Cause We’re Kinda’ Bored: The 2010 Olympic Hockey Schedule

The opening game of the Winter Olympic Men’s Hockey Tournament is about 13-and-a-half months away.  In fact, this February, 12 teams are going to play a tournament to qualify for the final three spots in the whole shebang (USA, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czech Rep., Russia, Switzerland, Belarus, Slovakia have all qualified) and go 0-3 and straight home.  I’m particularly hoping Slovenia beats out Germany in it’s group, just so we can see Anze Kopitar instead of Marco Sturm (sorry, Marco Sturm).  

Anyway, the schedule (including game times) is up and available, so why not post it ihere, along with some analysis on the TV side (NBC does a fantastic job with hockey at the Olympics) and whatnot?  Well, enjoy after the jump.

*All Games are at GM Place in Vancouver, unless noted.
*All Times ET  

Feb. 16 
3:00 Canada vs. Qualifier 
7:30 USA vs. Switzerland
Midnight Russia vs. Qualifier 

Feb. 17
3:00 Czech Republic vs. Slovakia 
7:30 Sweden vs. Qualifier 
Midnight Finland vs. Belarus 

Feb. 18
3:00 Switzerland vs. Canada 
7:30 USA vs. Qualifier 
Midnight  Slovakia vs. Russia 

Feb. 19 
3:00 Czech Republic vs. Qualifier 
7:30 Belarus vs. Sweden 
Midnight Finland vs. Qualifier  

Feb. 20 
3:00 Qualifier vs. Switzerland 
7:30 Qualifier vs. Slovakia
Midnight Qualifier vs. Belarus 

Feb. 21 
3:00 Canada vs. USA 
7:30 Russia vs. Czech Republic 
12:00 Sweden vs. Finland 

QUALIFYING ROUND (Top 4 teams in pool play get a bye thru this round)

Feb. 23
Games at 3PM, 7:30 PM, Two games at Midnight (1 at UBC Winter Sports Centre, Vancouver)  

QUARTERFINALS (Winners of Qualifiers vs. 4 Bye Teams) 

Feb. 24
Games at 3PM, 7:30 PM, 10PM, 12PM (at UBC Winter Sports Centre, Vancouver)

SEMIFINALS

Feb. 26
Games at 3PM and 9:30 PM

BRONZE MEDAL GAME

Feb. 27, 7:30 PM

GOLD MEDAL GAME

Feb. 28, 10:00 PM

ANALYSIS:

•  Right off the bat, no one can be too happy about the Gold Medal Game airing at 10PM.  Is NBC going to let the closing ceremony telecast get buried past midnight for a hockey game?  Or is it going to get dumped off on cable?  More than likely, unless Team USA makes a run, the latter.
• That said, NBC has plenty of opportunity to give hockey it’s spot in the limelight.  The first two Team USA games are in primetime on the east coast, and will likely eat up a lot of airtime in the typically figure skating-lite first week of the Olympics.
• As far as the scheduling format goes, it’s a whole lot better than the confusing, overlapping schedule at Torino in 2006.  There’s only over-lap in the knockout phases of the tourney, and just barely.  The games are spread out to the point where puckheads can get a break, but not get too bored waiting.
• From a money/personnel perspective, NBC can now do hockey on the fairly cheap in Vancouver, having used about 523 different announcer in Italy.  They’ll likely need two teams, one will almost definitely be Emrick/Olczyk, as Pierre McGuire can only work exclusively for CTV in Canada during the games.  Who does that second team comprise of?  Will it be Al Michaels, returning to olympic hockey?  Can John Davidson get a breather from working in St. Louis to call games?  Where does Bill Clement fit in, considering he still does olympic work for NBC?  Who works the women’s games?  It leaves a lot of open questions, particularly
• I’m not going to post it, but on the women’s side, Team USA will likely not get the same chance to shine for the ladies that the men do.  Most of their games are at 10PM and at the smaller, UBC arena.

Hope this got you a little more excited for a tournament that isn’t so far, far away.