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Ricky Rothstein
2010 Winter Olympic Hockey Betting: Who Will Win Gold?
As the world descends onto Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, all eyes in the sporting world are focusing on the marquee event — men’s ice hockey.
Since allowing NHL players to participate in the 1998 Nagano games, Olympic ice hockey has truly become a spectacle. The world’s greatest players are divvied up by nationality, thrown together for a two week period and told to get out there and win gold for their country. Intense, huh?
Here, now, is a quick rundown of the Olympic hockey betting currently available at the Sports Interaction online sportsbook:
The odds-on favourites despite finishing a lowly 7th overall in 2006, Team Canada heads into Vancouver as the heavy favourites to win gold. No real surprise why — the games are being played on home soil and the team boasts an exciting young crop of players making their Olympic debuts. At the forefront is Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby, a former league MVP and captain of the reigning Stanley Cup champs. Others making their debuts are 20-year-old Los Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty and Philadelphia Flyers star Mike Richards. This is a new-look Team Canada, one that has tons of talent throughout the team but will need its younger stars to step up and assume leadership responsibilities.
When you consider the sheer volume of talent up front for the Russians, it’s hard to imagine anyone slowing them down. The reigning league MVP (Alex Ovechkin) and playoff MVP (Evgeni Malkin) are both there, as are the likes of sniper Ilyka Kovalchuk, two-way centre Pavel Datsyuk and skillful winger Alexander Semin. They’ve also got outstanding goaltending in either Evgeni Nabokov or Ilya Bryzgalov, but they do have a weakness on defence, where top-end blueliners like Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar highlight an otherwise ordinary collection of journeymen. If all goes according to plan, though, the Russians should be heavy gold medal contenders, right up there with Canada.
The defending gold medalists have a tall order ahead of them in Vancouver, thanks largely to a slew of injuries and retirements. Gone from the team are the likes of Mats Sundin, Kenny Jonsson and PJ Axelsson; decorated international Peter Forsberg is a question mark due to injury while the likes of Fredrik Modin, Niklas Kronwall, Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom have all been banged up throughout this NHL regular season. Still, there are plenty of reasons to like Team Sweden. Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Nicklas Backstrom and Loui Eriksson all sit in the top-30 in league scoring while veteran leaders like Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg have a wealth of international experience.
The rest of the field:
- U S A 11.00
- Czech Republic 15.00
- Finland 23.00
- Slovakia 29.00
- Switzerland 151.00
- Germany 501.00
- Belarus 1001.00
- Latvia 1001.00
- Norway 1001.00
If you want to check out this brand of Olympic betting and more, head to Sports Interaction’s online sportsbook today!