text: Will Russia's home advantage give them the edge in the Winter Olympics? Can USA go one better than Vancouver? Can Czech Republic's 40-somethings cause an upset?
  Sidney Crosby celebrates with teammates Scott Niedermayer and Drew Doughty after scoring the gold winning goal in overtime against the USA at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
  Thursday 9 January 2014 10.08 EST Last modified on Monday 4 April 2016 12.19 EDT
  Now we know who will be on the ice in Sochi are we any closer to knowing which nation will claim hockey gold?
  All of the Olympic hockey squads have been unveiled, some with more fanfare than others. The Canadian announcement was set to start at 11am on Tuesday, but it was a little later than that after a long list of speeches from people who were surely important individually but who, at the end of the day, could only be lumped together as one entity: The Person Who Is Not Telling Us Who's On The Olympic Team. Which was annoying.
  So, without further delay from us, here it is, your defending Olympic gold medal hockey team:
  Goal: Roberto Luongo (Canucks); Carey Price (Canadiens); Mike Smith (Coyotes)
  Defence: P.K. Subban (Canadiens); Marc Edouard Vlasic (Sharks); Shea Weber (Predators); Jay Boumeester (Blues); Drew Doughty (Kings); Duncan Keith (Blackhawks); Dan Hamhuis (Canucks); Alex Pietrangelo (Blues).
  Forward: Jonathan Toews (Blackhawks); Patrick Sharp A (Blackhawks); John Tavares (Islanders); Corey Perry (Ducks); Steven Stamkos (Lightning); Ryan Getzlaf (Ducks); Chris Kunitz (Penguins); Sidney Crosby (Penguins); Patrick Marleau (Sharks); Rick Nash (Rangers); Matt Duchene (Avalanche); Jeff Carter (Kings); Jamie Benn (Stars); Patrice Bergeron (Bruins).
  Most of the cheering and hopefulness in Canada following the announcement likely came from Montreal, where Habs fans were already gearing up their incredulity in anticipation that their beloved PK Subban would get the snub – or, worse, that perhaps Price might not make the cut. They both did, much to the relief perhaps of the city's riot squad. But mostly everyone else had a lot of questions.
  Such as: Where is Martin St. Louis, the captain down in Tampa Bay (where Team Canada general manager Steve Yzerman also generally manages). Or Sharks' captain and perennial Canadian addition, Joe Thornton? And what about Stamkos' broken leg – what happens if he's not ready? Almost immediately there were posts here and there about the quality of the B-team Canada could ice if it so chose. Which is all fine as a mental exercise, but hardly amounts to anything at the moment apart from more chest-thumping. If anything, having a hypothetically insane B-team is good news. It means Canada still has depth. Which, given the state of the other international programs, might not be much of an advantage for long.
  But since we're playing that game... Why no Claude Giroux? Sure, the Flyers haven't been outstanding this season, but 39 points in 43 games says something. Or, better, 179 points since 2012 – a feat matched only by John Tavares. That's more, for the record, than Stamkos or Crosby.
  Or why didn't Corey Crawford make the cut? The Globe and Mail's James Mirtle pointed out that perhaps the thinking behind Smith's addition to the goalie list is because out of Canadian goalies who've played more than five playoff games between 2011 and 2013, he's got the best save percentage (.945). But third on that list – with more games played in the postseason than Price or Luongo, too – is Crawford, sitting at .925. The argument against Crawford is always that he plays behind an incredible team in Chicago. That's true. But the numbers are there.
  We could go on forever, ad nauseam. But perhaps at least some of that national chin-scratching is valid. Though the team boasts 11 returning players from the gold-medal 2010 Vancouver Games squad and six NHL captains, it seems like it's missing an elder statesman – unless of course we're counting Luongo as that now.
  Canada has needed an elder statesman before in international competition. There was Phil Esposito's post-game rant/nationalist call-to-arms following an embarrassing Game 4 loss in Vancouver, and, some years later in Salt Lake City, Wayne Gretzky's own tense press conference. Those rallying cries from guys everyone looked up to seemed to propel the rest of the team to perform just that notch better to push them to eventual victory.
