Ice Hockey, Men

Much like in 2018, the discussion in the years preceding Beijing 2022 were focused around the question of whether National Hockey League (NHL) players, considered the top level of competition for ice hockey, would be able to participate in the Olympic Games. The NHL’s absence in 2018 was felt as a major loss, especially due to the fact that a best-on-best competition for men’s ice hockey had not been held for many years. All indications were pointing towards the NHL players returning to the Olympics when an agreement was reached with the renewal of players’ the collective bargaining agreement with the league in 2020; however, by late 2021, a sense of uncertainty began to grow amidst another wave of COVID-19 cases, which prompted many effects on the league, including game cancellations, postponements and travel restrictions. On 21 December 2021, the league made it official, announcing that its players would not participate in the men’s tournament at the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games; thus each respective country was left to determine a roster in just over a month’s time.

Like PyeongChang 2018, most players in the men’s tournament were selected from European professional leagues, although a few players playing at the collegiate, minor league, and major junior level in North America also were selected. Without NHL players, the podium was seen to be a bit more uncertain, although the usual favorites, Canada, United States, Finland, Sweden, Russian Olympic Committee, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, were all seen to have a chance to medal. Denmark, and the host country, China, were participating in the men’s tournament for the first time ever.

Following the round-robin, Latvia and China ended up being the odd ones out of the quarterfinals, both having lost all four of their games. Canada and the United States both suffered disappointing defeats in the quarterfinals at the hands of Sweden and Slovakia respectively, and thus both did not advance to the semifinals for the first time since Torino 2006. The other two teams to advance would be ROC and Finland, who defeated Denmark and Switzerland. Slovakia would eventually win bronze over Sweden, achieving their first ever Olympic ice hockey medal since first participating in 1994. The gold medal match ended up being a close match between ROC and Finland, with Finland prevailing 2-1 and winning their first ever Olympic men’s ice hockey championship in their 70 years of competing in the tournament.