Posted:
#1
Great place to post these daily, like the new Thread, so here I will be posting the Men's and Women's games daily and my thoughts. So here we go, got Women's in a few hours, some preview before the games:
Tournament Format Change:
What is a nice way to be competitive, the preliminary-round games will have the top-ranked teams in Group A, and bottom-four will be in Group B, so what most likely will be Canada and USA will advance from Group A and therefore shall play the top two teams in Group B. The rankings are based on the 2012 IIHF World Rankings which, at that time, Canada was No. 1, but since then USA is on top while Finland and Switzerland are 3rd and 4th, respectively. However, Russia has moved on top of Switzerland to claim 4th. Your first two must watched games are:
Canada versus USA on 2/12 and Finland/Switzerland on 2/12 earlier.
Group B will feature Sweden and Russia while Germany and Japan are the other two. In regards to Russia, Alexei Yashin of all people is the general manager of the team whom led the 2013 World Championship team to a surprising Bronze Medal, allowing them a possible real claim to win the group and challenge in the playoffs.
With that said, no doubt I feel the Medals will be: USA, Canada, Russia
As for the game's themselves for Day 1, 2/7:
Finland +4.5 versus USA/u6.5
These two teams last played November, with a 3/1 Friendly win for Finland, but when it mattered in 2013 during the World Championships, USA claimed a 3/0 and 4/2 victory. Was two years prior that USA dominated 11/0 and 15/1, but different teams for both. Seems when competition matters, as odd as it sounds, USA grinds down, but the recent friendly matches were:
USA 3/2 Canada; USA 3/2 Canada; USA 8/1 Sweden; USA 1/3 Finland; USA 3/2 Canada
As for Finland, they played a three game set a month ago, with the results as follows:
Finland 4/0 Sweden; Finland 4/3 Russia; Finland 4/1 Germany
This is a USA team that can score when they want, but it is a Finland team that can play good defense, can see a 4/1 or 4/2 win for the USA. Next up:
Canada -9.5 over Switzerland
I really want to take over 10.5 as the odds at my book are horrible but others are great, but these two have not played since April of 2013, which was a 13/0 Canada win, and was two years prior that Canada won 12/0, but they face off in the first game in the Vancouver Olympics that saw Canada prevail 10/1. Needless to say matches are not there to define really alot of things. But Friendlies from Canada do show that outside of the two USA losses, they beat Finland 6/3; Sweden 4/3; Russia 9/1 within two months last year. As for Switzerland their friendlies were four matches this year with one late last year so technically they are fresher, those were in order of 2013 to yesterday even: 6/2 over Slovakia; 4/5 to Sweden; 1/2 to Austria; 4/1 over Germany; 5/1 over Sweden. I see them as basically just playing matches against not really good opponents and those they did, AKA Sweden, they got bounced, Canada can cover this spread, easily, would not surprise me to see another 10/1 final, but I want the handicap. So Final Plays are:
Finland +4.5
Finland/USA u6.5
Canada -9.5
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