Winter Olympics Hockey Day Five GDT: Russia v. Slovakia, USA v. Slovenia

Poor Vladimir Tarasenko. He's not averaging a lot of time on ice this tournament (12:24) and has no points. He also got leveled yesterday by a hit from Dustin Brown that got the American alternate captain a penalty and the Russians a power play goal. Does that count as helping?

Russia'll be playing Slovakia today. This has not been a good tournament for the Slovaks. They got blown out by the US, and upset by the Slovenian team who has one NHLer on it, Anze Kopitar. Jaroslav Halak has somewhat been left out to dry by his defense. His stats are getting better, but they're still terrible. Today isn't going to help.

Team USA, fresh from a shootout win over the Russians courtesy of T.J. Oshie, square off against the Slovenians. Sure, the team won their first ever Olympic game against the Slovaks, but they're no pushovers. They pestered Russia in that country's 5-2 eventual win. The USA needs to not let up off of the gas, or else the Slovenians will work their way in.

A win gets the Americans a bye into the quarterfinals, so no pressure at all, guys.

And I apparently forgot Finland v. Canada earlier. That might be the only real match today, and Finland is one of those dark horse medal teams. I'd tune in.