Winter Olympics Ice Hockey: Hosts hope to see off Russia with all-star attack

Ice Hockey / Editor / 08 February 2010 / Leave a comment

Sydney Crosby leads an impressive Canadian attack

Canada are seriously impressive up front, not so hot at the back, while Russia boast the best player in the world. These two head the market but could a dark horse cause an upset in Vancouver?

"Russia have arguably a better offensive roster than Canada... But the Czech Republic are the dark horses of the tournament."

Examining the offensive lineups for the 2010 Olympics, the best teams on paper are Canada, Russia and Sweden followed by Finland the Czech Republic and the United States. Also, Slovakia can't be entirely discounted.

Canada's forward contingent, headed by Sydney Crosby, Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Jarome Iginla is impressive. Their defensive players are less formidable but the goaltending duo of Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo may be unstoppable.

Russia arguably has a better offensive roster than Canada with the likes of Alexander Ovechkin (the best player in hockey today), Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Semin, Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin and several others. Like Canada, the defense isn't as strong as the offensive players although Sergei Gonchar can carry a team on his own. And Russia's goaltending is admirable with Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Bryzgalov and Semyon Varlamov who may be the best of the trio if he is healthy. Needless to say Russia's goaltending isn't their strongest point.

Sweden will put out a team very similar to the one that won the gold medal in the 2006 winter Olympics with the Sedin twins heading the team along with Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Backstrom on offense. Nicklas Lidstrom and Niclas Kromwall are arguably the best defensive tandem and Hernik Lundqvist in net should be tough to beat.

Of the other teams the United States and Finland have decent rosters although they are a cut below the other three both offensively and defensively. Where Finland and the U.S. may have an advantage, however, is in net. The United States' goaltending duo of Ryan Miller and Tim Thomas is arguably the best in the NHL right now. Buffalo was expected to do nothing in the 2009-2010 season but are among the league's best almost exclusively as a result of the exemplary play of Ryan Miller.

Team Finland has a decent offensive roster headed by Oli Jokinen and Mikko Koivu but like the U.S. their goaltending duo of Nicklas Backstrom and Mika Kiprusoff may be their biggest asset.

The Czech Republic is the dark horse of the tournament. Tomas Vokoun will be tough in goal as always but their offensive unit looks a bit old. It's unlikely that Patrik Elias will be able to play as he is currently on the injured reserve list in the NHL. Jaromir Jagr is the intriguing leader of the team. He left the NHL years ago to play exclusively in Prague and by all accounts is doing well. The team, unlike others, is made up of many non-NHL players. The one advantage of that is they will have more time to play together than the other countries. When the Czechs won the gold medal in 1998 it was a similar dynamic.

Slovakia's team is a bit below the others although Marion Gaborik is the leading scorer in the NHL today and Marion Hossa is a proven Olympic scorer. Their defense is also admirable but their goaltending tandem of Peter Budaj and Jaroslav Halak is likely not good enough to win.

Tags: Canada, Czech Republic, Ice hockey betting, NHL betting, Olympic Ice Hockey betting, Russia, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics betting