Finally Facing My Waterloo
With the American Olympic men’s hockey team still to be announced (on New Year’s Day), it might be a good time to take a look at who the smart money is on as we prepare for an agonizing six weeks of waiting for the Vancouver tournament to begin. Longley points out today that Canada and Russia are the early clubhouse favourites:
The host Canadian squad will enter the competition as the prohibitive favourite at odds of better than even money. Mike Babcock’s team is listed at odds of 4/5 by online bookmaker, Bowmans.com, a much stronger choice than the Russian team, which is the second fave at 5-2.
The rest of the countries are prohibitive underdogs. Sweden is at 6-1, while the U.S. come in at 9-1. Next is the Czech Republic (12-1), Finland (16-1), and Slovakia (25-1). The longest odds are reserved for the punching bags. Switzerland (100-1), Germany (400-1), Latvia (1,000-1), Belarus (1,000-1), and Norway (2,000-1) have little chance to win a game, let alone a medal.
Let’s put some of these in real dollars. A $100 on Canada only gets you $80 return and the Russians will get you slightly more than the C-note you put down. The smart money might be on the Swedish entry. A solid line-up up and down the roster and the fact they are the defending champions makes them, I think, an attractive option. You measure Canada’s roster against the Sweden list and the gap isn’t as wide as you previously thought. And just like that, a $100 send on the Swedes for a $600 return isn’t a terrible decision. No one picked them to win the last time, right?
And for those with money to burn, try your hand at Norway. $100 will get you a cool $200,000.
