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A second Oiler who played a relatively minor role was defenceman Anton Belov, who was one of eight rearguards who collectively were unimpressive as the host Russian Federation crashed and burned from the tournament in the quarter final round. Belov scored a late goal that sealed Russia’s 5-2 win in their opening game vs. Slovenia, otherwise had a pretty quiet tournament.

Perhaps the best and most unexpected opportunity for a player with Edmonton connections was offered to emerging young rearguard Martin Marincin. Whereas most of Edmonton’s young talent is of Canadian origin and found themselves buried on an incredibly rich depth chart for national team consideration, the same certainly can’t be said of Slovakia. While this was the first senior team appearance for the rangy defender who turned 22 during the Games, it was his sixth time representing his country overall, including two Under-18 tournaments and three World Juniors. Clearly he has been on the radar of his national federation for quite some time.

But this was the Olympic Games, a new and very high profile stage for the still-raw defender. Oilers coach Dallas Eakins did his part to enrich the experience, introducing his young defender to Slovakian captain and hockey icon Zdeno Chara when the Oilers played in Boston earlier this month, and asking the veteran to spend some time mentoring the youngster. Said Eakins:

“I was calling in a favour. I’ve got to know Chara over the years. I saw him at a very early age with the New York Islanders. I was there at training camp the one year (1999) and saw him starting to put in the work. He was obsessed with it. “He has turned into, for me, one of the top players in the game, a guy of extremely high character, great work ethic, very humble. I had talked to Marty about his Olympic experience and the importance of his asking Chara a lot of questions. “[Chara] said he’d spend lots of time with him. Zdeno even texted me later, after we were on the plane, reiterating what he had promised. “Chara wasn’t quite as light as Marincin is now. But if Marty takes that level of commitment that Chara has with his body, then that will speed the process of him being a very good player in this league.”

Of course, veterans have been mentoring kids since time immemorial. While Chara might not give a hoot about the Edmonton Oilers, he clearly does about his country, having left the Bruins (with permission) a couple of games before the Olympic break in order to carry his country’s flag into the opening ceremonies. As Canadians saw with Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger tutoring Drew Doughty in 2010, veterans helping out a younger teammate is a natural process not only for the current Games but in the long-term best interest of the national team.