Do or Die

It’s show time in Vancouver. There’s another full slate of four games today and every single one of them has potential to be a barn-burner. While there are clear favorites in one or two of the games there are no sure things, especially after Latvia almost pulled off an upset against the Czechs last night.

At 3pm Team USA takes on Switzerland. In theory this is the closest thing to a sure thing that there is, but if Jonas Hiller gets hot he can shut down anyone. The American squad earned an easier path to a semi-final and Switzerland is probably the weakest opponent of the remaining eight teams.

At 7:30 Canada and Russia clash and someone is going home without a medal which will be a national crisis in either country. Canada dominated Germany with Roberto Luongo in net, but it won’t be that easy tonight. The scary thing is that some of Russia’s big guns like Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Radulov, Max Afinogenov, and Sergei Gonchar really haven’t gotten going yet. If they step up Canada could be in trouble. You have to think Canada has the advantage playing at home though, and you know they’ll be fired up. Puck Daddy has five reasons Canada will beat Russia for your reading enjoyment.  I say whoever scores first will take this one.

The 10 pm game features Pavel Kubina and the Czechs versus Finland who have been the sleepers of this tournament. With some solid offensive weapons and a world-class goalie in Mikka Kiprusoff they could topple the Czechs and advance to play with the winner of the USA/Switzerland game. On the other hand maybe the Latvia scare last night was a wakeup call for the Czech Republic.

The final game of the night at midnight sees Sweden take on Slovakia. Sweden is the defending gold medal champion and have flown under the radar for most of the tournament. Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom is leading the team with five points while Henrik Lundqvist is 2-0 and hasn’t been scored on yet. can he keep Gaborik, Zednik and the Hossas off the board?

The USA game will air on NBC in its entirety. The other three games will be on CNBC and since there is some overlap you’ll likely miss the beginning of the midnight game.

Happy hockey watching.