The United States: Now the Favorite for Gold?

The playoff round begins today, which means four teams will go home without a medal by the end of the day. For the complete bracket, go here.

Though the headlines Monday read “USA shocks Canada” and all that jazz, the real news is all about the seeding. Because the United States knocked off its neighbors to the north and Sweden only beat Finland by three, the Americans received the top seed in the bracket. The result: an outlandishly easy schedule as far as an Olympics goes.

They first face the winner of Tuesday’s Switzerland-Belarus game. The United States already beat Switzerland last week, and the quarter finals game will take place 24 hours after the play-in game—so the Swiss (or the Belarusians) will be tired.

Barring a string of Latvian upsets, the United States then plays the winner of Finland-Czech Republic. They aren’t pushovers, no, but compared to the path in the other half of the bracket, it’s smooth sailing for the United States as long as Ryan Miller continues to play well.

Meanwhile, Canada, Russia and Sweden will battle each other just for a medal. The game Wednesday between the Canadians and the Russians—yeah, yeah, assuming Canada beats Germany—sounds like a gold medal game. Instead, it's a quarter finals game, and the loser will finish no higher than fifth. And unless Sweden stumbles against the winner of Slovakia-Norway, Canada/Russia then has to take on a Swedish contingent that has two shutouts in three games.

I know, I know. My podium prediction was Canada with the gold, Sweden with the silver and Russia with the bronze. That’s already impossible. It’s possible only one of the three earns a medal at all. Who knew Russia’s defense would hurt th—oh, well, I guess we sort of did see that one coming. But what about the Canadians?

Some of the blame for the Sunday's loss to America fell on goaltender Martin Brodeur, as Roberto Luongo will start against Germany and presumably down the road. The Canadians hope the Vancouver goaltender can carry his country to gold in his home arena. But let’s not forget Canada’s most likely opponent in the gold medal game: the United States. Maybe things will be different for the Canadians the second time around.