Men's Olympic hockey began yesterday, and already today the Gold Medal hunt is looking unpredictable, at least in my opinion.

Sure, there are the super teams: Canada, Russia, and Czech.

The not so quite super, but extremely dangerous teams: Sweden, Finland, Slovakia.

The top underdog: USA.

The other two underdogs to watch out for: Germany and Latvia.

And then there is just about everyone else, with Italy way at the bottom.

I think goaltending will be the key determining factor in this tournament. Canada is the powerhouse in net.

The Czechs just lost Dominik Hasek to a hamstring injury, but they shouldn't have too much trouble with Vokoun stepping between the pipes. Vokoun has the ability to get very hot, and he has the best player in the NHL, Jagr, playing in front of him.

Russia has Nabokov, and a dynamic top line of Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, and Kovalev. Their defense is slow, but their offense plays in high gear.

Sweden looked awful today. Ludqvist is making a case for rookie of the year in the NHL, but he looked just like a rookie today, and not the goalie who has been propelling the New York Rangers to the top of their division. They need to start games with more energy, and keep control of the puck.

Finland is without it's best goalie, Kiprusoff, but the entire team plays a very tenacious style of hockey. This is not a team to take likely, because they have enough scoring to spread out to take it all.

Slovakia can beat anyone.

USA is in transition. Their coach will role four lines, all balanced, and preach to play hard every shift. Their defense is solid, but can get caught pinching at bad times. What makes them the underdog is their goaltending. There is no go-to US goalie right now, and the best US goalie was left off of the roster. Someone will have to step up soon if USA will have any chance to medal. They just don't have the feared offense of years past at this time, although some young players have stepped up.

Germany and Latvia will hope their goaltending can get hot enough to carry them through. With Kolzig and Irbe in the pipes respectively, these teams cannot be counted out. It was no surprise to me that Latvia tied USA 3-3 yesterday.

These games have had more flow than NHL games. I don't like the European goal crease rules, nor do I like the larger neutral zone and smaller offensive zone of the international ice. I think the NHL finally moved ahead of Europe by moving the lines around to create a larger offensive zone. Another thing I don't like is the icing rule. I like no touch icing, but the NHL added a new twist to icing that has almost eliminated it from the game. In the NHL the tame that ices the puck cannot make a line change before the face-off. In Europe, there is no penalty for icing, so there are a lot them, and it disrupts the game.

<sub>Will Eisner's last work - The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
RDCW Profile

"Well, as it happens, I wrote the damned SOP," Illescue half snarled, "and as of now, you can bar those jackals from any part of this facility until Hell's a hockey rink! Is that perfectly clear?!" - Dr. Franz Illescue - Honor Harrington: At All Costs

"I don't know what I'm do, or how I do, I just do." - Alexander Ovechkin</sub>