2010 Olympics Early Look

22 Oct 2008 by Craig in 2010 Olympics

Hockey is a truly international game, and in 2010 the best of what the game has to offer will be on display. We took a look at Team Canada and now it is time to look at the other favorites. Unlike other sports there are a lot of countries that have extremely high end hockey talent. Different countries have different styles, Russia loves offense, Sweden preaches team defense and individual talent and the United States plays very physical. Canada will be the favorite heading into the games in there own country, but these other countries are not far behind.

Team USA - The American team has some great young talent and look like they might getting near the top of the hockey world again. They are not as deep as some of the other nations, but have some talent. With the right leadership and coaching this team could compete for gold at the 2010 Olympics. I think the USA executives will need to make a choice of which veterans they will take, guys like Weight, Tkachuk, Modano and Schneider won’t all make this team. Team USA does have good goalies with Ryan Miller and Rick Dipietro. The third goalie spot will be up for grabs with guys like Conklin and T. Thomas.

Line 1        Parise        Gomez    Drury
Line 2        Malone    Umberger    Kane
Line 2        Cole        Modano    Kessel
Line 4        Dubinsky    Rolston    D. Brown

Those are a solid 4 lines, with a good mix a youth and experience. There will some other guys in the mix, Patrik O’Sullivan, Peter Mueller, TJ Oshie and Drew Stafford will have a real chance of making this team.

D 1        Rafalski    Schneider
D 2        Orpik        Suter
D 3        Hainsey    Preissing

Obviously This squad is lead by the number 1 pair and have some good pieces. Joe Corvo and Jack Johnson will also be in the mix for defenseman jobs. I like this team there is a good mix and if they play hard, they can have a real chance to medal. They don’t have as much high end talent as some other nations, but they have some young and up coming stars who could earn there way on to this team.

Team Sweden - Defending Olympic champions and extremely talented. Recently Swedish players have gotten a lot of press, when they led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup. When you look at the European teams you need to realize that there will be some talent that is not in the NHL in there locker rooms. In my opinion Sweden is right up there with Canada for the most talented all around team.  Obviously the starting goaltender will be Rangers all star Henrik Lundqvist, and he is one of the best goalies in the world. There is a solid mix a veterans and young stars, a lot of which will be returning from there 2006 gold.

Line 1        Huselius    Zetterberg    Alfredsson
Line 2        D.Sedin    H.Sedin    Franzen
Line 3        Naslund    Pahlsson    Berglund
Line 4        Bruunstrom    Backstrom    Holmstrom

D 1        Lidstrom    N.Kronwall
D 2        Ohlund    Edler
D 3        Havelid    Wallin

You can see there is a lot of Red Wings on this team, and they will take a leadership role. The biggest change is that there in no Sundin or Forsberg and who knows they might be around next year. This looks like a good all around team, they will compete for the gold medal next year. They have great leadership, good young talent and excellent goaltending, all the tools to compete for gold in 2010.

Team Russia - High offense and exciting hockey is the brand of hockey the Russians like to play. This team will sport a lot of players from the Russian leagues, that I am not overly familiar with. Its hard to pick a Russian team because I am not sure which veterans will play, or what Russian league players will be involved. All that being said some of the biggest stars in the NHL are Russian and there team will compete in a short tournament. I think Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov will start in net and need to play well. The questions will surround which players are going to play, guys like Fedorov and Kovalev are getting older and may not be selected.

Line 1        Semin        Datsyuk    Ovechkin
Line 2        Kovalchuk    Malkin    Kovalev
Line 3        Kulemin    Filatov    Frolov

D 1        A Markov    Volchenkov
D 2        Grebishkov    Tyutin

Obviously there are some great offensive players on this team and they will score goals. The rest of this team will be filled with Russian league guys, some of which have enough talent to play in the NHL. The Russian national team is always hard to predict and I assure you they will not be the favorites in Canada. This team, if it looks this way will be very fun to watch. To compete for a gold medal next year the Russian executives will need to find players for depth for penalty killing, defense and goaltending.

Obviously it is way to early to be looking at this stuff, but it is fun never the less. I refuse to make any predictions at this time, ask me in a year. Team Canada and Team Sweden look like the favorites at this time, but a lot can change in a year. Hockey is a very international game and this tournament should be fun to watch. This might be the last time National Hockey League players play in the Olympics and will be a must watch during the games. Other teams to look out for will be Finland, Czech Republic and Switzerland and will create a very deep field for the tournament. This tournament will be exciting to witness and will possibly make history in the process.