Russia and Sweden to play the Final

Russian looks already in the final and I guess that’s no surprise, especially when we saw Switzerland sensationally losing to Germany. They surely take this Championship seriously after disappointing Olympic games. All stars are here to prove that they are worth cheering, nothing less then gold is expected from such squad. Sweden were my favorites before tournament started and they have got better and better from game to game and now they face Czech Republic, the team that also started bad. Here are my thought on tomorrow’s matches.

Russia – Germany

My bets: Russia (-2,5 goals) (odds up to 1.70 @William Hill),  Over5 goals (odds up to 1.93 @Pinnacle)

Once again I will go against home team and perhaps I will be punished for that yet again. But Germany still in my opinion is a rather weak team.

Quarter finals of Ice Hockey World Championship

Sorry for being quite for a long time, have lots of work recently. But yet I kept on following on the sport events, including Ice Hockey World championship 2010. A lot of surprising results, a lot of new teams that made great results here – all thats classics for the post-Olympic WC Championship. That’s became a well known fact that North-Americans care less about World Championship, especially in the season after Olympics. Poor results from USA were well expected by me. Canada also brought experimental team, with a lot of youth players in the roster. That was good enough for the weak teams, but for the quality sides with good defense it wasn’t (Canada lost to Switzerland 1:4, to Sweden 1:3 and finally to Czechs 2:3). That was their worst result since introducing play-off system back in 1992. That’s truly sums up their performance in the group stage. The price for such careless attitude – quarter final meeting with Red Machine, Russia, who won all games here with confidence of the tank, having all their main stars in the squad. Now let’s take a look on all of the quarterfinals.

Sweden – Denmark

My Bets: Sweden (-2,5 goals), Over 5,5 goals.

Sweden have never lost to Denmark in any competition. Nothing will change today. Sweden started Championship slowly, but yet they managed to score wins in every encounter. The only match they’ve lost at the group stage, was the defeat to Czech Republic 1:2. After that Swedish game was only rising and they’ve added in strength a lot. 3 convincing wins over Latvia (4:2), Canada (3:1) and Switzerland (5:0) proved just that – they are big team, that have its best in play-offs. Denmark on the other hand have reached its highest level ever to early and now they are destined to lose. I guess this will be overs and Sweden (-2,5) handicap.

Olympic games Ice-hockey: Its Quarterfinals time! Preview

Here comes the excitement of the play-off, today is the night of a true Ice-Hockey show when 8 best teams of the World will square off in the battle for the medals. Very interesting pairs, with only one match that looks special – Canada-Russia. Thats the only disappointment of this year tournament, neither of this teams deserves to stay without any medals and if even Russia win tonight, I will still feel sorry for Canadians. I will be supporting Russian team, like I always do, but thats’ doesn’t affect my way of predictions.

USA – Switzerland

Thats the only match, where I can’t find any option to bet. USA will progress in this match, but I can’t quite say will they do it with handicap or not. I even can’t quite say with 100% confidence, whether they will

Olympic games hockey: Sweden and USA to play final, play-off preview

So, the recreational hockey tournament is over and it is now do or die phase, with no mistakes available. And I would like to share my thoughts on play off structure and possible chances to progress to the next phase. My prediction of the final you already saw in the title, I don’t pretend thats gonna happen in real life, but that’s the way I see this teams.  I will start the overall analysis of the teams who are considered by bookies and by me also as a main contenders to take gold medals. I will surprise you and will start with the team that I think has fewer chances to get gold, despite being favorites in bookies opinion.

Canada.

Odds @ Betfair: 3.10

Canada got themselves into troubles, losing to USA. Now to take gold medals they have to win almost all the favorites of this tournament, both Russia and Sweden are on they way to the final. They have great team with great individuals, but I can’t quite see a team from this stars. They looked too confident in the match against USA and they paid the prise for that. Now they are at risk of not getting even a medal at home Olympics – thats gonna be an absolute disaster for them and I guess they are completely confident that they gonna progress in the match against Red Machine…