Best Nation @ NHLer Olympics

[Slitty]

Okay Ladies and Gentlemen! Today we will be taking a look at which nation has performed the best, and is the currenty overall leader at the Olympics since 1998, when NHLers were first allowed to participate. We will be working with a point scheme of 3 points for a gold medal, 2 points for a silver, and 1 point for a bronze. They tiebreakers are as follows: 1)number of gold medals, 2)number of silver medals, 3)performance at the last Olympics in which at least one of the nations in question won a medal.


Heading into Turin, the rankings looked a little like this:
1. Canada(3pts) - gold 2002.
2. Czech Republic(3pts) - gold 1998.
3. Russia(3pts) - silver 1998, bronze 2002.
4. USA(2pts) - silver 2002.
5. Finland(1pts) - bronze 1998.


After the completion of the 2006 Olympic hockey tournament:
1. Czech Republic(4pts) - gold 1998, bronze 2006.
2. Sweden(3pts) - gold 2006.
3. Canada(3pts) - gold 2002.
4. Finland(3pts) - bronze 1998, silver 2006.
5. Russia(3pts) - silver 1998, bronze 2002.
6. USA(2pts) - silver 2002.


Eye opening to say the least in terms of who should be considered favourites based on histrical advantage. However, at this point no true dominating nation emerged like the Soviet Union with pre-NHL Olympics. The Czech's lead is only by a single bronze medal, and all of Sweden, Canada, Finland, and Russia have 3 points. Slovakia is the only "big7" nation not to have medalled.

Click to read more...

 

[Epsilon]

Not a bad analysis. Here's how I would change it up slightly:

gold = 5 pts
silver = 3 pts
bronze = 2 pts
4th = 1 pt

This puts more emphasis on the gold (i.e. winning), and by counting 4th place for something it all distinguishes the teams who won a playoff game from those who didn't. First tiebreaker will be if the team won a gold medal or not. Under that system we would have:

1. Czech Republic 7 pts
2. Canada 6 pts
3. Russia 6 pts
4. Sweden 5 pts
5. Finland 5 pts
6. USA 3 pts
7. Belarus 1 pt

 

[Leo Naphta]

Normally when these medal-tables are counted, the amount of golds are counted first, followed by the amount of silvers, followed by the amount of bronzes.

That would make it

1. Czech Rep 1-0-1
2. Sweden 1-0-0
2. Canada 1-0-0
4. Russia 0-1-1
4. Finland 0-1-1
6. USA 0-1-0

 

[jekoh]

Slovakia is the only "big7" nation not to have medalled.

That's mainly because they were cheated in 98 and 02. As soon as they got the chance to ice their A team, they finished in front of Canada and the USA after dominating the round-robin.

Now another ranking, maybe not the best since it only takes into account each team's final rank, but here goes:

1. RUS 2+3+4=9
2. CZE 1+7+3=11
2. SWE 5+5+1=11
2. FIN 3+6+2=11
5. CAN 4+1+7=12
6. USA 6+2+8=16

 

[psycho_dad*]

This is still pretty much the IIHF ranking. You should include the world cup too, since it has also been a best on best tournament. Since -98 the olympics have been that too, so maybe count from that point on to this day?

Or if you want to separate them, then you could maybe say that "on big ice the ranking is this".

 

[Alessandro Seren Rosso]

This is still pretty much the IIHF ranking. You should include the world cup too, since it has also been a best on best tournament. Since -98 the olympics have been that too, so maybe count from that point on to this day?

Or if you want to separate them, then you could maybe say that "on big ice the ranking is this".

World Cup wasnt IIHF

 

[psycho_dad*]

World Cup wasnt IIHF

Yeah, thats the point. We could include the world cup also, and get even better view at the rankings. Now people are disregarding one of the best on best tournaments just because it was not held by the IIHF.

 

[Zine]

Yeah, thats the point. We could include the world cup also, and get even better view at the rankings. Now people are disregarding one of the best on best tournaments just because it was not held by the IIHF.

This is about olympic performance though.......not any other tourney.




Anyway, here's each country's olympic W/L record since the '98 games.
In parenthesis (and probably more important) is each country's record against other 'top 7' nations.


Canada 11-6-1 (5-5-1)
Czech Republic 10-7-1 (6-6-1)
Finland 12-6-0 (7-6-0)
Russia 13-6-1 (7-6-1)
Slovakia 7-4-2 (3-1-0)
Sweden 11-5-0 (6-4-0)
United States 6-8-1 (2-8-1)....god, do we suck.

 

[big_steve]

Here's something I put together. Same point system as the IIHF, except what's in bold.

2006 Olympics- 1200 Points(100%)
2005 World Championships- 900 Points(75%)
2004 World Cup- 900 Points(75%)
2004 World Championships- 600 Points(50%)
2003 World Championships- 300 Points(25%)

Bonus(1998, 2002, & 2006):
Olympic Gold- 200 Points
Olympic Silver- 150 Points
Olympic Bronze- 100 Points

Here's the results:
1. Canada- 3880 Points
2. Czech Republic- 3800 Points
3. Sweden- 3780 Points
4. Finland- 3590 Points
5. Russia- 3370 Points
6. Slovakia- 3240 Points
7. United States- 3190 Points
8. Germany- 2700 Points
9. Switzerland- 2240 Points
10. Latvia- 2040 Points

Switzerland would be ahead of Germany only for the World Cup, where Germany finished 7th.