2010

I don’t know a ton about how the Olympics work, but the final qualifying games were played over the weekend. Here’s the list of teams that will play in Vancouver.

Group A: Canada, United States, Switzerland, Norway
Group B: Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia
Group C: Sweden, Finland, Belarus, Germany

What I want to know is how the teams work going forward. There are all these NHLers who are going to play for their home county: Nick Backstrom for Sweden, the other Nick Backstrom for Finland, etc., etc., etc. But especially in some of these smaller counties (say Belarus, which can claim the Kostitsyn brothers), who are the players on the team now? The ones who are worked their asses of to make sure their country qualified? And what happens to them when the pros join their ranks….?