Men's Olympic Hockey: Who Gets It Done in the Quarterfinals?

The games on the ice in the quarterfinals will be hopefully as hot as some of the fans in the crowd!

What a great day of hockey Tuesday’s qualification round turned out to be with three close games, one blowout, and one hell of an elbow.

Wednesday, and the quarterfinals, brings a whole new level of competition to the tournament.

I was on the right side of all the qualification round games.

Check the last article http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350384-mens-olympic-hockey-road-to-the-gold-a-rocky-ride

Let's not live in the past though and get right down to the business at hand!

The Swiss are taking on the USA and played them tough in the preliminaries, while the Slovaks get a shot at the Swedes and the Czechs will battle the Finns. Meanwhile, the matchup everyone thought could be the gold medal game, Russia versus Canada, is going down long before.

The USA (1) facing the Swiss (8) will be a close one and the U.S. may be clutching their sticks a little tighter as the pressure is on them at this point as no one expected them to be first overall. The Swiss battled tooth and nail to be here; can you say Jonas Hiller?

USA wins 3-2, perhaps in OT/Shootout.

Sweden (2) against Slovakia (7) could be a fairly tight game, as most think it will be, but the defending gold medalist Swedes seem to be hitting their stride and that spells trouble with a capital “SEE YA LATER” for the Slovaks.

Sweden wins 4-1.

Russia (3) takes on Canada (6) in the battle of the ice hockey superpowers and the top pre-tournament favorites.

Crosby versus Ovechkin on the biggest world stage; who will triumph and who goes home with a sour taste in their mouth?

Canada has Roberto Luongo between the pipes now and though he gave up a couple to the Germans he is in his house and looks to be ready to take on the Russians.

Both teams are pumped for this game and it should be a physical one, full of one-on-one battles and unequaled skill on one ice surface, perhaps ever.

I don’t think Russian goalie Nabakov will be up to the task, as he will face four players from his NHL SJ Sharks team, who I am sure will be releasing a few secrets to their team Canada mates.

If Russia starts Bryzgalov, it's a whole other can of worms and Canada could be in a little deeper trouble, but in all likelihood it will be Nabakov.

Canada will have to deal with all the skill the Russians possess, but the Slovaks beat them and there is no reason Canada can’t duplicate this feat and send Russia packing.

Canada wins 5-3.

The last game pits Finland (4) against the Czechs (5), and this one is again as close as it gets, but Latvia may have exposed some weaknesses and Finland, with rest, may be able to exploit that.

Finland wins 3-2 in OT/Shootout.

You maybe right, I may be crazy, and someone may have said that before, but by the day's end we will have the results to these games which are going to be off the hook!

I will be kicking it out to Mont Tremblant to do some snowboarding, drink some cold Quebec brew, and watch some hockey; I hope I don’t come back with a cast on any part of my body, which might be the best bet of all.

Enjoy the games; anything can happen in a one game knockout. May Canada prevail and lay yet another Russian bear skin in front of their fire place in the great white north!