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Winter Olympics 2018: Men’s hockey power rankings

By Derek Grochowski

This picture taken on February 14, 2017 shows South Korea's ice hockey team player US-born Mike Testwuide (L) during a practice session at a rink in Goyang, northwest of Seoul.South Korea sit 23rd in the world ice hockey rankings and have never qualified for the Winter Olympics' blue riband event. But as the host nation of Pyeongchang 2018 they have an automatic berth and are scrambling to build a competitive roster to avoid embarrassment. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je / TO GO WITH AFP STORY Oly-2018-ihockey-KOR-CAN-SKorea-social BY HWANG Sung-Hee (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)
This picture taken on February 14, 2017 shows South Korea's ice hockey team player US-born Mike Testwuide (L) during a practice session at a rink in Goyang, northwest of Seoul.South Korea sit 23rd in the world ice hockey rankings and have never qualified for the Winter Olympics' blue riband event. But as the host nation of Pyeongchang 2018 they have an automatic berth and are scrambling to build a competitive roster to avoid embarrassment. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je / TO GO WITH AFP STORY Oly-2018-ihockey-KOR-CAN-SKorea-social BY HWANG Sung-Hee (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images) /
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Czech Republic’s forward Jaromir Jagr (L) celebrates with his teammate forward Martin Erat after scoring a goal during the group A preliminary round ice hockey match Czech Republic vs Sweden of the IIHF International Ice Hockey World Championship on May 1, 2015 at the O2 Arena in Prague. AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Czech Republic’s forward Jaromir Jagr (L) celebrates with his teammate forward Martin Erat after scoring a goal during the group A preliminary round ice hockey match Czech Republic vs Sweden of the IIHF International Ice Hockey World Championship on May 1, 2015 at the O2 Arena in Prague. AFP PHOTO / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images) /

6. Czech Republic

Jaromir Jagr has represented the Czech Republic in every Olympics since 1998, he will not be participating this year. The Czech Republic will also be missing out on talents like David Pastrnak, Ondrej Palat and Jakub Voracek, these talents are irreplaceable. Instead the Czech Republic will be represented by veteran Martin Erat. Erat has played in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Olympics and totaled four points. Erat will need to step up and deliver a big-time performance for the Czechs to have a chance at a medal.

The only other player on the team with Olympic experience is Roman Cervenka. Cervenka played in the 2010 and 2014 tournament and contributed four points. He also had a brief stint in the NHL playing for the Calgary Flames in the 2012 – 2013 season.

If Martin Erat and Roman Cervenka can link together, supply big performance and get secondary scoring from the rest of the team the Czech Republic can surprise a lot of people and cause some upsets in the tournament. It won’t be easy, Czech Republic are in a talented group with Canada, Switzerland and South Korea, they will need to beat South Korea and Switzerland to make it to the elimination rounds.

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