Americans Road Becomes Clearer
(AFP Photo / Jonathan Nackstrand)
By Andrew Imber
Just when you think you’re getting a grip on things at the Men’s Olympic Hockey Tournament, a few more curveballs get tossed into the mix.
The United States took care of their business on Sunday with a solid victory over Slovenia. That’s pretty much where the predictably stopped, though. Slovakia shockingly forced a shootout against the host Russians, and Canada needed overtime against Finland. This brought on one of the few roads not expected heading into play on Sunday and it is a mixed bag for the USA.
Canada needing overtime to beat Finland granted the number one seed to Sweden. The Swedes were the only team to win all three of their games in regulation time during round robin play. However, a combination of injuries, close games, and non-power opponents makes them anything but the obvious favorites as we reach the elimination stage.
While it looked like Team USA was locked into the three seed, that overtime result pushed them up to the number two spot. Because of this, the United States will play the winner of the Slovakia/Czech Republic game, instead of the winner of the Switzerland/Latvia game. Despite the fire power of the Czechs, this has to be looked at as a positive for The Stars and Stripes, as Switzerland gave up a total of one goal during round robin play (Jonas Hiller has still not allowed a goal in his tournament).
However, moving up into the two spot comes with a consequence. If Canada or Finland had won in regulation time, the United States would have been the three seed, and sent to the bottom of the bracket with banged up Sweden as their biggest threat. Looking at it, the USA would have needed to beat (most likely) Switzerland, Sweden and whoever survived the war of attrition amongst Canada, Finland and Russia in the upper half of the bracket. Instead of this, a possible rematch with Canada now looms in the Semis. If the US could exact revenge, they would still have to beat one of Sweden, Russia or Finland to win it all. Ultimately, although they may have earned a slightly easier Quarters battle, they now have a much more difficult road to Gold.
As they say, you have to beat the best to be the best. Barring any crazy upsets along the way, the United States will have to do just that if they want to be the ones celebrating on Sunday.
