| 15 February 2010
A quick crash course on the basic's of 2010 Men's Ice Hockey Tournament at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
TV Schedule:
American coverage is scattered on CNBC, MSNBC, USA and your local NBC affiliate.
Check out www.nbcolympics.com. You can customize a local schedule, based on your location and pay-tv provider.
Rule differences vs the NHL:
- "No touch" icing is used.
- No fighting allowed. (if players were to fight, they would be ejected.)
- No “trapezoid” rule – goaltenders can play the puck anywhere without penalty.
- When a penatly shot is awarded, any player on the team can take it.
One rule difference you wont see - IIHF hockey is usually played on larger sheets of ice, but cost to enlarge the smaller sized GM Place Canada Hockey Place means these games will be played on NHL sized ice.
Tournament format:
There are 3 groups, dubbed A, B and C with 4 teams each. Each team will play everyone in their group one time (aka "Round Robin"). After that, all teams will be ranked 1 through 12 based on points (see below). The top four ranked teams will receive byes to the quarterfinals (similar to the NFL playoffs), the remaining 8 teams will be matched up (5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, etc) for a single elimination game. The 4 winners of those games will faceoff against the 4 top teams from the preliminary round in a single elimination playoff to determine the medals.
Preliminary points system:
- A win in regulation is 3 points
- A win in OT or a shootout is 2 points
- A loss in OT or a shootout is 1 point
- A loss in regulation is 0 points
Overtime rules:
Tied games will go to a 4 on 4 sudden death OT. If no one scores during OT, a 3 round shootout takes place.
In Preliminary round, OT is 5 mins. In the Elimination round, OT is 10 min, except for the Gold Medal game where OT is 20 mins.
Teams:
A quick overview of the best / most well know players on each team. The team are listed as per their IIHF World Rankings:
1. Russia (Group B)
Top Forwards: A Ovechkin (WAS) , E Malkin (PIT), I Kovalchuk (NJ)
Top Defensemen: S Gonchar (PIT), A Markov (MTL)
Starting Goaltender: E Nabokov (SJ) / I Bryzgalov (PHX)
2. Canada (Group A)
Top Forwards: S Crosby (PIT), J Thornton (SJ), D Heatley (SJ)
Top Defensemen: S Niedermeyer (ANA), C Pronger (PHI)
Starting Goaltender: M Brodeur (NJ) / R Luongo (VAN)
3. Sweden (Group C)
Top Forwards: H Zetterberg (DET), The Sedins (VAN), P Forsberg (Swedish Elite)
Top Defensemen: N Lidstrom (DET), M Ohlund (TB)
Starting Goaltender: H Lundqvist (NYR)
4. Finland (Group C)
Top Forwards: The Koivus (MIN / ANA), T Selanne (ANA), O Jokinen (NYR)
Top Defensemen: J Pitkanen (CAR), S Salo (VAN)
Starting Goaltender: N Backstrom (MIN) / M Kippersoff (CGY)
5. United States (Group A)
Top Forwards: P Kane (CHI), Z Parise (NJ), P Stastny (COL)
Top Defensemen: B Ralfski (DET), R Suter (NSH)
Starting Goaltender: R Miller (BUF)
6. Czech Republic (Group B)
Top Forwards: J Jagr (KHL), P Elias (NJ), M Havlet (MIN)
Top Defensemen: M Zidlicky (MIN), T Kaberle (TOR)
Starting Goaltender: T Vokoun (NAS)
9. Slovakia (Group B)
Top Forwards: M Gaborik (NYR), M Hossa (CHI), M Satan (BOS)
Top Defensemen: Z Chara (BOS) L Visnovsky (EDM)
Starting Goaltender: J Halak (MON)
Sean Payton writes about the Colorado Avalanche at Anyone But Detroit in addition to his work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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