Countdown to Vancouver

With the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver starting up on Friday night. I'm going to start by posting the national team rosters and provide some notes on the different teams that will be comeptiting (Especially with the Mens Tournament).

Just a remender, the Mens Tournament starts on the Feb. 16 and the Women's Tournament starting on Feb. 13 which is the day after the Opening Cermonies.

Here's the tournament Groups.

Men's Tournament

Group A: Canada, U.S.A., Switzerland, Norway

Group B: Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia

Group C: Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belarus


Women's Tournament

Group A: Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia

Group B: U.S.A., Finland, Russia, China


Belarus Roster

8 years has passed since Belarus pulled off the biggest upset in their nations history as they beat Sweden in the Olympic Quarterfinals. Since then, the Belarus team has been up and down as the BLR Junior Teams have struggled to stay in the WJC and U18 World Championships, also a mixed results in the IIHF World Championships and missing the 2006 Olympics in Italy. This roster will have a ton of players from the KHL in Russia along with a couple of recent draft picks that they are hoping to get into the NHL.

For Belarus, their most recent success came in the 2008 IIHF World Championship when they surprised everyone by making the Quarterfinals. This was one of the stronger showings in recent history.

As for the roster, they will be 4 NHLers, along with 5 in the Belarusian Open League which is the top league in Belarus. Then the other 15 are playing in the KHL, espically with the only Belarus team Dynamo Minsk. For Belaurs, 15 of these players played on the 2008 IIHF World Championship Team that got them to the Quarterfinals and eventually finished in 6th place.

So hopefully the fimilar of the roster will help them out and the strength of players in the KHL should help them out to pull off some upsets. Espically when they play Germany to open up the tournament on 2/20.

Belarus Group Stage Schedule

2/17: VS. Finland 6:30 PM CST

2/19: VS. Sweden 2:00 PM CST

2/20: VS. Germany 10:55 PM CST

Goaltenders

Vitali Koval, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)

Maxim Malyutin, HK Vitebsk (KHL, RUS)

Andrei Mezin, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)


Defensemen

Andrei Antonov, Shakhter Soligorsk (BOL, BLR)

Andrei Bashko, Shakhter Soligorsk (BOL, BLR)

Vladimir Denisov, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)

Viktor Kostiuchenok, Amur Khabarovsk (KHL, RUS)

Ruslaen Salei, Colorado Avalanche (NHL)

Nikolai Sushko, Shakhter Soligorsk (BOL, BLR)

Alexander Syrei, Shakhter Soligorsk (BOL, BLR)


Forwards

Oleg Antonenko, Avtomobilist Yekateringburg (KHL, RUS)

Sergei Demagin, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (KHL, RUS)

Mikhail Grabovski, Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL)

Alexei Kaliuzhny, Dynamo Moscow (KHL, RUS)

Konstantin Koltsov, Salavat Yulayev Ufa (KHL, RUS)

Andrei Kostitsyn, Montreal Canadians (NHL)

Sergei Kostitsyn, Montreal Canadians (NHL)

Alexander Kulakov, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)

Andrei Mikhalev, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)

Andrei Stas, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)

Alexei Ugarov, MVD Balashikha (KHL, RUS)

Sergei Zadelenov, Dynamo Minsk (KHL, BLR)