It wasn’t supposed to go this way, but the men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament which orignally was supposed to feature a plethora of NHL superstars has now turned into a championship of the best players playing in Europe.
With both Team USA and Team Canada being surprisingly eliminated before the medal rounds, we enter the semifinals with two games that both can be considered as Scandinavia versus Eastern Europe.
Sadly for Habs fans, both Sean Farrell and Frederik Dichow were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Dichow ends the tournament with the highest save percentage of any goaltender thus far, albeit having only played the one game. Farrell meanwhile, certainly impressed spectators, especially with his five-point night in the opening game against the hosts from China.
Finland vs. Slovakia
How to watch
Puck drop: 11:10 PM EST / 8:10 PM PST
in Canada: CBC (English), TSN (English), RDS (French), Sportsnet (English)
In the United States: NBC
Live stream: CBC, NBC (Peacock), RDS Direct, Sportsnet NOW, TSN Direct
Of the goalies remaining in the tournament, Team Slovakia’s Patrik Rybár and Team Finland’s Harri Säteri have posted the most impressive stats. Finland enters the game as clear favourites to win over the Slovaks, but then again, so was Team USA in the quarter-finals.
Apart from Rybár, I advise you to keep an eye out for young starlets Simon Nemec (playing with jersey number 7) and Juraj Slavkovsky (#20). For the first time in what feels like a century, Slovakia have high-octane draft prospects to watch, and with the Canadiens having a top-five draft selection all but locked down, it’s not impossible that one of the two will be holding up a Habs jersey on July 7.
Slavkovsky leads the entire tournament in goals with five so far, including the opener against Team USA on Tuesday night. Seasoned players like former Leksands IF power duo Petar Cehlárik (#34) and Marian Hrivik (#27) will certainly also need to be playing at the top of their ability if the Slovaks want to continue their run toward the first Olympic Gold Medal Game in the history of the nation.
For the Finns, you should naturally focus your attention on Habs legend Joonas Nättinen (#28). He has three assists to his name throughout four played games. The two former NHL regulars and current grandfathers of the Finnish team, Valtteri Filppula (#51) and Leo Komarov (#71), who have combined for nearly 1600 NHL games throughout their careers, have so far been overshadowed by lesser knows talents like Sakari Manninen (#65) and Teemu Hartikainen (#70). The duo normally play for Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL and is currently leading the nation in points, with six for each of them
In the quarter-finals, we saw Team Finland knock out Team Switzerland with a score of 5-1.
ROC vs. Sweden
How to watch
Puck drop: 8:10 AM EST / 5:10 AM PST
in Canada: CBC (English), TSN (English), RDS (French), Sportsnet (English)
In the United States: NBC
Live stream: CBC, NBC (Peacock), RDS Direct, Sportsnet NOW, TSN Direct
Team ROC ended Dichow and Team Denmark’s fairytale run with a 3-1-win in the quarter-finals. A win here would propel them into a chance to defend their gold medal from Pyeongchang in 2018. Former New Jersey player and perennial KHL all-star Nikita Gusev (#97) leads the team in points with five, all of them being assists.
The lack of a dominant goal-scoring threat is one of the few possible clouds in Team ROC’s blue sky. Two players have scored more than just one goal through the four games played, with one of them being defenceman and (another) former Canadiens legend Nikita Nestorov (#89).
If Team Sweden wants to tame the Russian bear, they’ll need to find a way past goaltender Ivan Fedotov. A 2015 seventh-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Flyers, Fedotov has taken the roads less travelled to get to where he is today, belonging to KHL franchises from Ufa, Chelyabinsk, and Nizhnekamsk before getting his chance in juggernaut CSKA Moscow from the start of this current season. He is also a physically imposing monster who covers the entire net (and then some) at 6’8’’ and 203 lbs.
When Team Sweden narrowly beat Team Latvia in the opening game, few could imagine them knocking out Team Canada in the quarter-finals to advance to the medal rounds. Yet, thanks to an impressive effort by netminder Lars Johansson, Sweden kept the sheet clean and could pot the conclusive goal in an open net against Claude Julien’s European potpourri of a roster.
Unlike the other three semifinalists, Sweden has chosen to split the goaltending duties between two players; aforementioned Johansson and HK Sochi’s Magnus Hellberg. Interestingly, when Hellberg left SKA St. Petersburg for Sochi this summer, SKA brought in Johansson as his replacement. With the quarter-finals still fresh in mind, it would be surprising not to see HC Johan Garpenlöv continue with Lars Johansson in net against Team ROC as well.
Team Sweden is otherwise more a collective effort than a star-studded, high-powered kind of team. The standout player so far has been former Carolina Hurricane Lucas Wallmark (#23), or “The Great Wallmark of China” as he has been dubbed for his efforts in these Olympic games.
Wallmark should be well accustomed to Fedotov’s flaws, with them being teammates in everyday life. Currently, he is tied with Slavkovsky for the goal-scoring title of the tournament, sitting at five goals through his first four games.
You can join in on the action by making your picks for the teams that will advance through to the gold medal game at DraftKings.
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