In the lead-up to the start of the tournament, Olympic Hockey odds had three favored teams; Canada, Sweden and Russia as at least two of the teams have been in each semi-final since the Soviet Union collapsed. Until this year, that is. There is only one remaining after the quarterfinals; the Canadian team that had to go through a qualifying game just to advance.

The powers of hockey are quickly seeing the gap between them and the former weak teams close at an alarming rate. While the tournament still had teams like Norway, Latvia and Germany, who were completely outplayed, Switzerland played the USA to a 3-1 loss, took the Canadians to a shootout and Belarus was in a close 4-2 loss to Sweden.

While these teams are not going to challenge for medals, the Slovakian team is off to the semi-finals along with a much improved American team and an always scrappy Finland. Slovakia has never placed higher than fifth in the Olympics but with the Marians (Hossa and Gaborik) and a strong young goaltender in Jaroslav Halak, they are a team to look out for.

The Finns have always been able to shut down a strong offence to knock a favorite out of the tournament; this year it was Sweden. Always a strong team they have never advanced to the elite level; never placed higher than second at the Olympics and in the IIHF World Cup they have 11 top four placements but only one gold in the past fifteen years. This might be their year as they have a matchup with USA who has only one medal (silver in 2000) since the Miracle on Ice.

The clear favorite should not be the Canadians. They dismantled the Russians in the quarterfinal and having fixed the defensive issues that cost them their game against the Americans, they are a lock for a medal; the question is what color.