2010 Olympics: Who plays who after the prelims

So, the three-game round robin is over for all 12 teams, and everyone moves on. Here are how they're ranked after Sunday's games: 

1. United States

2. Sweden

3. Russia

4. Finland

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5. Czech Republic

6. Canada

7. Slovakia

8. Switzerland

9. Belarus

10. Norway

11. Germany

12. Latvia

Next round (Tuesday):

G1: Czech Rep. vs. Latvia, 10 p.m.

G2: Canada vs. Germany, 7:30 p.m.

G3: Slovakia vs. Norway, midnight

G4: Switzerland vs. Belarus, 3 p.m.

Quarter-finals (Wednesday):

Q1. United States vs. Switzerland/Belarus

Q2. Sweden vs. Slovakia/Norway

Q3. Russia vs. Canada/Germany

Q4. Finland vs. Czech Rep./Latvia

Semi-finals (Friday)

Q1 vs. Q4

Q2 vs. Q3

Bronze-medal game (Saturday)
Semi-final losers

Gold-medal game (Sunday)
Semi-final winners


A few observations:

1. Finishing first has done wonders for the U.S., who will now avoid Canada, Russia and Sweden until playing for gold (should they make it that far). The Americans are the favourites now to come out of that side of the bracket (although we may not have seen the best of the Finns or Czechs yet).
   
   
2. Canada, conversely, has a heckuva road ahead, which is what they've earned after needing a shootout to beat Switzerland and losing to the U.S. The Canadians were the lowest ranked team that finished second in their group, and placing sixth instead of fifth means a date with Russia in the quarter-final instead of Finland.
   
   
3. I'm assuming there won't be any monumental upsets, of course, but that could happen. A win over a contending team by Slovakia or Switzerland would change everything, and when it comes down to one game and given those teams have excellent goaltenders, who knows?

However it shakes out, we're in for some great games this week. And, six days from now, a new gold-medal winner. 
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