Will Crosby and Ovechkin battle it out for the gold in Vancouver?
Arguably the most anticipated sport at the 2010 Winter Olympics is the men’s hockey tournament.
Not only is it a must-see event with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and many more of the NHL’s best taking the ice for their respective countries, but there’s also the added excitement of the gold medal favorite also being the host country.
Will Sid the Kid and the Canadian team rise to the occasion in Vancouver, or will someone else steal their thunder? Below, I take a look at each of the favorites and what I think of their chances.
Canada
It’s an understatement to say that there’s a lot of pressure on the ‘home’ team to come away with gold.
Not only is there the matter of being expected to take home the hardware on home soil, but the fact that Canada has some redeeming to do after a surprising seventh-place finish in the 2006 Olympics in Turin only adds to the pressure.
And if they come up with anything less than the gold, it will also be quite the understatement to say that it’d be a major disappointment. And rightfully so, too, because there aren’t any excuses this time around with an absolutely loaded roster.
In fact, their roster is so loaded that there’s no room for three of the NHL’s top ten scorers in Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos (there’ll be plenty of room for him in 2014), his teammate Martin St. Louis (who was on the underachieving 2006 team), Dallas’ Brad Richards (who was also on the 2006 team), Washington‘s Mike Green (the NHL‘s top scoring defenseman), or Philadelphia‘s Jeff Carter (who would‘ve come into the team if San Jose‘s Ryan Getzlaf was unable to play).
Canada’s crop of forwards is a mix of youth (Sidney Crosby) and experience (Calgary’s Jarome Iginla, who’s appearing in his third Olympics), and it includes San Jose’s high-scoring top line of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Marleau, and Anaheim’s prolific duo of Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
Canada’s defense features its youngest player, 20-year-old L.A. Kings star Drew Doughty, but it also features two stalwarts in Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger.
And hey, when you have Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, and Marc-Andre Fleury as your goaltenders, it’s not like you have anything to worry about when it comes to keeping the net tidy.
And it also means that there’s no reason why the gold medal ceremony shouldn’t bear resemblance to the fifth inning of a Florida State baseball game.
Russia
That is, if Russia doesn’t have something to say about it.
The Russians have some high expectations to live up to as well. Russia comes into the Olympics as the top-ranked team in the International Ice Hockey Federation rankings, and they’re the two-time defending world champions. But they’re still searching for their first gold since the Soviet days, and they’re coming off of a fourth-place finish in Turin.
Russia’s roster is made up of a balance of NHL-based players and players from the Kontinental Hockey League, so there isn’t as much star power from top to bottom as there is on the Canadian team, but anytime your team includes Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk, you’ve got a darn good team.
The question for Russia is not whether they’ll make it to the medal round or not, but what they’ll do when they get there. In 2006, they were blasted 4-0 by Finland in the semis and promptly got shut out 3-0 by the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game. In 2002 in Salt Lake City, they lost in the semis to the U.S.
United States
Speaking of the U.S., since getting the silver in Salt Lake in 2002, there’ve been disappointments aplenty. From finishing eighth in Turin, to finishing no better than fourth (in 2009) at the World Championships, and it’s safe to say that even getting a medal would be a big improvement.
That isn’t to say that the U.S. will just mail it in and let Canada and Russia have at the gold. Even Sweden might have more ‘stars’ than the U.S. does, but this is a solid and relatively young team that has a chance to build something for the future. Only five players are 30 or older, and 14 are 25 or younger.
So, a solid showing in Vancouver could be a stepping stone for something even better come Sochi in 2014, when the likes of Patrick Kane, Zach Parise, Phil Kessel, Bobby Ryan, and Eric Johnson will all have a lot more experience under their belts and be ready for a run at gold.
As for this Olympics, whether they make some noise when they get to the final round will not only depend on how their bevy of youngins deals with pressure, but also on which Ryan Miller shows up – the one who looked like an overwhelming favorite for the Vezina Trophy for much of the season, or the one who’s shipped in 32 goals in his last 10 games and 18 in his last five during a cold streak for both he and the Buffalo Sabres.
If the right one shows up, the U.S. has a great chance of getting in position for a medal. If the wrong one does, then they’re in for another disappointing showing, because I sure don’t see Tim Thomas (last year’s Vezina Trophy winner, who’s currently 13-15-7 this season) saving the day.
Sweden
Sweden won the gold in Turin, and though Canada and Russia are getting all of the fanfare, don’t be surprised to see them do it again.
Talent gets you a long way, but so does experience, and this is one experienced team, with the Sedin twins (both of whom are having fantastic seasons), the Detroit Red Wings quartet of Lidstrom, Kronwall, Zetterberg, and Holmstrom (and perhaps Franzen, if Peter Forsberg is unable to participate), to name a few.
The only question mark with Sweden is in goal. Henrik Lundqvist has been up and down this season, and it hasn’t helped that the New York Rangers haven’t exactly lit the scoreboard up on a regular basis. He’ll have more support in attack in Vancouver, but he’ll still be counted on to have the kind of performances that led Sweden to gold last time around. If he struggles, the bronze might be the best they could hope for.
Finland
Finland made a surprise run to the gold medal game in ‘06, and though I don’t see them getting anywhere near that far this time, don’t count them out from making a run at a medal.
A lot of the players from the silver medal squad are on this squad, so even though it’s more solid than spectacular, it’s a squad that knows what it takes to get the job done on the big stage.
However, if Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Antero Niittymaki, who was the MVP of the tournament in Turin, doesn’t get out of the mini-slump he’s in right now (nine goals allowed in his last two games), it could put Finland’s hopes of making the final round, much less the medal round, in jeopardy.
Czech Republic
Judging by what the odds makers have to say, you might think this is an underrated team.
However, the Czechs, have finished no better than fifth in the last three World Championships, and this isn’t exactly the same team as the one that four world titles between 1996-2001 and won the gold in 1998.
That being said, Jaromir Jagr (yep, he’s still playing), the lone holdover from the team that took gold in Nagano in 1998, does have a solid chance to earn his third Olympic medal.
