So no Canada in the final of the Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Final then. After winning three of the four previous Gold Medals, the NHL’s fall out with the Olympic Committee has cost them dearly and they were shockingly dumped out of the semi-finals by underdogs Germany. There are no NHL players in attendance at the 2018 Winter Olympics, because of a dispute over insuring players.
Four years ago the IOC covered insurance but weren’t prepared to do it again. So they are out and with the USA beating Canada’s dominant women’s team to the gold medal at Pyeongchang it has been an Olympics for them to forget pretty much. So now, one of the real highlights of any Winter Olympic Games, the final of the Ice Hockey will be a strange affair to see a lack of the world’s stars in it.
Germany make final debut
Germany are in the final of the tournament for the first time ever in the competition and they were so good in that semi-final against the Canucks. The question really would be though, whether or not they could really pull off a repeat performance of such a high level? Germany actually only finished third in their group behind Sweden and Finland and they had to get through a play off qualifier against Switzerland to stay in the tournament.
But they then raised ambitions with a win over Sweden in the quarter finals, a side they had lost to in the group stage, before holding off a comeback from the Canucks in the semi-final. Germany had raced out to a 4-1 lead but hung on to take the victory 4-3 to beat Canada. In the Olympic Final they will take on the OAR who really haven’t batted an eyelid in getting to this stage in the knockouts and who are 8/13 favourites at Boylesports* (Betting Odds taken at 5:41 p.m. on February 23rd, 2018).
They won their group with wins over Slovenia and the USA, following an opening defeat against Slovakia. They scored more goals than any other team managed in the stage of the competition as well. Their group win put them straight through to the quarter finals where they demolished Norway 6-1 and then they took out the Czech Republic 3-0 in the semi finals, the Czech’s having ditched the USA out in the quarter-final stage.
While the OAR, the team made up of Russian athletes, don’t have their NHL superstars, they are able to call on a wealth of talent still from the highly rated domestic KHL league and that is going to be a telling difference at the end of the day. They would have been expecting a tough challenge in the final and must now feel pretty good about their chances of walking off with gold.
Predictions
The OAR should get this gold medal in the back. It was a heroic effort by the Germans in the semi finals but that was probably the pinnacle of their campaign. The OAR have the quality and depth to succeed where the Canucks failed. They can ease their way to success.
