Sochi 2014 Olympic Men's Hockey Review

First off I'd like to apologize for not getting this done sooner. I didn't get to see many games as I was on vacation during most of the tournament (luckily the place I went to had CBC, so Canada's playoff games were viewable). So there won't be much for write-ups on games. Anyway here the is the Olympic recap post.

Note: Most information from the IIHF website.

Group A

Team	Wins	OT/SOW	OT/SOL	Losses	Points	Goal Diff.
USA	2	1	0	0	8	+11
Russia	1	1	1	0	6	+3
Slovenia	1	0	0	2	3	-5
Slovakia	0	0	1	2	1	-9

Russia 5 - Slovenia 2
Slovakia 1 - USA 7

Slovakia 1 - Slovenia 3
USA 3 - Russia 2 (SOshie'd)

Russia 1 - Slovakia 0 (SO)
Slovenia 1 - USA 5

Group B

Team	Wins	OT/SOW	OT/SOL	Losses	Points	Goal Diff.
Canada	2	1	0	0	8	+9
Finland	2	0	1	0	7	+8
Austria	1	0	0	2	3	-8
Norway	0	0	0	3	0	-9

Finland 8 - Austria 4
Canada 3 - Norway 1

Canada 6 - Austria 0
Norway 1 - Finland 6

Austria 3 - Norway 1
Finland 1 - Canada 2 (OT)

Group C

Team	Wins	OT/SOW	OT/SOL	Losses	Points	Goal Diff.
Sweden	3	0	0	0	9	+5
Switzerland	2	0	0	1	6	+1
Czech Republic	1	0	0	2	3	-1
Latvia	0	0	0	3	0	-5

Czech Republic 2 - Sweden 4
Latvia 0 - Switzerland 1

Czech Republic 4 - Latvia 2
Sweden 1 - Switzerland 0

Switzerland 1 - Czech Republic 0
Sweden 5 - Latvia 3

Qualification Round

Slovenia 4
Austria 0

Russia 4
Norway 0

Switzerland 1
Latvia 3

Czech Republic 5
Slovakia 3

Quarter Finals

Sweden 5
Slovenia 0

Finland 3
Russia 1

Canada 2
Latvia 1

USA 5
Czech Republic 2

Semi-Finals

Sweden 2
Finland 1

Canada 1
USA 0

Bronze Medal Game

USA 0
Finland 5

Without having watched this game and going by the score line, it's probably safe to say that the US wasn't up for this match after an emotional 1-0 loss to Canada. Patrick Kane even took a page out of fellow American Max Pacioretty and failed to convert on two penalty shots. With this bronze medal, Finland keeps their Olympic medal run going, having collected one silver and two bronze medals since 2006.

Gold Medal Game

Sweden 0
Canada 3

As evident by their semi-final win against the US, Canada came to play in this tournament. They basically dominated from puck drop, but needed a little bit of luck to open the scoring, as Jonathan Toews redirected a pass past Henrik Lundqvist. Crosby would as a breakway goal and Chris Kunitz (of all players) sniped another one to make the final 3-0. Carey Price turned away 24 shots in the shutout win.

Final Olympic Ranking

1 (Gold) - Canada
2 (Silver) - Sweden
3 (Bronze) - Finland
4 - USA
5 - Russia
6 - Czech Republic
7 - Slovenia
8 - Latvia
9 - Switzerland
10 - Austria
11 - Slovakia
12 - Norway
-------------------------------- (You think this is done? No way, we turn this ranking up to 33)
13 - Kazakhstan
14 - Belarus
15 - Germany
16 - Italy
17 - France
18 - Denmark
19 - Great Britain
20 - Netherlands
21 - Ukraine
22 - Hungary
23 - Poland
24 - South Korea
25 - Japan
26 - Lithuania
27 - Spain
28 - Romania
29 - Estonia
30 - Croatia
31 - Mexico
32 - Serbia
33 - Israel

Olympic Thoughts

• CA-NA-DA! CA-NA-DA!
• During the playoffs, Canada was a team on a mission. It seemed rare when the puck entered their defensive zone and stayed there for a good amount of time.
• For a team that needed to qualify, the 7th place finish by Slovenia will surely help their development.
• Hard to believe that Latvia (another team that needed to qualify) was the only team to score on Canada in the playoff round. It was a good goal too, as Darzins scored on a breakaway.
• For teams that I had as darkhorses, Switzerland and Slovakia will no doubt want to forget this tournament.
• Seriously, I want to roll up a newspaper and whack Switzerland and Slovakia for being bad teams (not really, they aren't actually bad, but this was a disappointing tournament for both teams).
• I get the outrage Islanders GM Gareth Snow portrayed when his star player (Tavares) suffered an injury. I just hope he says the same thing if this happens again when the World Cup of Hockey comes back.
• Have to feel for Nicklas Backstrom. First his grandma doubts him, and then in the hours leading up to the biggest game of his career (to date), he is pulled because he failed a drug test.
• Finland's bronze medal win against the US could be payback for the Americans beating the Fins for bronze in the last World Championship.
• Something has to give for Russia. This is the second Olympics were they fail to make it past the quarter finals. Going back, their last non-World Championship medal was a bronze in Salt Lake (2002).
• Russia's problem might have to do with coaching. The selection of their team was sort of questionable (ok, every team has questionable selections, I mean in a more-than-usual sense) and since Bilyaletdinov took over, Russia has finished 4th and 6th in World Championships, which is kind of sub-par for their standards (Bilyaletdinov also coached Russia in their 6th place finish in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey).
• Probably a good idea for Czech coach Hadamczik to resign. He left quite a few deserving players off the roster and made even more questionable in-game decisions. He probably deserved the sixth place finish after stealing Petr Nedved from Canada.  
• Speaking of Nedved, it's cool that the 42-year old got the chance to play for his home country. His only other Olympic experience was in 1994, were he played for Canada.
• Probably the best moment of these Olympics was the Russia-USA shootout. Oshie helped the Americans come out ahead of Russia and the Datsyuk-Kovalchuk duo.