Czech Republic (May 21, 4:15 pm)
In the opening match of the World Ice Hockey Championship, the Russian national team will play with the Czech Republic. This opponent should be well known to Valery Bragin's wards - just recently the teams met at the Euro Hockey Tour, and the Russians suffered a sensitive defeat with a score of 0: 4. But the opponent played in a far from optimal composition and in Riga should become even stronger.
Head coach Philip Peshan had excellent players at his disposal such as goalkeeper Shimon Grubets, defender Philip Gronek, strikers Tomas Zogorna, Jan Kovar, Filip Zadina and Philip Hitil, all of whom are potentially world championship stars.
Now they will be joined by Dominik Kubalik and Jakub Vrana.
The former had another good season at the Chicago Blackhawks and became the third top scorer on his team.
The second was unable to stay with the Washington Capitals, but relaunched his career with the Detroit Red Wings and averaged points per game at the end of the season.
With them, the attack of the Czech national team can rightfully be considered one of the best in the entire tournament.
UK (May 22, 4:15 pm)
The next opponent of the Russian national team is difficult to take seriously.
In the second round, Bragin's charges will play with the British team, which miraculously retained their registration in the elite division two years ago.
The British still look like the main outsiders of the tournament, for whom it will be good luck to avoid the last place in the group.
In addition, just a few days before the World Cup, the team had a new head coach.
Peter Russell announced that he wants to be with his family at the end of the season, so he handed over the reins to the Adam Keefe-Corey Nilsson tandem.
In club hockey, such a drastic reshuffle can cheer players up, but at the national team level this is not to be expected.
It is quite difficult to single out someone in the UK national team.
It consists almost entirely of hockey players playing at home in a championship that is not the strongest by European standards.
Perhaps the most interesting thing for fans will be watching Brett Perlini - the brother of Brendan Perlini, who recently played in the NHL.
Interestingly, Brett was born in Canada, but represents the UK national team, and Brendan was born in London and played for the Canadians at the junior level.
Slovakia (May 24, 4:15 pm)
The Slovak national team failed this year to attract a single player from the NHL under their banner.
Formally, Marian Studenich is one of those, but for the New Jersey Devils he spent only eight matches and scored two points in them.
He still played much more in the AHL and at home in Slovan.
Yes, and only Spartak goalkeeper Julius Gudacek and Adam Lishka from Severstal came to Craig Ramsey from the KHL, and both cannot be called an excellent reinforcement.
Due to the limited staffing, the Canadian specialist had to rely on the legionnaires from the Finnish championship, among which Pavol Skalicki stands out - one of the leaders of the season winner Lucco.
The remaining positions Ramsey closed with young Slovak players, including two 17-year-old hockey players.
Denmark (May 26, 4:15 pm)
For the Danish national team, it is quite possible to study the hockey map of Europe.
It includes not only players performing at home, but also hockey players from the championships of Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Moreover, ten of them have already celebrated their 30th anniversary.
Niklas Jensen can be called the unequivocal leader of the Danes (apart from him, the team has three more players with the same name).
For several years now, he has been the base of Jokerit in the KHL, and last season was no exception.
It is impossible to discount the recent NHL player Mikkel Bödker, who found himself in Lugano.
By the way, within the framework of the Euro Challenge, the Danish national team beat Norway and even Sweden, even if then both teams were not yet in their best condition.
Switzerland (May 29, 4:15 pm)
The Swiss national team was much more fortunate than many of the European middle peasants.
They will be joined by four NHL players who can strengthen the team and help them advance to the playoffs.
First of all, we are talking about Timo Mayer, who scored 31 points in 54 games for the San Jose Sharks.
Niko Khishir deserves a separate mention.
Injuries have had a crumpled season, but the New Jersey Devils had so much faith in the 22-year-old striker that they made him captain.
Russian fans will also be interested to see Philip Kurashev in the case.
He made his Chicago Blackhawks debut this season and has gained experience that will come in handy at the World Cup.
Sweden (May 31, 20:15)
The Swedish national team should also be well known to the Russians - this is the last team that Bragin's wards beat before the World Cup.
But just like the Czechs, the Scandinavians have noticeably strengthened in recent days, albeit not as powerfully as they would like.
The striking force of Tre Krunur should be Viktor Olofsson, Riccard Raquell and Adrian Kempe.
All of them played a lot in the NHL, scored 32, 28 and 29 points per season, respectively, but did not make the playoffs, which allowed them to come to the national team.
But besides them, the Swedes no longer have real stars, especially in defense, so at the last stage of the Eurotour they conceded 11 goals in three matches.
In general, there are a lot of questions about the line-up chosen by Johan Garpenlev.
For example, how did Mario Kempe end up in the team, who did not score a single point with CSKA in the Gagarin Cup, or what will be the role of Marcus Sorensen, who has not played in San Jose for a month.
The first matches in the World Cup will show if the Swedes have jokers.
Belarus (June 1, 20:15)
The national team of Belarus has lost its main advantage - the home site.
The matches of group A with her participation were originally supposed to be held in Minsk, but in the end they will take place in Riga, like all other games of the world championship.
The main star of the team is definitely Yegor Sharangovich.
The 22-year-old striker has made a splash this season by becoming one of the leaders of New Jersey.
He scored 30 points for performance, losing only five points to the team's top scorer Pavel Zaha.
At the same time, Sharangovich managed to play in Dynamo Minsk, where with 17 goals and 8 assists until the end of the season he did not drop below the sixth place within the team.
During the season, the Belarusian scored 33 goals - this is the level of the leaders of the two leagues.