Day Six (Ten): Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum

Technically, this remains the open Olympic thread.  If you want to leave some thoughts on a non-hockey Olympic moment, you could theoretically do so. (Congratulations to Kevin Martin on exorcising his Great Britain demons last night in the men's curling.  Good win, man!)  But why would you?  Today is the day of big games in the hockey tournament.  It's go time.

But first a recap of last night.  A night of disappointing performances from the minnows I believed in.  The Swiss won their game against Norway.  In overtime.  And thus pissed away the point they earned against Canada.  Great job guys!  The Germans, who looked so good in their opener against the Swedes, lost 5-3 in regulation to the Drunks Belarussians.  At least they finally scored a goal.  Ugh.  But Slovakia held to form and destroyed the Latvians 6-0.  Not enough goals to make a difference should Russia lose in overtime today, but a solid outing nonetheless.

But today's games are the big ones.  First up is Russia and the Czechs.  With a loss Russia ends the round robin stage in seventh and suddenly the second seed in the tournament doesn't look so appealing.  With a win they leapfrog the Czechs and take Group B with 7 points.  Tough group to be in to start the tourney.  Next up is the United States and Canada.  A huge game for the US who have a legit shot at the number one seed with a win and some mucho respect as well.  The forwards have looked better in their first two games than I expected.  Excellent pace, lots of physical play and they're hounding the puck.  The defence?  They've been sub-par but didn't have to pay for it against Norway or Switzerland.  We'll see what happens.  Finally it's the Swedes and Finns.  Each team will know exactly what they need to do to get first place in the group which is a sure advantage if one of them ends up with a two or three goal lead.  Do you push for more or stand pat?  They'll have the numbers in front of them to know.  The Swedes haven't been too impressive so far but I'd still bet on them for this one.  What a great day of hockey ahead!

Schedule:

Russia v. Czech Republic 1:00 p.m. MST

Canada v. United States 5:40 p.m. MST

Sweden v. Finland 10:00 p.m. MST

Overall Standings: