In gratitude for the Olympics, Part 2

I feel a special connection to the Swedish women's Olympic hockey team- I met Maria Rooth and Katarina Timglas when they were here for a hockey clinic last year. Plus I'm about a quarter Swedish. Of course I'm supporting the US women's team as well. I'd like to write a little about each of the women's Olympic teams, but to start, here's the Olympic groupings (with links to their page), schedule, the IIHF World Rankings for the women, and the medal count for previous Olympics. (Women's hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998 at Nagano, Japan, so there are only 3 previous Olympics to talk about.)





Group A:
Canada
Sweden
Switzerland
Slovakia

Group B:
USA
Finland
Russia
China

Schedule: (Times in PST, TV network shown in parenthesis)

Saturday, Feb 13:
12 noon- Sweden 3, Switzerland 0 (CNBC)
5 pm- Canada vs Slovakia (CNBC, replay on MSNBC)

Sunday, Feb 14: (Hockey is for lovers)
12 noon- USA vs China (USA, the network, replay on MSNBC)
4:30 pm- Finland vs Russia (CNBC)

Monday, Feb 15:
2:30 pm- Canada vs Switzerland (MSNBC)
7 pm- Sweden vs Slovakia (MSNBC at 12 midnight)

Tuesday, Feb 16:
2:30 pm- USA vs Russia (MSNBC)
7 pm- Finland vs China (not on TV, jerks)

Wednesday, Feb 17:
2:30 pm- Canada vs Sweden (MSNBC)
7 pm- Slovakia vs Switzerland (CNBC)

Thursday, Feb 18:
2:30 pm- USA vs Finland (MSNBC)
7 pm- China vs Russia (CNBC)

Saturday, Feb 20:
2:30 pm- Classifications
7 pm- Classifications

Monday, Feb 22:
12 noon- Semifinals (USA)
2 pm- Classifications 7th/8th
5 pm- Semifinals (CNBC)
7 pm- Classifications 5th/6th

Thursday, Feb 25:
11 am- Bronze medal game (MSNBC)
3 pm- Gold medal game (MSNBC)

International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Pre-2010 Olympic Women's Rankings:
1. USA
2. Canada
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. Switzerland
6. Russia
7. Kazakhstan
8. Japan
9. China
10. Germany
11. Slovakia

Olympics Medal Count:
2006- Canada (Gold), Sweden (Silver), USA (Bronze)
2002- Canada (Gold), USA (Silver), Sweden (Bronze)
1998- USA (Gold), Canada (Silver), Finland (Bronze)