With the conclusion of the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park, a 2-1 Bruins win, the USA roster was announced and the collective Olympic rosters completed. In all, 7 Red Wings are headed to Vancouver for the tournament and Sweden carries the bulk (go figure) of those players.
There were a lot of surprises on the various teams but all of the expected Red Wings made the team. There’s no way to predict if any more Wings will make the cut via injury to others but as of now, Detroit is well represented in what will surely be a great tournament.
Check after the jump for how our predictions worked in comparison to the actual rosters and to see which Wings made the cut.
Here’s the list of players and which country they represent.:
Brian Rafalski- United States
Pavel Datsyuk– Russia
Valtteri Filppula- Finland
Tomas Holmstrom- Sweden
Henrik Zetterberg– Sweden
Nicklas Lidstrom- Sweden
Niklas Kronwall- Sweden
Looking back at our preview, we did pretty well.
Team Sweden- We picked Zetterberg, Lidstrom, and Holmstrom all as locks and then Kronwall was listed as a yes, tentative on his recovery. Score: picked the correct outcome of all 8 Swedes.
Team Finland- Got Filppula correct (by assuming he’d recover from his wrist injury well) and picked Ville Leino’s fate correctly as well. Score: 2 of 2.
Team Russia- Only one Wing from Russia (what a change from the 1990s huh?) and of course Pavel Datsyuk was a no doubter. Score: 1 of 1
Team Slovakia- Tomas Tatar was our dark horse and he put forth a good effort to make the big squad but saw time on the World Juniors team instead. Perhaps if there are injuries before the Olympics, Tatar may join the squad but for now he’s off the list. Score: 1 of 1.
Team Canada– Todd Bertuzzi and Dan Cleary were the only players we really saw as candidates and as expected they didn’t make the cut. The Canadian team is just far too packed with talent and there wasn’t much room on the team. But hey, we’ve got the head coach and the bossman of operations so it ain’t too shabby is it? Score: 2 of 2
Team USA- Rafalski was the one we had going and Jimmy Howard was a long shot with the way he was playing earlier and the year and in a way its good because of the rest he will get. Score: 1 of 1.
Overall score: Perfect, of course 🙂
Check back tomorrow for some more in depth about the implications of the whole Olympic picks.
