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Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller / Keystone via AP

Having their worst decade ever: Russia, and not just because they don’t get to play under that name in Pyeongchang. Despite medalling at five of the last six world championships, including gold medals in 2012 and 2014, Russia’s men’s team has crashed out in the quarter-finals at the last two Olympics. The women’s team finished sixth at the 2010 and 2014 Games, though their participation in Sochi was stricken from history two months ago when six players received retroactive bans from the IOC for doping.

Best pipeline: Twelve of the 22 skaters on Canada’s men’s team were playing in the KHL at the time the roster was announced, including former Canucks forward Linden Vey, who was the league’s third-leading scorer before his struggling team, Barys Astana, released him by mutual agreement on Jan. 18. The rest of them were recruited from Switzerland (four), Sweden (three) and the AHL (three). Scrivens is another KHLer, while goalies Kevin Poulin (Austria) and Justin Peters (Germany) round out the roster.

Most astonishing comeback: Of all the NHL washouts and European lifers populating the rosters for the men’s tournament, few paths to the Olympics were unlikelier than Wolski’s. The Canadian forward fractured two vertebrae and was concussed in a headfirst slide into the boards during a KHL game in October 2016. Remarkably, he recovered in time for the start of this season and is now 20th in KHL scoring.

Best attempt at appeasement: A disproportionate amount of forwards — 13 of 14 — on Canada’s men’s team played for a Canadian NHL team at some point in their career, from Quinton Howden’s five games with Winnipeg last season to Kelly’s eight seasons in Ottawa and Raymond’s nine seasons with Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. (The lone outlier is Wolski, who cycled through five U.S.-based teams.) If this was Burke’s sly attempt at making his team relatable to the average fan, well done.