Thursday, December 10, 2009

Favourable Grouping for Host Canadians

All the talk leading up to the Olympic games will be about the powerhouse teams from Canada and Russia and rightfully so. Both teams are stacked with NHL stars and will certainly be the favourites this February.

But before those two teams ever meet they will have to get out of their respective groups and that will be no easy task.

Here is a look at the groupings for the Olympic hockey tournament...

GROUP A: Canada, United States, Norway, Switzerland

GROUP B: Russia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia

GROUP C: Finland, Sweden, Germany, Belarus


There aren't any weak groups necessarily but you have to like the draw for the host Canadians. The United States will be no push over but Norway and Switzerland really aren't hockey power houses.

The Russians definitely have a tougher draw. The Czechs and Slovaks will both have strong entries and the Latvian team is always tough in international play.
Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. Sec328December 10, 2009 at 3:58 PM

    SensChirp I hate to ask a stupid question but the Olympiad is only once every 4 years so that's my excuse for asking how the tourney works.

    After round robin play, how many teams qualify and how are the draws determined?

    Incidentally, I love Canada's draw. Group B is the toughest, followed by C and then Group A...although since Canada is in Group A, you could argue that's the toughest!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SensChirpDecember 10, 2009 at 4:15 PM

    They play the round robin portion of the tournament and the best four records will go to the quarterfinal.

    Then the remaining eight teams will move on to play a Qualifying Playoff round to decide the other four quarter-final spots.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 10, 2009 at 5:14 PM

    Although making the finals is most important and a weak group makes this easier, I am concerned about only facing tough opposition later in the tourney. What is the point of beating a weaker team 8-1?

    Hopefully there will be no complacency.

    PL

    ReplyDelete
  4. SensChirpDecember 10, 2009 at 6:24 PM

    Good point, PL.

    Thats why it will help Canada to close out the Round Robin portion of the tourny against the United States.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 11, 2009 at 12:19 AM

    PL,

    Probably won't come down to this, but in the event of a tie after round robin play, goals for/against are the tie breaker. That's when the lopsided games are handy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sec328December 11, 2009 at 5:06 PM

    PL - the glass is half full good buddy!!

    In a pressure packed tournament on home ice, the Canadian team could get a huge confidence boost from cruising through round robin play.

    I will say this though, team USA will be no pushover. They're doing an analysis on the squad on the NHL Network right now and I'm getting scared.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)