Winter Olympics 2010 Men’s Olympic Hockey Tournament Betting Preview
Hockey betting hits a fever pitch this week with the beginning of the much-anticipated men’s tournament at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Canada heads into the 12-team tourney as the favorite, both in Group A and across the board. With the Games taking place on home soil, the Canadians haven’t felt this much pressure since taking on the Soviet Union in the 1972 Summit Series.
Canada wants to make amends for its disappointing seventh-place finish in 2006 in Turin, when it fell to Switzerland in group play after coming into the tourney as the defending Olympic champions. The Canadians had difficulty scoring in Turin, getting shut out by both the Swiss and the Russians.
It’s unclear if general manager Steve Yzerman has rectified the problem with this year’s version of Canada’s roster. Three of the NHL’s top five goal scorers – Sidney Crosby, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Marleau – are in Vancouver, but will it be enough? If the Canadians can’t put the puck in the net, bettors will be left wondering why the likes of Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, and Vincent Lecavalier were left off the team.
That said, Canada has easily the deepest forward unit, the most talented defensive corps, and the most experienced goaltending at the Olympics, where they’re joined in Group A by the United States, Switzerland, and Norway. If the Canadians solve their scoring woes, they should find themselves in the gold medal game on February 28.
Like Canada, the U.S. should be helped by the NHL-sized ice surface in Vancouver, but it won’t be enough to put them over the top. The good news is the tournament is a short one, so the Americans need only to get hot at the right time. Team USA certainly has the right man in nets to do the trick: Ryan Miller has been arguably the NHL’s best goaltender this season.
Group B is headlined by 2009 World Champion Russia, which hasn’t had this much firepower at its disposal since the Cold War. A quick look at the forwards tells bettors all they need to know about Russia’s chances: Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, and Alex Semin highlight the list.
The Russians also have excellent goaltending with Ilya Bryzgalov and Evgeni Nabokov between the pipes, and they’ll need it with the defense lacking in, well, defensive ability. Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar are talented, but Anton Volchenkov is the only true shutdown defenseman on the roster. That could spell trouble if Russia faces a team like Canada or Sweden later on in the tournament. 
Politics might play a role – and not in a good way – for the Russians, who chose to include nine players from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) at the expense of some proven NHLers. It might have the guns to overcome the decision, but Russia is certainly skating on thin ice. Considering they haven’t won the gold since 1992 – or a true best-on-best hockey tournament since 1981 – the Russians might be left holding the bag in Vancouver.
The Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Latvia round out Group B, and only the Czechs and Slovaks have a realistic chance of making noise at the Games. Winners of the gold in 1998 in Nagano and bronze four years ago, the Czech Republic has the talent to get back the podium.
To do that, the Czechs need to get off a good start in group play against the Slovaks, who are priced as 1-goal underdogs (-125) on the puckline for their showdown on Wednesday at Canada Hockey Place. We’d handicap Slovakia to be a sharp play all tournament long, but it could be in trouble with Marian Hossa and Marian Gaborik both banged up.
Reigning Olympic champion Sweden figures to be favored in all three of its games in Group C, and it should be with rival Finland, Germany, and Belarus waiting in the wings. The Swedes aren’t stacked like they were in ’06, but they’re still capable of winning the gold behind the Sedin brothers.
The Finns might have something to say about Sweden’s expected supremacy in Group C, even if they fell to the Swedes in the gold medal game in Turin. Finland has an aging team with Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne still on the roster, but it should benefit from the small ice: The Finns were runner-up to Canada in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey – the last best-on-best tourney played on an NHL ice surface.
One reply on “Men’s Olympic Hockey Gambling Preview”
While I do think this is Canada’s tournament to win or lose, be careful of the Czech Republic in group B as I see them coming out of group C after a huge upset over Russia.