Team Slovakia will be looking to rebound after a disappointing finish at the Turin Olympics in 2006. After defeating Russia, the US and sweden in the group stages, they failed to qualify for the medal round. I feel that slovakia will have a good shot at getting deeper into the tournament this year around. Many slovaks in the NHL are coming off huge years including Marian Hossa and Zedno Chara. But the slovaks have more firepower than just that. Other stars include Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Miroslav Satan, and Michael Handzus. Peter Budaj is the definite starter for this team being the only NHL goalie on the roster. It will be interesting to see how the team will fair.
My prediction: Loss to the Swedes 4-1 in the bronze medal game. Goaltending proves to be the undoing of the slovaks.
There are many questions for the reigning gold medalists. Has the team gotten too old? Many believe that 2006 was the swedes last chance to win and they nailed it. But many are skeptical whether the team will be able to repeat. Legends such as Sundin and Lindstrom have reached the twillight of their international careers. The swedes do have the necessary firepower to do some damage with the likes of Henrik Zetterberg, Daniel and Henrik Sedin and firecracker Nicklas Backstrom. I believe they have a chance, but will ultimately not repeat as champions.
Coach Vyacheslav "Slava" Bykov has an interesting task ahead of him in the 2010 Olympics. Not only does he have the 2008-2009 regular season MVP in alexander ovechkin, he has the playoff MVP in Evgeni Malkin. And whats even more interesting, is that chances are, they will be on the same line. No other team will have the firepower of the russians. Malkin, Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, Semin, Federov...the list goes on. The only question for the russians will be their defense. After Gonchar and Markov, there is a severe drop off in talent.
Canada comes into the olympic games certainly as a favorite to medal. They are arguably the afvorite to win the gold along with the russians. One major question for the canadian squad is who will be the captain? While many view the captiancy as a formality especially in international play its importance is often underminded. Long gone are the days of sakic, yzerman or rob blake. It will be interesting to see who steps up to fill the shoes of the legends I mentioned previously.
Oliver Slocum
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