Women’s Olympic hockey puts top seeded teams in the same group to create more competitive games

Browsing through the eight women’s hockey teams gracing the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, you may be surprised to see how top heavy Group A is. Of the two groups in these Olympics, Group A of the women’s hockey tournament features heavy hitters in the United States, Canada, Finland, and the Olympics Athletes from Russia. On the other side, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, and host nation Korea fill out Group B, marking quite the talent disparity.

It may be a shock to some to see the top four teams in women’s hockey be grouped together, but there’s a reason why the format is this way. In fact, it’s all there in the writing, as the women’s hockey tournament is so top heavy, it would be extremely unfair to put any of the bigger names in the secondary group.

How much of a talent gap is there? In the five Olympics prior to 2018, the United States and Canada have medaled in every tournament. Canada has won the last four gold medals in women’s hockey, dating back to the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Putting Canada or the United States in Group B to even out the talent would only make the talent disparity worse.

The women’s tournament is seeded based on the country’s placement in the IIHF World Rankings, with the top five teams getting the nod, or in qualification tournaments. Thanks to the United States and Canada going No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the 2016 Women’s Ice Hockey World Championships, as expected, they placed in the top of the bracket. Russia, Finland, and Sweden locked down their places as the tournament’s third through fifth countries due to their standings in the tournament.

Japan and Switzerland grabbed the last two spots after duking it out in qualifying tournaments against 22 other teams. Korea, as the host nation, got an automatic qualifying bid for the tournament.

This format, of placing the top teams in Group A, was introduced in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in an attempt to create more competitive games. In previous Olympics, the United States and Canada combined to outscore their opponents by a 86-4 margin, prompting the much-needed switch up.

Though the format has seen just one complete Olympic games, it’s done a better job of fostering better games through the lower ranks. The top two teams in Group A do receive a bye to the semifinals, but teams are given a better chance to advance to the semifinals to knock off the heavyweights now than ever before.

Given what we’ve seen of both Canada and the United States, it’s going to be hard for any team to upset the two women’s hockey powerhouses with the talent they possess. However, thanks to this new format, the round robin games are more competitive now that the higher talent is contained to just one group.