NHL players won’t compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics, completely altering the dynamic of the men’s hockey tournament in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Four years after the United States made it into the bronze medal game, Team USA is not expected to perform very well.
Team USA’s roster of amateurs ranks sixth in terms of decoration chances. Five other teams possess greater than 10/1 chances to finish the tournament in first location. The Olympic Athletes of Russia, who are able to compete, although not formally for the nation due to a widespread doping scandal, are favored to win gold.
Canada won the gold medal in 2014, defeating Sweden in the finals. The defending champs are tied to the second-best odds, although the Russian athletes are believed four times more likely to win the tournament. Sweden has the Very Same chances as Canada, followed by Finland and the Czech Republic.
There’s lots from the championship of NHL experience, although no current NHL players have been permitted to compete in the 2018 Games. Canada leads the way with 5,444 combined NHL games played on its own roster. Those players have totaled 2,140 career points.
The Russian athletes aren’t much behind Canada using 1,955 NHL points. Team USA has a 518-game experience edge over the Russian athletes when it comes to their time in the NHL, but the U.S. athletes have scored 739 fewer things.
Brian Gionta will play for Team USA after spending 16 seasons in the NHL and totaling 312 points. His very best season came 12 decades ago when he scored 48 goals for the New Jersey Devils.
Team USA’s defense is full of former NHL players, such as Matt Gilroy, James Wisniewski, Jon Blum, Chad Billins, Bobby Sanguinetti, Noah Welch and Bobby Butler. John McCarthy played in 88 career NHL matches, and 138 points were totaled by Jim Slater . The championship is made up of 12 teams that have been split into three groups. After playing everybody in their respective group, each of the teams progress to the removal stage and therefore are seeded based on their group records. The three group winners and the best second-place group undergo a first-round bye.
The men’s hockey tournament begins Wednesday, Feb. 14 and finishes with the gold medal game on Feb. 24.
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