  Who will play that role this time? Maybe what matters is there isn't anyone to look to immediately. There were plenty of easy candidates (Sakic, Brodeur et al) for that statesman spot in 2006 in Turin when Canada last defended Olympic gold, and it didn't stop them from crashing out in the quarterfinals against Russia. (If you forgot about that, relive the highlights here).
  Which then leaves us with the most important question: how does the defending champion Team Canada stack up against everyone else?
  What about against the Americans, who are probably first on the list of Teams Canada Currently Hates and/or Fears? Those names have been out for almost a week, having been announced following the Winter Classic on New Year's Day. Still, to refresh everyone's memories...
  Goal: Ryan Miller (Sabres); Jonathan Quick (Kings); Jimmy Howard (Red Wings).
  Defence: John Carlson (Capitals); Justin Faulk (Hurricanes); Cam Fowler (Ducks); Paul Martin (Penguins); Ryan McDonagh (Rangers); Brooks Orpik (Penguins); Kevin Shattenkirk (Blues); Ryan Suter (Wild).
  Forward: T.J. Oshie (Blues); Max Pacioretty (Canadiens); Zach Parise (Wild); Joe Pavelski (Sharks); Paul Stastny (Avalanche); David Backes (Blues); Dustin Brown (Kings); Ryan Callahan (Rangers); Patrick Kane (Blackhawks); Ryan Kesler (Canucks); Phil Kessel (Maple Leafs); Derek Stepan (Rangers); James van Riemsdyk (Maple Leafs); Blake Wheeler (Jets).
  (Team USA also texted some random, 67-year old Canadian man to invite him to play, but it turned out the message was meant for Kesler, who'd changed his number and forgotten to tell the appropriate person on the team's management.)
  Anyway, it's a good squad with strong, quick skaters up front capable of a counter-attack and who will likely take advantage of all that extra ice on the international surface (ahem, Phil Kessel). There's also little question that Patrick Kane and Zach Parise are huge threats to any team, the latter of whom has a special place in Olympic lore (and Canadians' hearts) for the goal that sent the 2010 final to overtime. Pavelski and Stastny are equally dangerous and, if the Americans get stuck with a shootout, they can count on some nice hands from JVR and Oshie.
  But the Americans are a bit of a question mark at defence. It really could go either way back there. They're young, agile and if guys like Suter and McDonagh take the reigns, they could surprise. There were also some omissions – namely Keith Yandle and Bobby Ryan – and questions too about the situation in goal. Miller's been here before and Quick can be amazing... when he's healthy. As for Howard? He can be solid, but it's not clear he's having a gold medal-calibre year yet.
  Team USA certainly aren't the only other threats to Canada's gold medal. The other familiar foes are all back, and looking good.
  Russia have a mix of NHL-ers and KHL-ers, but a lot of the more familiar names are there, including Pavel Datsyuk (Red Wings), Ilya Kovalchuk (SKA), Evgeni Malkin (Penguins), Alex Ovechkin (Capitals), Sergei Bobrovsky (Blue Jackets), and Semyon Varlamov (Avalanche). There's always a fun 'x' factor with the Russians, as there's always the opportunity for some of their never-before-seen homegrown talent to blow everyone's minds. That didn't happen in 2010, but surely on home ice they'll be more motivated.
  Sweden is never an outlier at these events, and that's true again for 2014. Henrik Lundqvist (Rangers) will back a stacked team that includes Erik Karlsson (Senators), Niklas Hjalmarsson (Blackhawks), the Sedin twins (Canucks), Henrik Zetterberg (Red Wings), Gabriel Landeskog (Avalanche) and Johan Franzén (Red Wings).
  The rest of the squads have all been announced (Finland, Germany, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia) and can be found at NBC's ProHockeyTalk. That also includes the Czechs, who announced Monday that both 41-year old Jaromir Jagr and 42-year old Petr Nedved have made the cut.
  All in all, it's not going to be easy for the Canadians to repeat. But it will be equally difficult for anyone else to take the title away from them. Which means many more weeks of questions about rosters and weaknesses and strengths and, more importantly, somewhat of a guarantee that we're in for some great hockey in Russia.