Even though it's just a preseason for Team Russia-2 and Team Canada, it's still good old time 🇷🇺 vs 🇨🇦 game. #SochiHockeyOpen pic.twitter.com/Tl84L5YdI0 — KHL (@khl_eng) August 7, 2017

An absence of NHLers at the Olympics won't make the Canada-Russia rivalry any less intense.

Canada and Russia-2 took part in the Sochi Hockey Open on Monday - as part of a tournament that both sides are using as evaluations ahead of the 2018 Olympic Games - where things got extremely heated.

When the dust finally settled, Russia-2 escaped with a 3-2 victory.

Both sides hopefully proved that maybe the Olympics will be fine without NHL stars.