Men's Ice Hockey Odds: Canada Favored in 2010 Vancouver Olympics

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic ice hockey odds have Canada as the favored team at even money to win the gold medal. Russia is the 2-1 second choice while Sweden and the United States are each listed at about 6-1. Those are really the only four teams given much of a chance to win in ice hockey Olympic odds for the tournament that begins next week in Vancouver. If you like longshots instead of the favored teams, then you can take a chance with Finland or the Czech Republic at 15-1 and 16-1 respectively but these teams probably won’t win. Slovakia doesn’t have much of a chance either at 30-1 while you are just throwing money away on teams like Switzerland, Germany, Latvia, Belarus and Norway.

The real money in Olympic ice hockey odds is going to go on one of four teams. Canada and Russia are favored while Sweden and the United States are the darkhorses. The home ice advantage is going to be with Canada since the Olympics are in Vancouver. The talent edge is also with the Canadian team. It should be noted though that Canada has won the Gold Medal just once in the last 14 Winter Games and that was in 2002. This year’s Canadian team is loaded with talent but expectations are even higher. Nothing short of a gold medal will be tolerated in Canada. With players like Sidney Crosby and Jarome Iginla leading the offense and a stacked unit of goaltenders, the Canadian team should win.

If Canada doesn’t win, then Russia would be the logical choice in Olympic hockey odds. The Russians have a talented lineup that includes Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk. They also have a very good goaltender in Evgeni Nabokov. Russia has not won Olympic gold since the Soviet Union broke up but they have the talent as they proved by winning the World Championships in 2008 and in 2009. The two darkhorses are Sweden and the United States. Many people are going to forget that Sweden has won two of the past four Olympic gold medals in hockey and they are the defending champs.

Sweden has a great goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist, a future Hall of Famer on the blueline in Nicklas Lidstrom and a budding star in Nicklas Backstrom not to mention Peter Forsberg and the Sedin twins. The United States has Ryan Miller in goal and a few stars like Patrick Kane and Zach Parise but they are not in the class of Canada, Russia or maybe even Sweden. 2010 Olympic ice hockey odds are formed from three groups of teams in pools. The play begins with group action on Tuesday, February 16th. The top four teams in pool play will get a bye while the other eight will play for a spot in the quarterfinals. The gold medal game will be played on Sunday, February 28th.