Those are the three squads most likely to medal, as far as I can see.

Russia is obscenely loaded at forward. Ovechkin, Semin, Kovalchuk, Malkin, Datsyuk, Fedorov as a defensive center, Radulov, Kovalev, the list goes on. It’s all top-flight, unbelievably high skill players. Defense is a little sketchy, especially with the injury to Markov and Nabokov, Bryzgalov or Varlamov in net.

Team Canada is, well, Team Canada. I don’t think they’re quite as good at forward as Russia (but nearly so) and they’re better on the blueline (by a lot) and their prospective goalie trio starts with the names “Luongo” and “Brodeur”. Add in either MAF, Ward or Mason and you have a very deep, very legitimate, very motivated Canadian squad trying to make up for last Olympics’ humiliation. Did I mention they’ll be playing at home?

Team Sweden is the defending Gold Medal team and they have Backstrom and the Sedin twins, along with Zetterberg on the top lines, Lidstrom and Ohlund on the blueline (don’t sleep on Hedman either, he’s looked pretty good when I’ve watched the bolts play) and a guy you may have heard of by the name of Henrik Lundqvist in goal. The Olympics is a short tournament with a lot of game – sounds similar to the playoffs and just like the playoffs, one goalie getting hot can decide the whole thing. Can you think of a better goalie to bet on catching fire over 14 days? Me, either.

It should be a fantastic tournament, I’m very much looking forward to it. One thing I’m not looking forward to: Should Canada win, Crosby goes to Godhead status immediately. A Stanley Cup, followed by the Olympic Gold? Forget it. Might as well elect him Prime Minister now and get it over with.