2022 Winter Olympics: Odds, Schedule, Medal Favorites and Predictions for Friday
A brand-new event to the Winter Olympics program takes center stage on Friday night.
The mixed team snowboard cross event features one man and one woman from the participating countries and every run of the competition takes place in prime time in American time zones.
Women's snowboard cross gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner will partner up on the first United States team, while Faye Gulini and Jake Vedder make up the other American squad.
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The U.S. is not a lock to win the gold medal. Italy, Czech Republic and France placed in that order in the first team snowboard cross event on the FIS World Cup circuit.
The United States have another vital event late on Friday night, when the men's ice hockey team faces Canada. The Americans won their first group-stage game against China, but now they face a squad that is projected to win the pool.
All available odds for Friday's events can be found on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Friday Olympic Schedule
Men's Hockey: Latvia vs. Finland (8:10 a.m. ET, Peacock)
Women's Hockey: Canada vs. Sweden (8:10 a.m. ET, Peacock)
Skeleton: Men's individual run 4 (8:55 a.m. ET, USA)
Women's Curling: Round-robin matches (8:05 p.m. ET, CNBC and Peacock)
Snowboarding: Team Snowboard Cross (9 p.m. ET, NBC)
Men's Hockey: Canada vs. United States (11:10 p.m. ET, USA)
Women's Hockey: ROC vs. Switzerland (11:10 p.m. ET, CNBC)
Predictions
Italy Wins Snowboard Cross Team Event
Italy can be viewed as the favorite to win the mixed team snowboard cross event.
Omar Visintin won the bronze medal in this year's men's snowboard cross in Beijing, and Michela Moioli claimed gold in the women's discipline in 2018.
Moioli did not win a medal in the women's event in Beijing and that could be extra motivation for her to capture the first-ever team gold.
Italy is one of five countries that produced medalists in the individual snowboard cross events, and Canada is the only nation to have multiple medalists.
The Canadians will be in medal contention with its team of Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O'Dine, but it begins in a tough heat with France, ROC and the No. 2 team from the United States.
Italy's top team will wear the No. 1 bib and faces the easier matchup to get through to the second round.
The men open the snowboard cross team events and their times are transferred to their female teammates to complete each heat.
The American duo of Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner have a chance to medal. They should make it out of their quarterfinal heat that also features Australia's two teams and Switzerland, but they would have to go head-to-head with Italy in the semifinals.
Anything can happen in snowboard cross, but if Italy's pair runs a clean set of races, it should capture the first gold in the event.
Canada-United States Play Low-Scoring Hockey Match
The typical buzz for a Canada-United States men's hockey match is tempered for Friday night due to the lack of NHL players on each roster.
However, the lack of other events in the late prime-time television slot and the rivalry between the two nations should make for an exciting matchup.
Canada and the United States should finish first and second in Group A, respectively, and the winner of Friday's game should emerge as the group victor.
The U.S. beat China 8-0 in its opener, but the host nation is ranked 32nd in the world and not expected to contend in its home Olympics. Canada defeated Germany 5-1 in the other Group A opener.
The defenses of both sides should reign in Friday's contest. The successes of the opening matches combined with the lack of big-game experience on both sides should play a role in that.
Neither side boasts a ton of previous NHL and international experience and that could lead to a tight first period and that could leak over into the second period.
The North American rivals are expected to play a close game, but it could be a low-scoring one, like we have seen in the tighter Group B, where no teams have scored more than two goals in four games.
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