WOOT its that time again and although ppl in the US dont seem to care about hockey most of the rest of the world does. Im very excited about the Olympic Hockey coming up and here we go the official thread from MOI!

The Nations:
Defending Champs TEAM CANADA!

Czech Republic
Finland
Germany
Italy
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Russia
Slovakia
Sweden
Switzerland
United States

Groups & Schedule:

2006 Winter Olympic Games - Men's Groups

Group A: CAN (1), CZE (4), FIN (5), GER (8), SUI (9), ITA (12)
Group B: SWE (2), SVK (3), USA (6), RUS (7), LAT (10), KAZ (11)
(Seeding numbers in brackets)


Games:
Preliminary Round:
WED Feb. 15
KAZ - SWE
ITA - CAN
SUI - FIN
GER - CZE
RUS - SVK
LAT - USA

THU Feb. 16
FIN - ITA
CZE - SUI
SWE - RUS
SVK - LAT
CAN - GER
USA - KAZ

SAT Feb. 18
KAZ - RUS
ITA - GER
CAN - SUI
SWE - LAT
SVK - USA
CZE - FIN

SUN Feb. 19
GER - SUI
RUS - LAT
SVK - KAZ
USA - SWE
CZE - ITA
FIN - CAN

TUE Feb. 21
LAT - KAZ
SUI - ITA
FIN - GER
CAN - CZE
SWE - SVK
USA - RUS

Playoff Round:
WED Feb. 22
Quarter Finale Game
Quarter Finale Game
Quarter Finale Game
Quarter Finale Gmae

FRI Feb. 24
Semi Finale Game
Semi Finale Game

SAT Feb. 25
Bronze Medal Game

SUN Feb. 26
Gold Medal Game

HEJA SVERIGE

not really having followed hockey this year, i'm going to say its gonna be canada and sweden for the championship......and i'm going to say canada is going to get the gold. why? well, they both have traditionally great teams, but i think canada's going to do it cause well, shit, its canada.... love to see the USA get there, but c'mon, how many great players are there from the US? not too many. sweden has got some great players in the nhl, don't know about their own leagues though.....but i'm sure with them having had some nhl players play in their league last year they will gain some good experience. still, canada is going to be stellar. who's in goal for each team? if canada goes with brodeur they'll win for sure...... just my opinion.

i think canada gets the gold.... we're a insanely deep team.... crosby and mccabe didnt even make the team, decent leadership, no real weakness

russia will be awesome to watch because of the HUGE offensive potential w/ kovalchuck, ovechkin, afinaganov, datsyuk and everybody else , BUT can the defense pull it together.... same with the goalies....the 'bulin wall has said he wasnt playing... i think... so its all on nabokov

also im a sweden fan BUT i dont think they have a deep enough squad to beat a team like canada or russia... more or less the same story with finland

slovkia could be a good team..... if they had a half decent goalie for once

fukk the czech republic this isnt nagano

us wont win shit too old too slow for the big ice

.... italy will get beaten 13-0 by canada and there will be people in canada honestly wondering why it wasnt by more and they'll be mad

Jovanovski misses the Olympics because of injury.

mccabe > jovo cop...... and i live in vancouver

mccabe is playing out of this world this year

Markus Näslund isn't going too play for Sweden during the Olympics. He's injured and will most likely stay at home trying to recover.

Official replacement: Detroit's and mine favourite player, Thomas Holmström!

quote:

Originally posted by zoric Markus Näslund isn't going too play for Sweden during the Olympics. He's injured and will most likely stay at home trying to recover. Official replacement: Detroit's and mine favourite player, Thomas Holmström!

Canada > Sweden

Canada by far has the strongest squad at the mom. I think but some of the European squads have the second with Sweden probably leading the charge. Of all the powerhouses I think the US looks particuarlly weak I would say Russia too but they have Kovalchuk and Ovechkin which is probably better than most of the US Squad

cant wait only a week or so now

Sweden is overrated, but I hope it'll get better now when fag Näslund isn't playing.

I don't know how much of an impact it will have, but it looks like the Czechs will lose Petr Prucha, who suffered a knee injury over the weekend
(I just know this from watching the New York Rangers)

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ehhh i can see russia challenging for a brozne against sweden

us hockey is in bad shape the most well known stars have very little gas left in the tank and they dont have real strong players with nhl experience comming along in the next little while.... that being said in 2010 they could be strong

quote:

Originally posted by InterMilan31 Canada > Sweden Canada by far has the strongest squad at the mom. I think but some of the European squads have the second with Sweden probably leading the charge. Of all the powerhouses I think the US looks particuarlly weak I would say Russia too but they have Kovalchuk and Ovechkin which is probably better than most of the US Squad cant wait only a week or so now

Sweden always chokes in hockey....no better example than 2002 against Belarus.

I don't think Canada is an automatic lock to repeat, but they're as sure as shit the clear favourites. I could see a challenge coming from the Czechs though, just a feeling.

Is it just me or is the format different this time? I only remember Canada playing 6 games in total last time...against Sweden (loss), Germans (win), Czechs (tie) then the QF against Finland, Semis against Belarus and the final. This time it looks as if there's an extra game in there.

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