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Hossa, Chara will lead Team Slovakia

ZdenoChara

Slovakia isn’t a favorite to go far in the 2014 Winter Olympics, but they shouldn’t be overlooked either. They released its Olympic roster today and it features no shortage of NHL talent.

Perhaps the country’s biggest road block though will be the health of the team. They’re hoping that both Marian Gaborik (broken collarbone) and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky (concussion) will be available for the Games.

If they aren’t, then it will just put even more pressure on Chicago’s Marian Hossa and Boston’s Zdeno Chara to lead the charge.

Between the pipes, Slovakia will likely use Jaroslav Halak as its starting goaltender. Halak served in that capacity in 2010 and played a key role in the country’s 2-1 shootout victory over Russia in the Preliminary round.

As for notable omissions...well, there weren’t any. All 14 Slovak NHLers made the team.

Here’s the roster in full:

Goaltenders: Peter Budaj, Jaroslav Halak, Jan Laco

Defensemen: Ivan Baranka, Dominik Granak, Zdeno Chara, Martin Marincin, Andrej Meszaros, Andrej Sekera, Michal Sersen, Lubomir Visnovsky

Forwards: Milan Bartovic, Marian Gaborik, Michal Handzus, Marcel Hossa, Marian Hossa, Tomas Jurco, Tomas Kopecky, Tomas Marcinko, Michel Miklik, Peter Ölvecky, Richard Panik, Tomas Surovy, Tomas Tatar, Tomas Zaborsky

UPDATE: Slovakia has had no luck since announcing their roster. They won’t have Michal Sersen, Dominik Granak, Marian Gaborik, and Lubomir Visnovsky. In their place are defensemen Milan Jurcina, Tomas Starosta, and Rene Vydareny as well as forward Branko Radivojevic.

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