Olympic Rosters and Power Rankings

With Vancouver just around the corner, Olympic teams have already published their rosters, and it’s time to evaluate where each country stacks up – and who has the best chance of taking home the gold.

Olympic Power Rankings

#1 Team Canada

Canada is easily the hands-down favorite for the gold in 2010, partly because of the sheer depth of their lineup, and their added home-ice advantage.  In goal, they have three established NHL starters (two are Cup winners), and their forwards are arguably among the very best in the world. Crosby, Nash, Heatly, Iginla, Thornton and Staal are just some of the dangerous offensive talent that Team Canada has in their arsenal.  There are some confusing snubs (Why take Seabrook and Doughty over Bouwmeester or Phaneuf?), but otherwise, there are few holes in this lineup – and by all appearances, they look to be headed for gold in Vancouver.

Turino finish: 7th

Roster:

• Goaltenders
• Martin Brodeur
• Roberto Luongo
• Marc-Andre Fleury
• 
  
• Defense
• Scott Niedermayer
• Chris Pronger
• Shea Weber
• Drew Doughty
• Duncan Keith
• Dan Boyle
• Brent Seabrook
• 
  
• Forwards
• Sidney Crosby
• Rick Nash
• Jarome Iginla
• Mike Richards
• Joe Thornton
• Patrick Marleau
• Ryan Getzlaf
• Brenden Morrow
• Corey Perry
• Dany Heatley
• Eric Staal
• Patrice Bergeron
• Jonathan Toews

Notable Snubs:

Martin St.Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Jeff Carter, Jay Bouwmeester, Shane Doan, Mike Green, Dion Phaneuf, John Tavares

#2 Team Russia

The Russians are poised to make a serious run in Vancouver, and can legitimately be considered a gold medal threat based on the high-profile offensive talent they have on their roster. Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, and Illya Kovalchuk are scary enough alone – and with Gonchar, Volchenkov and Andrei Markov adding considerable stability to the blueline, it’s easy to see why Russia could make a serious push for gold this year. Nabokov will likely nab the starting job for Team Russia, but Ilya Bryzgalov has seriously improved his game this season, and will bring the Russians more security between the pipes.

Turino finish: 4th

Roster:

Goaltenders
Ilya Bryzgalov
Semyon Varlamov
Evgeny Nabokov

Defense

• Anton Volchenkov
• Sergei Gonchar
• Denis Grebeshkov
• Dmitry Kalinin
• Konstantin Korneyev
• Andrei Markov
• Ilya Nikulin
• Fyodor Tyutin

Forwards

• Maxim Afinogenov
• Pavel Datsyuk
• Danis Zaripov
• Sergei Zinovyev
• Ilya Kovalchuk
• Viktor Kozlov
• Evgeni Malkin
• Alexei Morozov
• Alexander Ovechkin
• Alexander Radulov
• Alexander Semin
• Sergei Fedorov

Notable snubs:

Alexei Kovalev, Nikolai Khabibulin, Nikita Filatov, Nikolai Zherdev, Alexei Yashin

#3 Team Sweden

The Swedes are defending the gold medal they took in Turino, and they’ll likely medal again in Vancouver. They have world-class goaltending in Henrik Lundqvist, and leading Team Sweden on the blueline will be veteran defenseman Niklas Lidstrom. Sweden’s offense isn’t as deadly as Russia or Canada, but it’s not shabby either – The Sedins, Alfredsson, Eriksson, Zetterberg, and Samuel Pahlsson are some of the standouts for the 2010 squad. The oft-injured Peter Forsberg made the Swedish roster for Vancouver, and he’ll be an interesting player to watch in the early round. He could thrive under the bigger ice surface, or he could fizzle and look the the rusty, ex-NHLer he currently is.

Turino finish: 1st

Roster:

Goalkeepers:

• Jonas Gustavsson
• Stefan Liv
• Henrik Lundqvist

Defenders:

• Tobias Enstrom
• Magnus Johansson
• Niklas Kronwall
• Nicklas Lidstrom
• Douglas Murray
• Johnny Oduya
• Henrik Tallinder
• Mattias Ohlund

Forwards:

• Daniel Alfredsson
• Nicklas Backstrom
• Loui Eriksson
• Peter Forsberg
• Tomas Holmstrom
• Patric Hornqvist
• Fredrik Modin
• Samuel Paahlsson
• Daniel Sedin
• Henrik Sedin
• Mattias Weinhandl
• Henrik Zetterberg

