With all of the hype surrounding the opening ceremony and the many different competitions that are going to be in the Olympics, many people are making predictions on who they think will win. I’ve decided that it’s time to throw my own predictions into the mix regarding the men’s hockey tournament.

GOLD MEDAL: Team Canada

Right now,there are two teams that are being seriously looked at as gold medal contenders, one is Team Canada, and the other is Team Russia. Both have loaded their roster with a ton of talent. A match between these two teams would be a toss up.

In 2006, Team Canada had it’s most embarrassing showing in history. They finished seventh in the world despite having some of the world’s best players on their team. The 2006 team suffered from a lack of chemistry and wasn’t able to produce the amount that they should have.

This is a mistake that they made sure to avoid when they picked the 2010 team. Steve Yzerman has said that he is not looking for the players with the best stats, he’s looking for players that will work well together. In fact, some of the players that were on the team in 2006 are not on the team in 2010. Most notably, Marty St. Louis and Shane Doan both missed the cut.

Although they have made changes offensively, their goaltending isn’t going to change at all. They will be able to throw Martin Brodeur or Roberto Luongo in goal. Both would be able to handle the Olympic level of play.

With that said, these Olympics are going to be about redemption for the Canadians. They will be looking to prove that 2006 was a fluke, and when better to do that than in front of their own crowd? The determination that this team is unmatched by any team in the NHL.

SILVER MEDAL: Team Russia

The Russians have not won a gold medal since they were known as the Unified Team in 1992. That ended decades of domination. This year, they will be looking to reestablish their previous glory by taking the gold medal. Russia has established an intimidating roster that no team wants to face.

They’ve done that by getting some of the NHL’s elite talent to lead the team into Vancouver. Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, and most importantly, goalie Evengini Nabokov will all be crucial players for Russia. Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, and Datsyuk have the ability to overwhelm any offense they face and Nabokov has the ability to play well against any team.

However, the Russians have not made chemistry the focus. Instead, they took the players with the best stats. They also have KHL talent at the bottom lines, which doesn’t match the NHL talent that the Canadians will be putting on their lower lines.

Russia is going to be forced into relying on its top line to score most of its goals. That shouldn’t be a big problem until they play Canada. The Canadians are the only team that have the talent on the first line that matches the Russians, and the defenders will be less likely to fall for the moves that the Russian forwards will try to pull. This is going to make it very difficult for the Russians to score the necessary goals.

If the Russians want to win, they have to figure out a way to beat the Canadians on the first line and contend with them on the bottom lines. If they can’t do that, then they have no chance.

BRONZE MEDAL: Team Sweden

Team Sweden is the defending gold medalist and has a lot of players returning from 2006. There really haven’t been a lot of changes to this team. They are looking to get a similar result with a similar lineup. Unfortunately for Sweden, they didn’t have to face the quality of talent that Russia or Canada is going to be throwing at them in the last Olympics.

This is going to be the first time that they face the skill that Russia will be throwing at them as well as the chemistry that Canada have. These differences are going to make it a lot more difficult for the Swedes to win the gold.

With that said, they also have a lot of talent on their team. It’s never a bad thing when you pull the majority of your talent from the Western Conference Champions and then add the Sedin twins and a solid goalie. To me, they’re much better than Finland or the United States. However, I don’t think that they will match the Canadians or the Russians.

They also don’t look as good defensively. On defense, they have a lot of players that play really well for their NHL teams. However, they don’t have a lot of players that will be able to consistently handle the talent that Russia and Canada will throw at them. Eventually, that will be the undoing for the team.

And Team USA Finishes In….

One of the things that I get asked a lot is where Team USA will finish up. In 2006, they finished in a distant eighth place and this year is only going to be a little better. I’m predicting that they finish in fifth place behind Finland.

The reason is simple. Back in 2002, Team USA won the silver medal with a bunch of veterans on their team. However, they did not do a good job developing young talent to replace the veterans when they left. The US really suffered from that back in 2006, but they are not out of the water yet.

Their defense won’t be able to handle the scoring threats Russia or Canada will throw at them, and their offense isn’t going to be strong enough to penetrate the defense. With that said, Team USA does have a bright future. Their junior team actually defeated the Canadians to win the Junior tournament. Although this year doesn’t look good, Team USA’s future looks bright.

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