Canada, Russia and Sweden Announce Olympic Rosters

With around a month to go before the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the participating countries have begun to announce their rosters for the men’s ice hockey tournament.

After the Winter Classic, Team USA unveiled their team, with the Czechs, Finns, Slovakians doing the same in the last week. Today, two of the major contenders, Sweden and Canada, revealed who they are sending to Sochi, with only the Russians left to go.

For Sweden, there were a few surprises, but Red Wing fans should be paying close attention since there are 6 Detroit players on the team. The Swedish roster is as follows:

From a Red Wing perspective, Alfredsson, Franzen, Zetterberg, Ericsson, Kronwall and Gustavsson will all be heading overseas to try and claim gold for Sweden for the 2nd time since NHL players were allowed at the Olympics. Oh, and then this happened:

Henrik Zetterberg will captain Team Sweden. #Sochi2014 #RedWings

— Matias Strozyk (@MaStrozyk) January 7, 2014

For Team Canada, the biggest question mark was going to be whether P.K. Subban made the team or not. Many speculated that he might be left off in the same way that Keith Yandle was kept home by the US, but Steve Yzerman didn’t pull a USA and is bringing him to Sochi. Here’s the Canadian team:

The biggest snubs here were Joe Thornton and Martin St. Louis, but overall the team is good. I’d put it ahead of USA (naturally), but there are definitely holes in the roster. The inclusion of Kunitz was to be expected, but is still maddening. I do feel confident in saying Bobby Ryan would have a place on this team.

Russia named Pavel Datsyuk and a bunch of other guys. Really, who cares about the Russians.

So those are the last of the Olympic teams. Let the second-guessing begin!