(01-18-2010 09:13 PM)armour248 Wrote: My thoughts now are if it even makes sense to do a pool for Olympic hockey. The team who gets Canada is almost guaranteed to win, and there are few other teams who are legitimate contenders. I suppose if you only did it with 4 people everyone could get a team with at least somewhat of a shot (Canada, Sweden, Russia, USA/Czech), but doing it with 6 might make the teams too thin. Agreed?
(01-18-2010 09:44 PM)UIHuskie Wrote: (01-18-2010 09:13 PM)armour248 Wrote: My thoughts now are if it even makes sense to do a pool for Olympic hockey. The team who gets Canada is almost guaranteed to win, and there are few other teams who are legitimate contenders. I suppose if you only did it with 4 people everyone could get a team with at least somewhat of a shot (Canada, Sweden, Russia, USA/Czech), but doing it with 6 might make the teams too thin. Agreed?
I'd have to think about it, but I think it would work best with 4 guys and putting teams in the pots and having a "draft". I don't think 6 guys will work, the talent level in the tournament doesn't go deep enough.
A) Canada, Russia, Sweden, USA/Czechs
B) USA/Czechs, Slovakia, Finland, Switzerland
C) Norway, Latvia, Belarus, Germany
Do rounds in pots, but snake Pot A and B, so the guy who picks first overall and gets Canada picks last out of Group B. Randomize Group C.
I'd have to think about how to score it, since the issue is the top 4 qualifiers don't play in the first round of the Medal Round, but that might help equalize the quality of teams somewhat. Somebody could end up with the US and Czechs, have a real good shot at a medal, and a 2nd team that should do real well in their Preliminary Group. The guy who gets Switzerland (presumably the guy who took Canada) is probably not going to get much out of them.
Thanks for the info. The pool rules are fairly simple. Four pool players, and twelve teams means everyone gets three teams, and it is not likely you will get a combo of Canada, Russia, and Sweden.
It's all about total wins, with ties equal to half a win.
Picking order will be determined by blindly drawing four playing cards: Ace 2,3, and 4. Then the draft order will be A,2,3,4,4,3,2,A,A,2,3,4.
So getting that first pick of Canada means your next pick will be the eighth team selected. Even if your Canadians win all their matches, that may not be enough total wins.
Four years ago, I won the pool with Sweden, Finland and Germany.
You want your first pick to win the gold. You want your second pick to play in a medal game. If your third pick wins any games that's a bonus.
I just have a feeling about Team USA. :patriot: Sure they are young. They were even younger in 1980, and look what happened. They seem to play with a little extra enthusiasm in North American Olympics. Take 1980, 2002, 1960, 1932. This team might just be young enough to take the Olympics seriously. After coming so close in 2002, they have a score to settle with Canada.
I was thinking that Finland could be gearing for revenge against Sweden, but Selane is hurt, so maybe not.
There is more to Olympic hockey than just talent, and with the all-or-nothing tournament, almost anything can happen. Everyone knows about the 1980 "miracle on ice", but what about 2002, when Belarus beat Sweden? They should make a movie about that.
I also have a feeling about Latvia. Not a medal feeling, but I think they could upset a couple teams and maybe even sneak into the tourney. The majority of their roster also plays for Dinamo Riga, so they already have a team cohesion, that could be lacking in other teams, whose players are thrown together at the last minute.