Olympic Hockey Group Breakdown
By Judd Hall
While there are 15 different sports for us to wager on in the 2010 Winter Olympics, most of us will be fixated on what happens in men’s ice hockey. I love watching curling and the wife forces me to watch figure skating (despite what she might tell you), but hockey is the best thing to wager on in February.
When you think about it we’re getting some benefits for the frozen pond action. One thing is most of these teams are stocked by players that are currently on NHL rosters. Another thing is that they’ll be playing at the Canucks’ home arena, General Motors Place…sorry, Canada Hockey Place. That gives the NHL pros an advantage of playing on the smaller surface that the Olympics and other professional leagues usually use (200 feet by 98 feet in international play).
Something else that has changed this time around for hockey is the format of the tournament as a whole. In Torino, there were just two groups of six teams each. The Top 4 teams from both sets would go on to play in the medal rounds. This year, we have three groups of four clubs in a round-robin format. And all 12 teams will advance to the medal round, with the Top 4 countries will get a free pass to the quarterfinals.
So now that we have a little info on how this year’s setup works, let’s take a quick look at each of the groups. All of our odds are coming courtesy of Bodog.
Group A
I could say that Switzerland (40/1) and Norway (300/1) have an outside shot at winning this group, but I could also tell you the Washington Generals would beat the Harlem Globetrotters some day. This group is all about the Canadians and Americans.
Canada is the odds on favorite to not only win this group (1/4), but to win the gold medal (11/10). Who can blame the oddsmakers for listing the Canadiens as the favorites since they’re on their home turf? Besides they have the best collection of talent of any team in the tourney. They can put out Sidney Crosby, Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Patrick Marleau, Rick Nash, Eric Staal and Joe Thornton into any configuration of a front line. Then you have Martin Brodeur, Marc-Andre Fleury and Roberto Luongo. This team could not only be a safe puck line play during group play, but also a serious ‘over’ contender.
The United State is fielding a solid unit, if only a bit on the young side with just five players out of the 23-man roster that is at least 30 years old. There are proven scorers in Phil Kessel, Patrick Kane and Zach Parise. They also have quality blue liners in Brian Rafalski and Brooks Orpik, which could help out given the fact you can get a little more touchy-feely than you can in the NHL. Team USA also has the luxury of having a Vezina Trophy winner as a backup goalie in Tim Thomas. Starting for the Yanks will be Ryan Miller, who could be having a trophy winning year for the Sabres. If you’re looking for a value play, the United State at 5/2 gives you a decent return on investment to win Group A.
Group B
The only other team in the Olympics that could scare teams like the Canadians is Russia, which the oddsmakers have made them 10/29 to win this group and 21/10 to win its first gold medal since 1992. Look no further than the fact the Russians will put Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk on their front line with Montreal’s Andrei Markov and Pittsburgh’s Sergei Gonchar on the blue line. The Ruskies are plenty strong on the attack with Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Semin sitting on the bench. What could prove problematic is their defense, which is nowhere near as strong as their top line. That shoddy defense could put a little more emphasis on Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Bryzgalov and Semyon Varlamov being on target between the pipes.
While Slovakia (16/1) could be a darkhorse to make noise in Vancouver and Latvia (300/1) will just be happy to be there, the Czech Republic is the best suited squad to stand up to Russia. The Czechs are a reasonable wager at 9/4 to win the group, thanks to some top shelf attackers. Martin Havlat, Patrik Elias and Jaromir Jagr (who has 22 goals in 49 games for Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League) make up the Republic’s front line. The Czechs have one of the more offensive defenseman in the tournament with Tomas Kaberle from the Maple Leafs, who has 40 assists to his credit.
Group C
Germany (50/1) and Belarus (150/1) will have some good moments in this group, but they’re not going to make it past third and fourth place respectively. Group C belongs to Sweden (1/2) and Finland (7/5).
The Swedes are the defending Olympic champions and are getting great value at 11/2 to win it all once again. What could be problematic in my view is that they have a lot of Blue Jackets (Fredrik Modin, Samuel Pahlsson) and Red Wings (Niklas Kronwall, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg) on their roster. Aside from Zetterberg and Lidstrom, the other players from the Central Division have underachieved all season long. Luckily for Sweden, they have Henrik Lundqvist in goal, who has made a career of covering up the horrid play of the New York Rangers.
Finland won the silver medal in the last Olympics, and are looking to improve on that mark. They’ll be doing it with Mikko Koivu and Saku Koivu and Jarkko and Tuomo Ruutu leading the offense with Teemu Selanne peppered in there for good measure. You have a pair of good goaltenders on hand as well with Niklas Backstrom and Miikka Kiprusoff that should pick up any slack. While the odds aren’t a bettor’s dream at 7/5, they do offer better value to claim the top spot in the group.
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