Mike Zeisberger

explains what to watch for in the Canada-Russia World Cup of Hockey semifinal on Saturday night in Toronto:

1. SHIFT DISTURBERS

The insistence of the Russian coaching staff not to double shift its star players has been the source of frustration for the team’s fans dating back to its titanic Olympic failure at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

You look at this lineup. You have Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Vladimir Tarasenko, Nikita Kucherov and Evgeny Kuznetsov on your roster. These are five of the most gifted goal scorers on the planet.

And you still insist on rolling four lines?

Head-scratching.

2. WHAT ABOUT BOB?

Canadian coach Mike Babcock calls goaltending “the great equalizer.” As such, Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovsky could be exactly that.

During the 2006 Olympics in Turin Italy, Switzerland defeated Canada 2-0 when Martin Gerber turned aside 49 Canadian shots.

Yes, that’s right. Switzerland.

Bobrovsky was magnificent earlier this month in a 3-2 exhibition loss to Canada in overtime. There is nothing to suggest he can’t do it again.

3. SIN BIN BLUES

During that narrow pretournament win over the Russians in Pittsburgh, the Canadians took seven minor penalties including a pair of too-many-menon-the-ice penalties.

Giving the likes of Ovechkin, Malkin and Tarasenko opportunities with the man advantage will be shinny suicide. As such, the Canadians must stay out of the box.

4. THE DEFENCE RESTS

When breaking down the two teams, the one area where Canada seems to have a distinct advantage is on the blue line. The group of Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Weber, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, Jay Bouwmeester and Brent Burns certainly would seem, at least on paper, to be the preferred group to Russia’s Nikita Zaitsev, Dmitry Orlov, Alexei Emelin, Andrei Markov, Alexey Marchenko and Dmitry Kulikov. Don’t be surprised to see Canada’s forwards grind deep in the Russian zone in order to wear down the opposition defence.

5. HOME COOKING

The Air Canada Centre will be electric right from the opening faceoff and Team Canada plans to take advantage of it. “We want to get off to a strong start and take the game to them,” forward Corey Perry said. Nobody in the building will argue with that blueprint, to be sure.