Olympic hockey: Thoughts as we enter the quarterfinals

Slovenian Olympic hockey success and these jerseys: Two glorious things nobody saw coming.

A Swiss-ed opportunity?

This Olympics could have been a coming-out party for the Swiss men's hockey team. Switzerland have traditionally employed a strong defensive system that allowed them to create problems for stronger teams such as Canada. This edition of Team Switzerland should have been the strongest yet, with multiple NHL defencemen and one of the best goalies in the league in Jonas Hiller. Most experts predicted Switzerland to advance past Latvia to try and play spoiler to Canada in the quarterfinal. Instead Latvia upset Switzerland.

A Swiss-ed opportunity part II

The Canadian men's team possibly has not been faced with enough adversity to succeed. Canada played Norway, Austria and a banged-up Finland in the tournament stage. Now that Latvia eliminated a pretty good Swiss team, Canada is expected to cruise through the Latvians. The fact that Canada will not play one of the top teams in the tournament until the elimination stage could be a problem.

Czech yourself before you wreck yourself

The Czech Republic men's team is going to have to take a breather before they face the Americans in the quarterfinal. After scoring the first four goals against Slovakia, the Czechs let in the next three goals against the Slovaks who almost tied the game late. The American team has been the best in the tournament so far, and if the Czechs want to pull off the upset they must play their very best hockey the whole game.

Slovenia is looking good

Slovenia's men's team (in it's neon green accented jerseys) are one of the best stories of the tournament. After winning its first ever Olympic hockey game against Slovakia, Slovenia defeated Austria to move on to the quarterfinals against Sweden.

A guaranteed great game

Unfortunately, woman's hockey at the Sochi Olympics is almost over. The good news is that the final on Thursday between Canada and the USA may turn out to be the best game of the tournament; this includes the men's games. While I get the impression that many of the players on the men's side will go back to their respective leagues and resume their friendships with players they played against in the Olympics, the Canadian and American women really seem to hate each other. I will say it again, I wish this game could be played with full contact.