Cause We’re Kinda’ Bored: The 2010 Olympic Hockey Schedule
December 26, 2008 1 Comment
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.
Official Shedule was announced today:
MEN’S TOURNAMENT
(All times listed are Pacific Time)
Venues: Canada Hockey Place and UBC Thunderbird Arena (UBC)
PRELIMINARY ROUND
Tue 16.02
A 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE USA – SUI
A 16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE CAN – NOR
B 21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE RUS – LAT
Wed 17.02
C 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE FIN – BLR
C 16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE SWE – GER
B 21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE CZE – SVK
Thu 18.02
A 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE USA – NOR
A 16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE SUI – CAN
B 21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE SVK – RUS
Fri 19.02
C 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE BLR – SWE
B 16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE CZE – LAT
C 21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE FIN – GER
Sat 20.02
A 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE NOR – SUI
B 16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE LAT – SVK
C 21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE GER – BLR
Sun 21.02 B 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE RUS – CZE
A 16.45 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE CAN – USA
C 21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE SWE – FIN
QUALIFICATION PLAYOFF
8 Tue 23.02
12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE QP1
16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE QP2
19.00 UBC QP3
21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE QP4
NOTES:
QP1 – if playing in Qualification playoffs, USA to play in the 12.00 game
QP2 – if playing in Qualification playoffs, CAN to play in the 16.30 game
QUARTER-FINAL ROUND
9 Wed 24.02
12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE QF1
16.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE QF2
19.00 UBC QF3
21.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE QF4
NOTES:
QF1 or QF4 – if qualified, USA to play in either the 12.00 or 21.00 game
QF2 – if qualified, CAN to play in the 16.30 game
10 Thu 25.02 DAY OFF
SEMI-FINAL ROUND
11 Fri 26.02 12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE SF1
18.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE SF2
NOTES:
SF1 – if qualified, USA to play in the 12.00 game
SF2 – if qualified, CAN to play in the 18.30 game
BRONZE MEDAL GAME
12 Sat 27.02 19.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 29 BRONZE
GOLD MEDAL GAME
13 Sun 28.02 12:15 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 30 GOLD
——————————-
WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
PRELIMINARY ROUND
1 Sat 13.02
A 12.00 UBC 1 SWE – SUI
A 17.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 2 CAN – SVK
2 Sun 14.02
B 12.00 UBC 3 USA – CHN
B 16.30 UBC 4 FIN – RUS
3 Mon 15.02
A 14.30 UBC 5 SUI – CAN
A 19.00 UBC 6 SWE – SVK
4 Tue 16.02
B 14.30 UBC 7 RUS – USA
B 19.00 UBC 8 FIN – CHN
5 Wed 17.02
A 14.30 UBC 9 CAN – SWE
A 19.00 UBC 10 SVK – SUI
6 Thu 18.02
B 14.30 UBC 11 USA – FIN
B 19.00 UBC 12 CHN – RUS
7 Fri 19.02 DAY OFF
PLAYOFF ROUND
8 Sat 20.02
14.30 UBC 13 Placement #1
19.00 UBC 14 Placement #2
9 Sun 21.02 DAY OFF
10 Mon 22.02
12.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 15 Semi-final #1
14.00 UBC 16 Placement #3
17.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 17 Semi-final #2
19.00 UBC 18 Placement #4
11 Tue 23.02
DAY OFF
12 Wed 24.02
DAY OFF
NOTES:
Day 8 – if qualified, CAN to play 19.00 game
Day 10 – if qualified, USA to play 12.00 game
Day 10 – if qualified, CAN to play 17.00 game
FINALS
13 Thu 25.02 11.00 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 19 Bronze
15.30 CANADA HOCKEY PLACE 20 Gold