Olympic Hockey Betting Tips PT 1
- By A.J. Ryder on February 18, 2014 00:31 GMT
Now that the Sochi 2014 Olympics have been in full swing for well over a week, we are getting into the business end of what many consider to be the most important event at the games - the Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament. With plenty of world-class players on the ice for every fixture, you can bank on there being a few interesting twists and turns still to come.
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Canada have certainly not played their best stuff if you’re paying attention to outright results - even requiring overtime to beat an underwhelming Finland side in order to clinch their third place spot heading into the knock-out stages of the competition itself. Watch out for the Canadians here as they tend to gel a bit later on in tournaments as the players get a bit more accustomed to their lines and the different strengths that players bring to the table.
It’s worth keeping your eye on the Canadians in regards to the outright odds to win the tournament as they are still at a very plausible price of 3.0 to win the lot. With a semi-final draw looming large against the United States (who are considered to be the third favourite at 4.5), it pretty much comes down to that fixture as the final is expected to be against Sweden - who come into the knock out rounds ranked as the #1 seed.
Despite that top ranking, however, the Swedes remain the fourth favourites to win with the bookmakers pricing them around 5.5 to go the distance and capture Olympic gold. Russia are the second favourites to win and trade at 3.75.
As said before, it is widely considered fate that Canada faces off against Russia for the final, something that is definitely plausible given the seedings in the various groups.
The fact remains that the Russians did not play that well in the round robin stages and only enter the knock out round ranked fifth behind Finland. With players looking good playing against lower opposition but a bit disorganized against the better sides, it remains to be seen which Russia will actually show up this late on.
