Men's Olympic Hockey

Check out my Olympic Hockey Bracket. It is a very confusing series of events to say the least.
So here is my rundown of how The Olympic Hockey Tournament works (as I understand it.) You start with 12 teams representing their homelands, USA, Canada, Russian, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Belarus, Switzerland, Latvia & Norway. NHL players are allowed to represent their homeland, but the bulk of players hail from USA, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland & Slovakia, making the remaining 5 teams punching bags and ice fodder basically. Switzerland may have reversed that impression this year largely due the stellar play of Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller and Islanders defense man Mark Streit. They took Team Canada to a shootout and really wore that squad out with constant checking. The pack divides into 3 divisions of 4. Each team plays the other teams in their division once and that ends the Qualifying round. Scoring for the games is 3 pts for a victory in regulation, 2 pts for a shootout win, 1pt for an overtime loss. Here are the results of the preliminary round:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-hockey/schedule-and-results/men_ihm400000vpreliminary-Vj.html

The obvious stories thus far are the surging USA Team and the poor start by Team Canada. These two teams both have all NHL players and so have great importance to Red Wings fans as well. Team USA is being led by Brian Rafalski, who has been a dominant force in Olympic play thus far, with 4 goals and outstanding defense as usual. With their already infamous upset victory over Team Canada yesterday, USA is 3-0 and looking fit for a medal. Team Canada was battered in their match with The Swiss, at points out checked and out skated. This team of course is run by GM Steve Yzerman, with the help of Ken Holland, and coached by Mike Babcock. Basically, some of the greatest hockey minds around. There has to be overwhelming disappointment after losing to Team USA 5-3. They have the home crowd of Vancouver on their side and a collection of NHL stars that is terrifying to skate against. Their front scoring line is Nash, Iginla and Crosby. Wow! Yet, as Wings fans we don't have to be reminded that hockey squads love being considered underdogs. They feed off of it. And the largest collection of talent is no match for momentum. Team Canada looked disorganized and out of sorts yesterday. Now they will have to play their way into the tournament. Which brings us to the playoff bracket:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-hockey/schedule-and-results/men_ihm400000vm_playoff-dE.html

Us you can see, USA, Sweden, Finland and Russia were the Top 4 in the standings. Finland and Czech Republic were tied in pts, but Finland had a bit Goals For to Goals Allowed Ratio. Now Teams USA, Sweden, Russia & Finland get to sit out a game while the remaining 8 teams battle for a spot in the Quarterfinals. The Quarter Final matches are easy to predict right now, barring monumental upsets. USA would likely play The Swiss and likely advance to the Semi Final. The Czech would likely play Finland, and that will be a stellar game, the winner advancing to face USA in the Semi Final. Slovakia would face Sweden, and the winner of that game faces either Canada or Russian in the Semi-Final. That's right. The likelihood of Canada vs. Russia in the Quarter Final is here. Crosby vs. Ovechkin is coming very soon. Canada's first chance to turn this tournament around will be against a very high flying Russian squad. That has the potential for great hockey. If you have been anywhere near media in the last 30 hours you have seen "the hit."
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=b875ea87-b9b7-467b-b35f-2a95b5170f44.html

Up to that point, Jagr had been one of the biggest impact players of this Olympics. Then with one crushing hit, then his Malkin's quick follow up goal, Ovechkin reminded Jagr what he is missing in his time away from the NHL play. That was an amazing turning point for The Russian Team and with their usual puck possession style combined with the added physical presence they have to be considered a favorite. Canada will have a couple of days to regroup for this amazing match or be kicked off of their home turf. Team USA really helped their chances with the 3-0 start. They can advance to a medal game without having to face Canada, Russia or Sweden. Meanwhile the other Semi Final match will likely be Canada or Russia vs. Sweden. Team Sweden is the defending Olympic champ and they look like a machine so far. I cannot help but support their team considering that their power play unit has 4 Red Wings! I would be torn in the event of a Team USA Gold Medal Game. Before we get to that though we will see a minimum of 6 stellar hockey games in the next few games that will display the amazing talent of the hockey on the world stage. From the highlights thus far one has to wonder what would happen if you were to combine Rafalski with the Swedish Power Play unit, and add Datsyuk from Russia, oh wait. This is why I am so hopeful for the second half of Wings hockey. I for one will not miss a minute of these Olympics in the mean time.