Men's Olympic Hockey Preview - Belarus

Over the next two weeks, countries will be releasing their Men's Olympic Hockey Rosters. Its always an exciting endevour, finally finding out who is on each team after months of speculation. The list of when each team will be releasing their roster can be found here.

I'll be using these occasions not only to relay the final rosters, but to also provide a bit of a preview of how I think each country will fair. First to announce their roster is:

Belarus

Olympic Appearances: 1998, 2002

Best Finish: 4th (2002)

Total Medals Won:0

Pool: Sweden, Finland, Germany

Belarus has long been considered one of the 'weaker sisters' of international hockey, but that hasn't stopped them from leaving their impact on the Games. Everyone (especially Tommy Salo) remembers the HUGE upset of Sweden in Salt Lake City, that pushed them through the quarterfinals. Belarus was quickly thumped by Canada 7-1 in the semi's, but boy was it entertaining.

Entertaining...right Tommy?

As big as that was for Belarus, I don't expect them to be able to repeat that magic. Drawing Sweden, Germany and Finland in their pool, its almost a certainty that they'll fall into the qualification playoffs, needing to reel off 4 straight wins for gold.

I expect them to drop all three games in their pool, although they may give the Germans a run for their money. Once they hit the qualification pool, they're going to need another miracle upset to even get to the Quarterfinals. My money is on 0-4, and a plane ticket back to Minsk.

Anyways, onto the roster. Even as an also-ran, Belarus features a few NHLers in Grabovski (Toronto), Ruslan Salei (Colorado) and the Kostitsyn brothers (both Montreal). Andrei Mezin is probably the only other familiar name to North American hockey fans, based off his performance in 2002. He currently plays for Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL.

Goaltenders

Vitali Koval

Maxim Malyutin

Andrei Mezin

Defence

Andrei Antonov

Andrei Bashko

Vladimir Denisov

Viktor Kostiuchenok

Ruslan Salei

Nikolai Stasenko

Vadim Sushko

Alexander Syrei

Oleg Antonenko

Sergei Demagin

Forwards

Mikhail Grabovski

Alexei Kaliuzhny

Konstantin Koltsov

Andrei Kostitsyn

Sergei Kostitsyn

Alexander Kulakov

Andrei Mikhalev

Andrei Stas

Alexei Ugarov

Sergei Zadelenov

One thing to watch out for is the often rocky relationship between Grabovski and the two Kostitsyn. Its never come out exactly what transpired between them while Grabs was in Montreal, but these three players seem to have a healthy hate on for each other. It will be interesting to see how (if) they get along with each other.

Regardless, expect the Belarussians to rely heavily on this trio. At the 2009 world championships Grabovski racked up an average of 27:23 of ice time a game.

The other puzzling item here is that Belarus has apparently named 10 defence, and 10 forwards (list from CTVOlympics.ca). Thats a very very odd balance, normally it would be 13 forwards and 7 defence. I wonder why Belarus has decided to roll with that many defencemen. Are they expecting to play Grabovski and the Kostitsyns so much that they only need three forward lines??

Linkback: Other Rosters

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The Olympic Hockey Jerseys

Care of the IIHF, the Olympic Hockey Jerseys were unveiled today! We already knew what the Canadian Jersey looked like, so no big surprise there, but it’s very cool to see the whole collection. On the whole, I’m fairly impressed…there is only one set of jerseys that I really don’t like. But we’ll get to that:

Belarus

Starting out with one of the underdogs of the tournament here. There really isn’t that much to complain about, it’s a nice traditional hockey jersey, which is all I really ask for. In an independent setting, I don’t think I’d go with the red/green combo here, but of course we're working with National Colours here.

Canada

I’m probably not as big of a fan of these jerseys as I have been of past Team Canada jerseys. I’ll always be partial to the 2002 era jerseys I think. However, considering the controversy that surrounded the Hockey Canada logo earlier in the year, I think that this is a very very good compromise. I like the new logo a lot, and it fits in well with the theme of Vancouver 2010. I’m not terribly stuck on the red shoulders on the home jersey, but its not a make-or-break thing for me.

