2014 Olympic Men's Hockey Tournament Preview

             I’ll be honest…I could give a shit about the Winter Olympics. Other than Bob Costas having weird eye issues, nothing has caught No Credentials attention yet. That all changes tomorrow, as one of the most underrated sporting events on planet Earth begins. We’ll break down what makes the Olympic Men’s Hockey Tournament so awesome.

-         Unlike the basketball tournament in the Summer Olympics, more than three teams actually have a realistic chance of winning. You could make a case for eight of the twelve teams having at least a 1% chance of earning Gold Medals.

-         Every game feels like a Stanley Cup Playoffs game. Hockey players are wired differently than any other professional athlete, so even though they aren’t earning a normal paycheck to play in the Olympics, they compete twice as hard as they do in a regular season game.

-         While there is parity to an extent, the top-tier teams are ridiculously stacked. Canada is always able to roll out four lines full of All-Star caliber players, but Sweden isn’t far behind. Even the United States has finally added some depth with a new wave of young players, led by Chicago’s Patrick Kane.

-         When teammates from NHL teams are split onto different countries, it feels extra intense. Crosby vs. Malkin. Kane vs. Toews. Chara vs. Bergeron. Or when a sniper has the pleasure of trying to score on his NHL goalie. All of those match-ups add to the intrigue.

-         Some of the non-NHL guys are actually pretty damn good, and they are more familiar with the international style rink and rules. This keeps most games close, unlike when the USA basketball team gets to stomp all over Ecuador or something.

With all that said, in reverse order is our rankings of each team in the tournament.   

NORWAY

Goalies = F
Defensemen = F
Forwards = F
            Somehow, Norway has two goalies with “Lars” as their first name. That’s never a good sign.

SLOVENIA

Goalies = D
Defensemen = D
Forwards = D+
            They have Anze Kopitar, and literally nothing else. Furthermore, I have no idea where Slovenia is.

LATVIA

Goalies = D
Defensemen = D+
Forwards = D
            For anyone that ever played the international tournament in the EA Sports hockey games over the past decade, Latvia immediately jumps to the top of teams to root for. The crowd chanted “LATVIA! LATVIA! LATVIA! LAVTIA!” so passionately that it almost made you want to move there (emphasis on “almost”). When I asked friends of the blog Ethan Hedrick and Mike Stevens (the two individuals that I have completed world tournaments with), all they had to say was “LATVIA! LATVIA! LATVIA! LATVIA!” No Credentials is on the Latvia bandwagon.

AUSTRIA

Goalies = D
Defensemen = D
Forwards = C
            I feel like based on their geographic location on planet Earth, Austria should be better at hockey.

SWITZERLAND

Goalies = B+
Defensemen =C
Forwards = C+
            Of teams that have the majority of their roster made up of non-NHL players, Switzerland is regarded as the club with the best chance to make noise.

SLOVAKIA

Goalies = B
Defensemen = B+
Forwards = B-
            It will take a hot streak from Jaroslav Halak and dominant play on the blue-line from Zdeno Chara for Slovakia to snag a top-2 spot in group play over either Russia or the United States.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Goalies = B
Defensemen = B
Forwards = B
            The Czech’s famously robbed Canada of a gold medal in 1998 thanks to the heroics of Dominek Hasek, but the talent of their team has fallen off dramatically over the past decade.

FINLAND

Goalies = A
Defensemen = B-
Forwards = C+
            Tuuka Rask provides the Fins their best goaltending since Mikka Kiprusoff in 2006. They’ll have to keep all of their games low scoring, but if they do, Rask can help them steal a medal.

RUSSIA

Goalies = A-
Defensemen = C+
Forwards = A-
            Russia has the home-ice advantage (which historically is a big deal in this event), but a weak defensive corps could be their undoing.
 

UNITED STATES

Goalies = A
Defensemen = B+
Forwards = A-
            Bringing back the majority of the silver medal-winning group from 2010, Team USA is positioned as one of the favorites for the first time in years. Led by Patrick Kane and Phil Kessel offensively, they’ll need Ryan Miller to repeat his last Olympic performance for them to have a chance.

SWEDEN

Goalies = A
Defensemen = A
Forwards = A-
            Even down one Sedin twin (Henrik is injured and will be unable to play), Sweden still has to be regarded as the co-favorite along with Canada.

 



CANADA

Goalies = A
Defensemen = A
Forwards = A+
            Canada is always the most talented team top to bottom in this tournament (to put it in perspective, Patrice Bergeron is probably going to be their fourth line center), but they have a history of choking in the Olympics (they only won last year for the first time in years because it was on home-soil in Vancouver). They’ll need either Carey Price or Roberto Luongo (the latter of the two famously flopped during the 2010 Olympics) to grab the starting gig by the horns before elimination play and provide stability to their star studded lineup. If that happens, Sidney Crosby and company will take care of the rest.

PREDICTIONS

Bronze = Russia

Silver = Canada
Gold = Sweden