Handicapping The 2010 Olympic Men's Ice Hockey

My Heart Wants America; My Brain Says It'll Look Alot Like 2002

Unlike the women's bracket; there's actually a competition taking place on the men's side.  The NHL-ice surface may give a slight advantage to the Canadians and Americans.

There is so much offensive firepower from teams #1-#7 that staying off the penalty kill will be important for every team.  Imagine a Kovalchuk-Malkin-Ovechkin-Datsyuk-Gonchar Power Play....WHOA!

Eight of the twelve countries have NHL starting goaltenders.  Any of them are capable of stealing a game.  Once the tournament reaches the quarterfinals and becomes single-elimination; their could be some huge upsets.

And without further adieu; my predictions for Men's Ice Hockey at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

GOLD: CANADA- No country can match Canada's depth at every position.  With the games in Vancouver; too much is on the line for this team to fail.

SILVER: RUSSIA- The trio of Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk should be electric but Russia's selection of nine KHL players may end up being costly.

BRONZE: SWEDEN- Sweden's gold medal performance in Torino was no fluke; they'll challenge for Gold.

4. United States- The NHL-size ice surface will help the American's defense ability to match up against the best forwards in the world but they'll be overmatched.

5. Finland- Finland won every game until the Gold Medal match in Torino; Kiprusoff could easily take them to the top.

6. Czech Republic- The Czechs have a ton of depth but if all goes well they'll get a tough draw with Sweden in the Quarterfinals.

7. Slovakia- Halak faces a ton of shots in net for the Habs but he hasn't seen anything yet.

8. Switzerland- Hiller in goal is enough to give them the edge over the Germans.

9. Germany- Ever wondered what happened to former Kings John Tripp, Jason Holland and Chris Schmidt?  Yup, they're representing Germany.  All Canadian-born playing in the DEL. (edit: Jason Holland has been removed from the roster)

10. Belarus- Injuries have taken away two of their four NHLers out of the Olympics.

11. Norway- Poor Norway.

12. Latvia- How bad is Raitis Ivanans that he didn't get selected for the squad?  According to Kuklas Korner, Ivanans is the worst player in the NHL.  No argument here.