China

It’s very very strange to see a Chinese hockey jersey as they're not traditionally known to be a hockey powerhouse…..regardless, I like the design, if it is somewhat plain. I think my only criticism is that I’d like to see a horizontal band around the waist, rather than the vertical striping. That’s just the traditionalist in me though…

Czech Republic

Now you can’t see the back here, but judging from the front, it seems like they have finally gotten rid of that pointless ‘C-Z-E-C-H’ that they used to have right across the butt. Any writing that historically drew my attention to Dominik Hasek’s ass can’t be considered ‘good’... anything is an improvement over that.

Finland

I’m normally a pretty big fan of Finnish jerseys. The two-tone blue gives you a lot to work with, and is there anything more iconic about international hockey than the ‘Suomi’ stitched across a jersey? Unfortunately I think this incarnation misses the mark just a bit, for the simple fact that the ‘Suomi’ here is just a hideous colour, and totall clashes with the rest of the jersey. Why on earth have they decided to go with an Orange-Red? I think it looks especially bad on the away blue jersey.

Germany

I think that my favourite jersey of the whole set is the German away jersey, with the Iron Eagle almost ‘watermarked’ across the arms. There are a few instances of this ‘watermarking’ on other Jerseys, and it’s a risk…sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I like it here however….two thumbs up!

Latvia

I’ve always been a big fan of the Latvian jerseys. I think the dark maroon and white colour scheme works well together. This iteration is another really good example of the scheme, with my only criticism being the ‘LATVIJA’ across the waist…..could probably do without that, continuing the band right across.

Norway

I normally want to see tradional designs in hockey jerseys. There is nothing that gets me going more than some abomination of a third jersey that looks like it was drawn by a 2nd Grader. The Norway jerseys here instantly evoke thoughts of the New York Rangers..a classic. Despite that, this jersey still doesn’t quite do it for me. Dare I say that its…too traditional…to the point of maybe being a little boring?

Russia

Oh our arch nemesis. As much as people think Canada is the favourite for gold…the Russians are gonna be very tough. Just so much skill. Anyways, right.....the jerseys…here is the second example of the ‘watermarking’ approach, and I don’t think it works as well here as it did for the Germans. The Russian jersey has a lot more secondary striping than the Germans, so I think the addition of the ‘watermarking’ clutters it up somewhat. The test here will be how much that ‘watermaking’ actually shows up in real life. If its subtle enough, I think it could still work.

Slovakia

This is a fairly basic entry from the Slovaks. Take a boilerplate template, add a logo…and done! It might be simple, but I think it still works. The Slovaks have a solid logo, so you don’t need to mess with it too much…

Sweden

Ahh, the “Tre Kronor”. When you have something that works, why mess with it. I’m a particular fan of the dark blues here…It’s a classic!

Switzerland

Oh for shame Switzerland. Evidently guided by their strict neutrality, it would seem the Swiss have found themselves unable to choose sides on their jersey, and have decided to just leave it blank….for fear finding themselves on the wrong side. What’s worse, the one feature that they do have is poorly executed. Why does the should striping stop at about the collarbone? It makes it look like a bib…….Anyways, maybe once they finish the jersey, I’ll be able to comment further….

United States

The only country to apparently roll out a third jersey, the USA gets it right with a simple yet effective design. Their third jersey is obviously from the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’, and they have used its clean design as inspiration for their main jerseys. The only thing I could do without are the stars on the white home jersey…but otherwise I like ‘em….

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Men's Hockey Roster Announcement Dates

Little ways off still, but here is the dates that each Nation will be announcing their Men’s Hockey Rosters. In chronological order:

Belarus: December 23
Russia: December 25
Sweden: December 27
Latvia: December 29
Norway: December 29
Slovakia: December 29
Czech Republic: December 30
Finland: December 30
Germany: December 30
Switzerland: December 30
Canada: December 31 December 30
USA: January 1

The Canadian announcement will be integrated with the WJC Tourney in Saskatchewan no doubt, and the USA announcement will be part of the NHL Winter Classic.

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