The 2010 Winter Olympics have been underway for five days. But for many, the most anticipated part of the 17-day event begins today with the start of the Men's Ice Hockey tournament. Twelve countries are taking part in the tournament, which starts with a week's worth of preliminary round action. Each team will play three games over the next six days, to determine seeding for the second week of action when the single elimination tournament begins.
Out of the 12 teams, half are given legitimate shots at playing for a medal. Three of those figure to be Team Finland, the Czech Republic team, and the defending gold medalists from Team Sweden. Team Russia has a ton of scoring talent and figures to be in the running for a gold.
But the two teams with the most focus thrust upon them are obviously Team USA and Team Canada. These games are on Canadian soil, and there is no question that anything less than a gold medal will be considered unacceptable by the home country.
As for Team USA, they are a young team with not a lot of international experience that will need to play smart and defensive oriented hockey. They will need to not beat themselves by being razor-sharp mentally, and they will need their goaltender to play the best two weeks of hockey in his entire life. Sound familiar? In this the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice team from 1980, it should.
But unlike past years, when NBC simply put all of the hockey on one cable channel or pay-per-view, they're bouncing it around this year. So if you are looking for when and where to watch the hockey action, look no further than the page we just created for you on Mahalo:
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