Olympic Rosters for Sochi 2014
Today the Olympic Ice Hockey rosters for the upcoming Sochi 2014 games have been officially confirmed, after much speculation surrounding them there has been some interesting selections made and no doubt this will spark furious debate among hockey fans, let's take a look at the main contenders.
Canada
The 25 man Canadian squad certainly isn't lacking in depth, and this year they will be the team to beat and 11 of 2010 Gold Medal team will make a return journey! The defensive selection is one I highly commend as they have mixed youth of players like PK Subban along with defensive quality like Jay Bouwmeester. The St Louis pairing of JB along with Pietrangelo could well be a wise selection! Offensively the star count is ridiculously high with Crosby, Toews, Perry, Stamkos and Kunitz among others being featured and Canada will rely on this goal power to see them through!
There are few surprise selections with Marc-Andre Fleury missing out in favour of Roberto Luongo and the non selection of Claude Giroux- but otherwise this a mighty fine looking roster! For a full list, click here.
Sweden
The Swede's have opted for a mainly NHL based roster for this years Olympics, with only one of their squad being home based! All the big dogs will feature with Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Zetterberg and of course the Sedin brothers featuring along with young gun Gabe Landeskog, Alexander Steen and Johan Franzen also bolstering the offensive ranks.
Niklas Kronwall will again be making people flinch on ice as he will likely be anchoring the defense and there has also been other smart selections such as Chicago's Johnny Oduya and Canuck Alex Elder. Also Sweden possesses possibly the strongest goalie selection with likely starter Henrik Lundqvist, Detroit's Jonas Gustavsson and Jonas Enroth all hoping to impress. This side will look to repeat their 2006 gold medal win and this squad could set up an awesome final! For a full list please click here.
USA
The US coach Dan Bylsma has gone for mixture of youth and experience for this years games with the key selections appearing to be David Backes and Zach Parise at centre, Ryan Suter in defense and Phil Kessel and Patrick Kane flying the wings.
This American side is also rich in depth and selections such as Ryan Kessler, Max Pacioretty and James van Riemsdyk could really make a splash offensively!
At the back Brooks Orpik, Cam Fowler and Ryan McDonagh will back up the impressive three goalie choices of Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Quick and returning Olympic MVP Ryan Miller!
They may be more of an outside shot for a medal, but the USA will fight to the death. Go here, for a full look at the team.
Russia
The home side will be keen to impress at their own event after severely underachieving at the last two Olympics, and the inclusion of the big three of Alex Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin will do nothing to dim their hopes! Former NHL old boy, Ilya Kovalchuk will also aid their cause greatly and with some great defensive choices including Montreal's Andrei Markov and Columbus man Fedor Tyutin who are assured to make a difference. Sergei Bobrovsky and Varlemov will be competing for net time, but there are some surprise omissions such as Sergei Gonchar and Alexander Semin! Russia will have an entire country surrounding on ice so let's prepare for things to get loud! To view their choices, click here
Whatever the choices here's to a great Olympics ahead!
Canada
The 25 man Canadian squad certainly isn't lacking in depth, and this year they will be the team to beat and 11 of 2010 Gold Medal team will make a return journey! The defensive selection is one I highly commend as they have mixed youth of players like PK Subban along with defensive quality like Jay Bouwmeester. The St Louis pairing of JB along with Pietrangelo could well be a wise selection! Offensively the star count is ridiculously high with Crosby, Toews, Perry, Stamkos and Kunitz among others being featured and Canada will rely on this goal power to see them through!
There are few surprise selections with Marc-Andre Fleury missing out in favour of Roberto Luongo and the non selection of Claude Giroux- but otherwise this a mighty fine looking roster! For a full list, click here.
Sweden
The Swede's have opted for a mainly NHL based roster for this years Olympics, with only one of their squad being home based! All the big dogs will feature with Daniel Alfredsson, Henrik Zetterberg and of course the Sedin brothers featuring along with young gun Gabe Landeskog, Alexander Steen and Johan Franzen also bolstering the offensive ranks.
Niklas Kronwall will again be making people flinch on ice as he will likely be anchoring the defense and there has also been other smart selections such as Chicago's Johnny Oduya and Canuck Alex Elder. Also Sweden possesses possibly the strongest goalie selection with likely starter Henrik Lundqvist, Detroit's Jonas Gustavsson and Jonas Enroth all hoping to impress. This side will look to repeat their 2006 gold medal win and this squad could set up an awesome final! For a full list please click here.
USA
The US coach Dan Bylsma has gone for mixture of youth and experience for this years games with the key selections appearing to be David Backes and Zach Parise at centre, Ryan Suter in defense and Phil Kessel and Patrick Kane flying the wings.
This American side is also rich in depth and selections such as Ryan Kessler, Max Pacioretty and James van Riemsdyk could really make a splash offensively!
At the back Brooks Orpik, Cam Fowler and Ryan McDonagh will back up the impressive three goalie choices of Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Quick and returning Olympic MVP Ryan Miller!
They may be more of an outside shot for a medal, but the USA will fight to the death. Go here, for a full look at the team.
Russia
The home side will be keen to impress at their own event after severely underachieving at the last two Olympics, and the inclusion of the big three of Alex Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin will do nothing to dim their hopes! Former NHL old boy, Ilya Kovalchuk will also aid their cause greatly and with some great defensive choices including Montreal's Andrei Markov and Columbus man Fedor Tyutin who are assured to make a difference. Sergei Bobrovsky and Varlemov will be competing for net time, but there are some surprise omissions such as Sergei Gonchar and Alexander Semin! Russia will have an entire country surrounding on ice so let's prepare for things to get loud! To view their choices, click here
Whatever the choices here's to a great Olympics ahead!
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