Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics

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Ice hockey at the XXI Olympic Winter Games

Venues	Canada Hockey Place UBC Winter Sports Centre British Columbia Canada
Dates	13–28 February 2010
← 2006 2014 →

Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Qualification
	men	women
Tournament
	men	women
Rosters
	men	women
v t e

Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics was held at Canada Hockey Place, home of the National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks, and at UBC Winter Sports Centre, home of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport's UBC Thunderbirds. Twelve teams are competing in the men's event and eight teams in the women's event.

Changes from previous tournaments

The 2010 tournament marks the first time since NHL players have been allowed to compete that the Olympics will be held in a city with an NHL team. For the first time, Olympic games will be played on a narrower NHL-sized ice rink, measuring 61 m × 26 m (200 ft × 85 ft), instead of the international size of 61 m × 30 m (200 ft × 98.4 ft). This change is expected to save $10 million (CAD) in construction costs and allow more spectators to attend games.

This will also be the first Olympics in which the four-official system, with two referees and two linesmen, will be used during the men's tournament. The NHL began using the two-referee system in the 1998–99 season, while the IIHF first started using it in its major men's championship tournaments in the 2008 IIHF World Championship. However, for the women's tournament in Vancouver, the IIHF still plans to only use the standard three-official system with one referee and two linesmen, saying that the four-official system is not currently needed in women's international hockey.

Venues

The games of the 2010 tournament will be held at the 6,800 seat UBC Winter Sports Centre and 18,810 seat General Motors Place, which is to be renamed Canada Hockey Place during the event because corporate sponsorship is not allowed for an Olympic venue.

Impact on the Vancouver Canucks

The games of the tournament will force the Canucks to play the longest road trip in NHL history, playing 14 games over six weeks, from 27 January to 13 March, so that GM Place could be prepared for the tournament. Because of the Olympics, the ice surface and boards need to be devoid of advertising and some seating areas will be converted to press rows for the duration of the games.

Men's tournament

Main article: Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's tournament

Following negotiations in the National Hockey League's collective bargaining agreement, an agreement was reached allowing NHL participation in both the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. Some NHL team owners opposed having their players participate in the tournament because of concerns that the league's players could get injured or become exhausted. Several players were injured during the 2006 Winter Olympics and were forced to miss NHL games. Gary Bettman addressed the issue saying that several format changes were being discussed, so that the tournament would be "a little easier for everybody."

Qualification

Main article: Ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification

Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2010 Winter Olympics was structured around the 2008 IIHF World Ranking. The top nine teams in the World Ranking after the 2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships received automatic berths into the Olympics, while the teams ranked 10th through 30th had an opportunity to qualify for the remaining three spots in the Olympics. Teams ranked 19th through 30th played in a first qualification round in November 2008, where the top three teams from the round advance to the second qualification round. Teams ranked 10th through 18th joined the three top teams from the first qualifying round to play in a second qualification round. The top three teams from the second qualifying round advanced to the Olympic tournament.

Format

The twelve teams in the men's event are seeded into three groups of four teams. In the Preliminary Round, a team plays one game against every other team in its own group (for a total of 18 Preliminary Round games). Following the completion of the preliminary round, the teams are ranked 1 through 12 based on the results. The top four ranked teams receive byes to the quarterfinals, with the remaining eight teams playing for the remaining four quarterfinal positions. Following that, the final eight teams play elimination rounds to determine the gold and silver medals, and the two losing teams of the semi-finals play for the bronze medal. Each team is allowed to have 20 skaters (forwards and defensemen) and two or three goaltenders, all of whom must be citizens of the country they represent.

Participating nations

Group A

Group B

Group C