Team Canada is a slight favorite to take gold in the Olympic Men’s Hockey Tournament at roughly 2/1 odds, but Russia isn’t very far behind on the betting board at 12/5 to take gold in front of its home crowd.
Canada and Russia favorites to win gold in Olympics Men’s Hockey
The puck drops on Olympic hockey and Olympic hockey betting today. Who is favored to win and what are the odds on today’s games in Sochi?
Bruce Bennett
The group stage begins on Wednesday as each of the tournament’s 12 teams play three games over a five-day period (see opening game Olympic hockey odds).
Wednesday’s action kicks off with two games between opponents in Group C. Sweden is favored to win Group C at -200 with the Czech Republic also expected to compete at +175. Switzerland (+800) and Latvia (+10000) round out the group.
Sweden is a -200 favorite on Wednesday morning going against the Czech Republic (+165) while Switzerland is a -650 favorite Wednesday against Latvia (+450).
On Thursday, the other two groups get underway and Team Canada hockey betting begins in earnest.
Canada is the clear favorite to win Group B at -650 over Finland (+350), Norway (+5000) and Austria (+10000). Neither of the first two games in this group are expected to be close as Finland is a 3.5-goal favorite over Austria on Thursday and is -3300 on the moneyline (Austria at +1200) and Canada is a 4.5-goal favorite over Norway and is a -5000 favorite on the moneyline (Norway at +1400).
Russia is a -200 favorite to win Group A, which also features the medal contender United States (+175) and longshots Slovakia (+1000) and Slovenia (+10000). Russia is heavily favored in Thursday’s game against Slovenia as a 4.5-goal favorite and a -10000 favorite on the moneyline (Slovenia paying +2000 on the upset).
The USA vs. Slovakia game should be much more competitive as the Americans are a -325 favorite and Slovakia is +260.
After the group stage wraps up on Sunday, the qualifying round is played on Tuesday the 18th, the quarterfinals are played on Wednesday the 19th and the semifinals are played on Friday the 21st.
The bronze medal game between the two teams that lost in the semifinals is set for the morning of Saturday the 22nd and the gold medal game will be decided on Sunday the 23rd.
Props are also part of the hockey betting odds landscape at the Olympics and the sport’s biggest stars sit at the top of the leaderboard on Most Goals at several sportsbooks.
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