I’ve been writing a lot about the Olympics for the past few weeks. I’ve written articles on this website and other websites which have compared teams, talked about strengths and weaknesses, and even given medal predictions.

However, I haven’t really focused on the players. After all, those are the people that will be representing their countries. We’ve all heard about the star players like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, or the Sedin twins. However, when these players play against each other, everything is even. Every single one of those players is good enough to be productive in the Olympics. So, when they’re on the ice together, nobody has an advantage.

The team that wins will need to have depth, chemistry, solid goaltending, and veteran leadership. To me, the deciding factors are going to be chemistry and depth, since every team expected to finish in the top five has solid goaltending and veteran leadership. It’s likely that the gold medal will be won by players on the lower lines. These players are who you’ll have to watch for.

However, that’s only a little bit of how I chose this list. If I want to make a list about the players you need to watch in the Olympics, I have to consider the “WOW” factor. After all, that is why people enjoy watching hockey.

#5) Jonathon Toews – F – Team Canada

Jonathon Toews is a big star back in Chicago. He has been having a great year with the Blackhawks, tallying the fourth most points on the team. His role on Team Canada isn’t going to be as big as Chicago, but it will be just as important.

Toews is one of the big depth players on Team Canada. His line is going to be playing against the lower lines of other countries. This depth is the thing that tips the gold medal scale in favor of the Canadians. He won’t be seeing as much time on the ice as Crosby, Thornton or any of those players, but when he is on the ice, he will have more talent than anybody the other team has on the ice.

When Canada plays Russia or Sweden in the medal round, he will have to play extremely well. Again, that’s because the top lines are a virtual deadlock. The bottom lines are the only place that Canada has a clear advantage over every other team in the tournament.

#4) Nicklas Lidstrom – D – Team Sweden

Nick Lidstrom has been around the game for a while. His veteran leadership on Team Sweden is going to be crucial for the team’s gold medal hopes. Not only that, but he’s also one of the most talented defenders that Sweden can put on the ice.

He’s also the player that Sweden will be using to fend off some of the weapons that Russia or Canada will bring against them in the medal round. Lidstrom is going to be the first line of defense against players like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Joe Thornton or Ilya Kovalchuk. His role on Team Sweden is going to be crucial, because they will be in a lot of trouble if he fails.

#3) Pavel Datsyuk – F – Team Russia

This is where the “WOW” factor that I mentioned earlier comes in. Pavel Datsyuk is widely known around the NHL as a “dangler”. He’s very good at pulling moves, and very creative when he does it. However, he doesn’t usually have to face a bunch of the NHL’s best defenders at the same time.

The fact that Datsyuk is going to face the world’s best defenders means that he’ll just have to be more creative with his moves. He’s always a threat to do something you’ll never see coming. That’s something that the defenders know and respect.

However, Datsyuk has made a habit of making big dekes at crucial points in the game. In fact, the more important the situation, the more likely he is to pull a deke. He has the best chance of pulling a move that will be on the highlight reel for the next few decades.

#2) Teemu Selanne – F – Team Finland

If Finland wants to medal, they have to rely on three things. The first is chemistry, which is the most important thing they will need to have. The second is goaltending, which also looks pretty solid. The third thing is veteran leadership, which is where Selanne comes into play.

How well Selanne plays is going to rub off on the rest of the team. He’s a person that the younger players can look up to, and if he elevates his game it’s going to help the other players decide to elevate theirs. Selanne has to come up with timely goals and make great plays to help inspire his teammates.

#1) Ryan Miller – G – Team USA

Ryan Miller has already established himself as one of the best goalies in the NHL. He’s second in the NHL in both save percentage (93.0%) and goals against average (2.16). However, he has to be even stronger in the Olympics.

For most of the season, the Buffalo Sabres have run a defensive first system. Whenever they were in the attacking zone, they would have three players on or near the point. This made it virtually impossible to get around their defense. This also made Miller’s job easier because he didn’t see as many scoring opportunities against him. Although they have moved away from that strategy (or just stopped executing it as well), Miller has still been solid.

Like the Sabres, Team USA also has some great defenders on the team. However, these defenders will be no match for the weapons that Canada, Russia, or Sweden will throw at them. If Team USA wants to go anywhere, Miller has to be more than solid, he has to be god-like.

We’ve already seen that in the first two games that Team USA has played. They made some crucial mistakes against Switzerland that Miller had to bail them out on and they also made mistakes against Norway which Miller also had to bail them out on. He’s going to have to be even stronger when he plays against teams that have the talent to capitalize on these mistakes. Of course, Team USA could just not make mistakes, but the way they look this year, I don’t think that’s likely.

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