Men’s 2014 Olympic Hockey Preview

Here is my preview on the 2014 men’s Olympic hockey tournament set to get under way in Sochi, Russia. There are 12 teams competing for the three medals but like any tournament not all teams are the same. I think the three medals will be won by some combination of these four teams.

Sweden

Sweden came in fifth in Vancouver and brings in a team this year that should improve on that finish. The Swedes are solid in goal with Henrik Lundqvist and Jonas Gustavsson. Both men have the ability to steal games and run wins together.

On defense Niklas Hjalmarsson, Johnny Oduya, Erik Karlsson and Jonathan Ericsson top a list of guys who can get it done on the blue line. These players all check the puck well and make great passes to start the transition to offence. They also do a great job of blocking shots which will help their goalies keep the score down.

Sweden will need some scoring from their defense if they plan to challenge for a medal. They do have some fire power on the backend and I do expect them to score. The more they get from this part of their game the better they will finish.

The offense for Sweden lost Johan Franzen and Henrik Sedin to injury but don’t worry they have a few guys to work with. The Swedes will look to Henrik Zetterberg, Alexander Steen, Gabriel Landeskog, Daniel Alfredsson and Nicklas Backstrom to lead the scoring. The Swedish offence can handle the puck and they will go into the nasty parts of the ice to get a shot.

Ithink Swedenwill win group “C” and should be one of the four teams to earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Canada

The golden boys from up north will look to repeat as Olympic champions in Sochi. Upfront they have Matt Duchene, John Tavares, Jonathan Toews, Jeff Carter and Sidney Crosby to light the lamp. The Canadians will score and put a ton of pressure on the puck.

Then behind those top guns Canada has Duncan Keith, Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Weber and Jay Bouwmeester to lead their blue liners. These men are some of the top defensemen in the NHL and can play shut-down hockey for hours.

If you get past all of those all-stars then Roberto Luongo, Mike Smith or Cary Price will be waiting in net. All three of these men are top goalies but I don’t think you need to be Patrick Roy for this team to win.Canadais loaded and is the easy pick to win it all but they are not invincible they can be beaten.

Canada plays in group “B” and should walk away with this group. I also expect them to be one of the team that wins a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Russia

The host country finished sixth in Vancouver and enters this tournament with the most pressure. Sergei Bobrovsky and Semyon Varlamov will provide good goaltending. I think the Russians might need one of these guys to steal a game if they want to have a crack at the gold.

The Russian forwards are the real strength for this team. Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vladimir Tarasenko and Alex Ovechkin are real wizards with the puck. The Russians have the fire power to shoot it out with anyone but can they win the tight low scoring game?

The blue line is where I think the Russians have a little trouble. Anton Belov, Evgeny Medvedev, Fedor Tyutin and Nikita Nikitin will lead the defensemen. If are going who the hell are they join the club.Russia doesn’t have a lot of big names on the backend but they can play.

Russia is in group “A” with team USA.

Team USA

The Americans won the silver medal in Vancouver when Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to bring Canada the gold. This time around the Americans have another solid team and will challenge for a medal. In fact they are my dark horse team for the tournament.

Jimmy Howard, Ryan Miller and Jonathan Quick will be the men between the pipes and I expect Quick to get most of the playing time. If he gets hot Quick has shown the ability to put a number of wins together.

The Americans have a tough group of men on defense. John Carlson, Cam Fowler, Brooks Orpik, Kevin Shattenkirk and Ryan Suter can check and handle the puck. These guys also have a good first pass. That means they find the open man and get the puck to him quick.

Upfront Dustin Brown, Ryan Kesler, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise, Ryan Callahan and Patrick Kane are just a few of the weapons team USA has. Our boys are a good puck possession team that can bang on the boards when they need to.

I think team USA will win group “A” with Russia being second. Both teams should be in the top four and get a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

So who wins? I think it end like this:

Bronze -- Sweden

Silver—Canada

Gold—Team USA