It was the middle of the night in Moscow...
That didn"t stop fans all round the country staying up until the early hours to cheer on their side.
But after Russia failed to show anything like the form that won them the 2008 and 2009 world championships -losing 7-3 in a quarter-final clash with the hosts - many will be wishing they hadn"t.
"Nightmare in Vancouver," The Red Machine Runs into a Maple Tree," "Down and Out," were just some of the headlines on Thursday morning, as reports came in that many Russian fans who had planned to stay at the Games until the February 28 closing ceremony were leaving the host city in disgust.
"We wanted to play as well as we could, but things turned out...you know the rest yourselves...like always," Russian NHL star Alexander Ovechkin told the Sport Express paper.
The ice-hockey player was paraphrasing then premier Viktor Chernomyrdin"s famous early 1990s quote that "We hoped for the best, but things turned out like they always do."