Russia’s national ice hockey team is aiming for a clean sweep in the fourth and final leg of the Euro Hockey Tour. They're still missing some of their NHL star men who have obligations in the U.S. playoffs. But competition for places remains fierce with t

The twelfth edition of the Euro Hockey Tour is about to conclude, with the final games taking place in the Czech Republic this week.

The Russian national team will confront Finland in their opening match on Thursday. Success will depend on a couple of factors.

A few key players are still engaged in the NHL playoffs, while the Russian Superleague playoff finals have already finished.

Russia’s head coach Vyacheslav Bykov is ready to make “any necessary decisions that will ultimately lead to gold”.

“We have to wait until the end of the first stage of the NHL play-offs to really understand what's going on and make any kind of calculations,” Bykov said.

But some Russian NHL players have already been knocked out of contention for the Stanley Cup and flown home to join the national team.

They include defenders Denis Grebeshkov from the Edmonton Oilers and Dmitry Kalinin from the Buffalo Sabres. And the frontline from the NHL will be represented by Ilya Kovalchuk from the Atlanta Blackhawks and Maksim Afinogenov, also from Buffalo.

Afinogenov seems to be enjoying the reconciliation with his old pals.

“Most everybody here is my old friend, with whom I've played in Dynamo or in the national team. The coaching style is a little different, but it's always nice to play for your national team,” Afinigenov said.

Aleksey Yashin who was one of the top scorers in the Superleague play-offs will not be taking part in the Euro-tour or the world championship in Canada.

The former New York Islander told the head coach that he is ready to play in the championship but due to personal reasons will not be taking part in the training process.

“It’s very important for us to have the player train with the team all the time. Plus, we haven't seen Yashin in action in any of the national team's games. At the moment our players are ready and we have great competition within the squad, so I decided not to take the risk,” Bykov explained.

The World Championship will be played on NHL sized rinks which are almost three and a half meters narrower than in Europe.

So the team management decided to alter its training rink in the Moscow region to help the players get used to it.