| 15 February 2010
vs. 
Preliminary Game 2: Canada vs. Norway - February 16, 2010 4:30pm PST - Canada Hockey Place
Expectations are high for Canada to win gold on home soil, er on home "ice" and their first game will be against Team Norway. Any team to win gold must win either six straight games or win six games with only one loss in the preliminary round. Check out the individual team previews for Team Canada here and Team Norway here. Full game preview and team analysis after the jump...
*Updated*
Team Norway
This is expected to be a mismatch with Canada expected to dominate over Team Norway. The Norwegians are icing a team with no NHL players on the team, unless you count Ole-Kristian Tollefsen from the Detroit Red Wings, who was sent down to the AHL recently after trade from Philly to Detroit. The rest of the team is made up of players mainly in either the DEL or SEL with a few others sprinkled in KHL, Norwegian or Finnish clubs. How big of a mismatch is it? Well according to a betting site, Norway's odds of winning the tournament are 500/1, so you may want to go for the over on goals for this game if you feel like betting.
This is the first appearance since the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, back when NHL players did not participate in the Games. No Norwegian team has ever done better than getting 8th spot in the Olympics, but you can still bet the team will still want to play a great game against Canada. No matter if you are an underdog or a favorite, every team wants to play a great game against Canada.
It is expected that Pat Grotnes will get the start for the Norwegians as he has been Norway's goalie in the last two World Championship appearances. The Norwegians will try to take a defensive approach to try fend off the waves of offense that Canada will roll out.
Norway has one player from the 1994 Olympics returning to this squad, 39 year old defenceman Tommy Jakobsen. They also may have one of the players with the most awesome name in the tournament: Tore Vikingstad.
Team Canada
Team Canada will begin their first preliminary game with Roberto Luongo in net in front of his home crowd in Vancouver with Brodeur making his first start on Thursday against the Swiss. It was expected that Luongo would get one start of the preliminaries, so starting him against his home crowd is a good choice.
Yesterday the Canadian men's team took to the ice at 4:30pm for their first and only practice together before their first game. After some question about his injury status, Ryan Getzlaf's name was submitted to the Team Canada Roster. He may not be at 100%, but his presence as the number two center brings his grit and toughness to the team, as well as his familiarity with Corey Perry. Although Jeff Carter would have been a great replacement in individual skill, Getzlaf's ability to elevate Perry's game may be one of the aspects that will get overlooked. Getzlaf will center the second line with Staal and Perry as his wingers. Crosby will center the top line with his former 2005 World Junior teammate Patrice Bergeron and CBJ's Rick Nash and San Jose's top line will become the third line for Team Canada.
Tonight's game for Team Canada will allow the players to develop some chemistry as a team. Canada should play their style of game which will be a fast, physical game and with plenty of offensive as opposed to playing down to the level of the Norwegians. Expect this to be a high scoring game.
UPDATE
12:00pm: According to the Philadelphia Daily News, NHL.com has reported that Mike Richards will be one the healthy scratch for Team Canada tonight. Also TSN's Darren Dreger has on his twitter that Jeff Carter is still in Vancouver and will watch tonights game
Team Canada Lineup:
Defence pairings:
Vancity Canuck writes about the Vancouver Canucks at Benched Whale and the Tampa Bay Lightning at The Hockey Bay Blog in addition to her work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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