Notable snubs: Johan Franzen, Mikael Samuelsson

#4 Team USA

Don’t be mistaken – Team USA has a serious chance to medal in Vancouver. They selected a young team that has ‘upset’ written all over them, but they face an uphill battle from the get-go to even get to the podium. The US has a decent goaltending core (Miller, Thomas), and their fowards have some decent names (Kane, Parise Pavelski, Kessel, Backes), but the true strength of the Americans will be in their quick, puck-moving defensemen. First-round draft pick Erik Johnson joins Jack Johnson and Brian Rafalski on the blueline – so expect the US powerplay and breakout game to be extremely potent. Overall, the Americans could make some noise in the tournament, but they’ll need a few upsets to get their hands on a medal.  (Also, how T.J Oshie could get left off this team is completely beyond me)

Turino finish: 8th

Roster:

Goaltenders

• Tim Thomas
• Ryan Miller
• Jonathan Quick

Defense

• Brian Rafalski
• Ryan Suter
• Paul Martin
• Mike Komisarek
• Erik Johnson
• Brooks Orpik
• Jack Johnson

Forwards

• Zach Parise
• Chris Drury
• Dustin Brown
• Jamie Langenbrunner
• Paul Stastny
• David Backes
• Patrick Kane
• Phil Kessel
• Ryan Kesler
• Bobby Ryan
• Joe Pavelski
• Ryan Malone
• Ryan Callahan

Notable snubs: T.J Oshie, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, David Booth

#5 Team Slovakia

The Slovaks could also surprise a few teams in the tournament this year – they’re sitting on some serious offensive talent, and Team Slovakia can run and gun with the best in Vancouver. Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, and Michal Handzus lead a relatively talented top-six into the Olympics. The Slovakian defense looks quite bare, for the exception of Chara and Visnovsky, there’s not really any high-caliber talent on the blueline – and certainly not enough to keep teams like Russia and Canada at bay. Expect a respectable, but ultimately mediocre finish from Team Slovakia.

Turino finish: 5th

Roster:

Goaltenders

• G Peter Budaj
• G Jaroslav Halak
• G Rastislav Stana

Defense

• D Zdeno Chara
• D Milan Jurcina
• D Richard Lintner
• D Andrej Meszaros
• D Andrej Sekera
• D Martin Strbak
• D Lubomir Visnovsky

Forwards

• F Lubos Bartecko
• F Martin Cibak
• F Pavol Demitra
• F Marian Gaborik
• F Michal Handzus
• F Marcel Hossa
• F Marian Hossa
• F Tomas Kopecky
• F Zigmund Palffy
• F Branko Radivojevic
• F Miroslav Satan
• F Jozef Stümpel
• F Richard Zednik

#6 Team Finland

I freely admit that I could be underestimating the Fins (a mistake the Russians made during WW2), but despite their recent Olympic success – medaling three times out of the last four years – I think this is the year Team Finland falls from grace. They’ve got stellar goaltending from Kiprusoff  and Backstrom, but they simply don’t have the offensive firepower to keep up with Canada, Russia or Sweden. Considering that it’s also entirely possible that Selanne won’t be able to start for Finland, it’s easy to see how they could quickly fall behind the rest of the pack.

Turino finish: 2nd place

Roster:

Goaltenders

• Niklas Backstrom
• Miikka Kiprusoff
• Antero Niittymaki

Defense

• Lasse Kukkonen
• Sami Lepisto
• Toni Lydman
• Janne Niskala
• Joni Pitkanen
• Sami Salo
• Kimmo Timonen

Forwards

• Valtteri Filppula
• Niklas Hagman
• Jarkko Immonen
• Olli Jokinen
• Niko Kapanen
• Mikko Koivu
• Saku Koivu
• Jere Lehtinen
• Antti Miettinen
• Ville Peltonen
• Jarkko Ruutu
• Tuomo Ruutu
• Teemu Selanne

#7 Czech Republic

The Czechs are another team I hesitate to place so low, but the overall depth of the lineup simply doesn’t stack up to the rest of the high-caliber squads. Yes, they have Jagr, Havlat, Elias and Fleischman – but hardly anyone on defense (besides Zidlicky), and without a stable blueline, Vokoun is going to get lit up frequently.

Turino finish: 3rd

Roster:

Goaltenders

• Ondrej Pavelec
• Jakub Stepanek
• Tomas Vokoun

Defense

• Miroslav Blatak
• Jan Hejda
• Tomas Kaberle
• Filip Kuba
• Pavel Kubina
• Zbynek Michalek
• Roman Polak
• Marek Zidlicky

Forwards

• Petr Cajanek
• Roman Cervenka
• Patrik Elias
• Martin Erat
• Tomas Fleischmann
• Martin Havlat
• Jaromir Jagr
• David Krejci
• Milan Michalek
• Tomas Plekanec
• Tomas Rolinek
• Josef Vasicek

Top Seven:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7

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