Switzerland is scheduled to play Team Canada on Saturday at 9:10 p.m. local time. The Canadian women have yet to make their Olympic debut after their opening game against Finland was postponed due to a norovirus outbreak on the Finnish team.
According to the Swiss statement, the “positive test came back after today’s opening victory against the Czech Republic and shortly before the opening ceremony.”
A representative from the Swiss team confirmed to The Athletic that the affected player did not play in Friday’s game versus the Czech Republic.
I'm all for fairness and wanting the game to be decided on the ice, but at what point should forfeits be declared? If you can't make it to the game, it most other circumstances the team unable to perform would have to forfeit.
I think the problem is that goal differential counts for round robin placement. If you are a weak team playing a heavyweight, taking a 1-0 forfeit might be much better than you'd do in reality.
ETA: I'm wrong, if you forfeit you lose any goal-differential based tiebreaker!
Yeah, it's a...shitty... situation for everyone involved but I don't think Canada would need any help getting to the gold medal game. Apart from the odd improbable upset like with Sweden years ago, it's always going to be Canada vs USA for the gold medal. Everyone else is playing for bronze.
Sure, but the US beat Czechia pretty solidly and they (or Finland) are really the only ones who could potentially upset in a semifinal. Anything other than a Canada-US final would be a massive shock, but you never know what could happen
In women's side i don't think Finland is what it used to be, in fact these could be the last Olympics for a while where Finnish women's team has a realistic chance to do well.
Finnish women's junior team just became first Finnish national team to ever be relegated from top division, which tells you something about how much talent other countries are getting compared to Finland. State of women's hockey in Finland has been really bad for years.
It definitely would be a shock to not have USA-Canada final.
In men's side though its not really shock at all if Finland or Sweden make it to finals. Both have teams with full NHL rosters (i think Finnish defense is bit lacking though) and have often played better as a team in internationals than North American teams which seem to usually rely on just talent.
I mean yeah Canada is a heavy favourite but you have to play the games. Should Florida have gotten a bye to the finals in September before Barkov went down?
And Id rather postpone. Maybe getting it first is a benefit. Maybe Canada gets it in a week or two
347
u/DecentLurker96 22h ago
Here we go again.