Today went as planned in terms of which teams won their games. That said I only went 2-2 on my picks with the Swiss able to keep it close against the Swedes, and the Latvians having another good game against the Czech Republic. Canada and Finland did their part though and had a couple blowout games.
Olympics record: 4-4 for -0.29 units.
Slovakia vs Slovenia
The Slovaks are coming off a 7-1 drumming by Team USA. The score doesn’t tell the whole story though because Team USA only outshot Slovakia by 10 and their goals really came as the flood gates opened in period 2. Slovenia did better than expected losing 5-2 to Russia. I think these outcomes may have swayed the odds a bit and this maybe should be a 3.5 goal spread. I like Slovakia to bounce back and put up some goals against a far weaker Slovenia team.
Play: Slovakia (-2.5) 2.00 (5Dimes)
USA vs Russia
The USA showed they have firepower in this Olympics with a 7-1 win over Slovakia. I’m surprised that Russia is such a big favourite in this game. They had a hard time against Slovenia and Datsyuk is playing at half speed. I expect Team USA to push hard on a fairly weak Russian defense and make them work hard all night. This will also prevent the talented forwards for Russia from getting the puck as often as they’d like. I expect a fairly clinical win from Team USA in this one.
Play: USA 2.25 (Bet365)
Sweden vs Latvia
Sweden lost Zetterberg, which is a huge hit for their gold medal chances. That said they still have a lot of offense on this team and they will be looking to gel further after only registering one goal against the Swiss today. Look for the Swedes to run up the score in this one if they can.
Play: Sweden (-3.5) 2.00 (Bet365)
Switzerland vs Czech Republic
The Swiss won 1-0 over Latvia and lost 1-0 against Sweden. In fact they looked like the better team for much of the Sweden game. If they can use their speed against the Czech Republic they should have a good chance in this one. It will come down to if they can start finding the back of the net on some of their chances and if Hiller can continue to stand on his head, which has become what we expect from the Swiss netminder in these games. I like the Swiss to pull off the minor upset in this one and have a slightly easier opponent for the play-in games.
Play: Switzerland (+1.5) 1.45 (Bet365)
Tagged with: Czech Republic • Latvia • Russia • Slovakia • Slovenia • Sweden • Switzerland • USA