really happy to play at home in the Olympics," Bilyaletdinov said. "We will try to play well."
Finnish Olympic star Teemu Selanne talked about Russia's reputation as being good individual players but not coming together as a team.
"The problem is there is only one puck," Selanne said after a recent Anaheim Ducks game. "And they all want it at the same time."
Half the team trained on Sunday at the Shayba Arena practice rink with most of those players being the ones who compete in the domestic Kontinental Hockey League.
The rest of the team is flying in from North America where they play with their National Hockey League clubs. They are expected to arrive Monday and Tuesday.
Asked about the pressure of playing in an Olympic Games at home, Bilyaletdinov said "we don't think about the pressure.
"Our players will have a good experience. They are strong players."
Russia is in Group A and opens their quest for gold with a game against Slovenia on Thursday.
They play the United States Saturday and finish up the preliminary round Sunday against Slovakia.
Forward Viktor Tikhonov said the players got together and watched the opening ceremony from Kazan.
"We got butterflies," said Tikhonov, who is the grandson of legendary Russian hockey coach who goes by the same name.
"You can feel the emotions growing the closer we get. Everyone watched the opening ceremonies. It is finally here and we are playing on our home turf. It's a big deal.
