Sochi 2014 - A glance at each team (Part 1/2)

In just over two weeks from now the elite nations in the world of hockey go at it for the dream of winning Olympic gold. Twelve teams, lowest ranked Slovenia (17th), go into three groups of four and do battle before being seeded for the single game knockout tournament, all available on the BBC through one platform or another.

In these posts I'll be including previous appearances plus a look at who could be key players for each team, and each nations NHL representatives.

Note: if anyone wants to complain about the focus on the nations such as the US, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden then I say, what did you expect? I'm not Austrian, Latvian, Norwegian, Slovakian, Slovenian, or Swiss.

So without further ado, let's get started.


AUSTRIA - (Group B) IIHF Rank: 15th
13th appearance at the Olympics. One championship in their history. 1927 European Champions. Best Olympic campaign, 5th in 1928.

They have eight of their 25 man squad that play outside the Eishockey Liga, Thomas Vanek & Michael Grabner (both New York Islanders) and Michael Raffl (Philadelphia Flyers) in the NHL, plus Stefan Ulmer, Raphael Herburger and Oliver Setzinger in the Swiss League system, Thomas Hundertpfund and Bernhard Starkbaum playing in the lower leagues of Sweden, yet still produce play that ranks them just outside the top nine who gain automatic berths into the tournament.

Needless to say the danger men for their group B opponents will be the play in the NHL, Grabner, Raffl and Vanek. Grabner's speed, Vanek's hands, and Raffl's speed plus sense of the ice will be things all NHL fans, players and pundits will be aware of.

One home based player with experience in North America is Thomas Pock, a former New York Ranger and Lake Erie Monster, could never settle and went back to Austria after his contract with Colorado ran out in the summer.

There aren't many more things to say about this team that do them any favours. They're the 3rd worst team in the competition on IIHF rankings and find themselves in a group with the powerhouses Canada and Finland, plus 9th ranked Norway. They'll likely finish in the bottom 4 at best and get knocked out in the first knockout round by a powerhouse nation.

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Excellent post, thoroughly enjoyed reading it & looking forward to watching this & many of the other sports at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Remember I had NHL 96 I think it was on the Sega Megadrive - Brilliant game & I remember a certain player called Jaromír Jágr of Pittsburgh being one of the standout players of his era. Remember winning a few Stanley Cups with him back in the day