About a week after the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics officially kicked off, the competition that I am most interested in is about to get underway today. Can’t say that I’ve watched a whole lot so far, but that should change now that the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament is about to start on Wednesday. Have to say that I’ve taken full advantage of the time without NHL hockey to take a step back and get to some of the tasks I have put off because I am always watching television.
Our Winnipeg Jets have sent four of their players over to Italy, with Connor Hellebuyck & Kyle Connor representing the United States, Josh Morrissey donning the colours of Team Canada, and Nino Niederreiter captaining the squad from Switzerland. While Mark Scheifele failed to make the cut and get the chance to wear the Maple Leaf despite the club requiring two right handed forward fill ins, there are a couple former True Northers who will also be fighting for a medal. Speedy Nikolaj Ehlers will be a key member of the Danish contingent in Milan, while Leon Gawanke will be patrolling the blueline for Team Germany.
The quest for gold will begin early on Wednesday morning (here in Canada, at least) when the round robin opens with a pair of contests. None of the above mentioned players will be in action today though, as it will be the Slovaks & Finns and the Swedes & Italians who will get the first opportunity to play an official men’s hockey game at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. For most of us Winnipeg Jets’ fans who will be cheering for the Canadians, the action won’t get underway until Thursday.
With the time change between Milan and Winnipeg, the games will range from 5:10 am to 2:10 pm Central starts….at least giving any avid hockey fans in North America the opportunity to catch all the action. Here is the full round robin schedule:
The round robin section of the tournament will run from February 11th to 15th before the qualification and quarterfinal matches take place on the 17th & 18th. That will set the semifinals for Friday the 20th, while the bronze and gold medal games will take place on Saturday & Sunday.
Well, my SI joint has been bugging me again lately….so I can’t stay seated much longer before I do some stretches. I will most likely be in the Comment section during most of the games, so if anyone wants to chat about the action, feel free to join me.
One final note, you may also want to keep an eye on Team Latvia, as they will have projected top 10 overall draft prospect Albert Smits in their lineup and he could be one of the players that Jets’ GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has the opportunity to draft in June.