Olympic Hockey Betting: Favourites After the Preliminary Round
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Ricky Rothstein
The preliminary round of the men’s ice hockey tournament at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver is done, and some very interesting results were had.
The tournament favourite, Canada, disappointed in group play (including a shootout victory over underdog Switzerland and a 5-3 loss to the United States) and as a result, will now have to play a qualifying game just to get into the quarterfinals. The other teams involved in the playoff? Switzerland, Belarus, Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia and Norway. Meanwhile, tournament powers like Russia, Finland, Sweden and the USA have already qualified for the quarterfinals.
Let’s take a look at the hockey betting lines for the remainder of the tournament (read: outright champion/gold medal winning squad), currently available in the Sports Interaction online sportsbook.
They’re no longer the heavy favourite they were at the start of the tournament, but the Canadians are still regarded as the most likely team to take home Olympic gold. The big news from Team Canada moving forward is that they’ve switched things up in goal — New Jersey Devils netminder Marty Brodeur is out and Vancouver Canucks stopper Roberto Luongo is in. Luongo played Canada’s opener against Norway (an 8-0 thrashing) and made 15 saves for an easy shutout.
In the qualifying round, Canada will take on Germany, a team that’s really struggled to score goals this tournament. It took them over 120 minutes of action before they scored a goal (eventually put in three in a 5-3 loss to Belarus) and have yet to win a game.
After a stunning 2-1 shootout loss to Slovakia in their second game, the Russians knew changes had to be made if they wanted to win the group. And that’s exactly what they did.
Prior to Sunday’s group-clinching 4-2 win over the Czech Republic, Russian coach Slava Bykov made big changes to his lineup. He loaded up his top line, putting centre Evgeni Malkin between Washington Capitals wingers Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin. The move was a masterstroke — Malkin had two goals and an assist, Ovechkin two assists and Semin a single helper. Bykov also went back to San Jose Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabokov as his starter, an indication Nabokov will be the No. 1 for the remainder of the tournament. Nabby responded in style, stopping 23 of 25 shots against the Czechs and looked extremely sharp in doing so.
There are two words that sum up why Team USA is now amongst the favourites to capture the gold medal.
Ryan. Miller.
Miller’s epic 42-save performance against Canada on Sunday was easily the best individual performance of the men’s ice hockey thus far. The win was the first by the Americans against a Canadian team in Olympic competition since the 1960 Games at Squaw Valley and the first ever against the full national team — and Miller was THE reason it happened.
Granted, the performances by veterans like Brian Rafalski (two goals, one assist) and Chris Drury (one goal, numerous blocked shots) were inspired as well, but this team is all about the Miller Time. If he can keep this up, Team USA could be golden come Sunday.
If you’d like to check more more Olympic hockey betting or other sports betting options, head on over to the Sports Interaction online sportsbook today!