The ice hockey competitions of the 2018 Winter Olympics will be played at two venues within the Gangneung Coastal Cluster in Gangneung, South Korea. The Gangneung Hockey Centre, which will seat 10,000, and the Kwandong Hockey Centre, which will seat 6,000, both were originally scheduled to be completed in 2016 and appear to have been completed in early 2017. Both venues contain international-sized rinks (60 meters by 30 meters).
Twelve teams will compete in the men's tournament, which will be held from 14 to 25 February, while eight teams will compete in the women's tournament, from 10 to 22 February. In an historic deal the women's tournament will feature a combined Korean team with an expanded roster.
Video Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Men's tournament
The tournament will feature 12 countries, 8 qualifying through the IIHF World Ranking, 3 through subsequent qualifying tournaments, and the host South Korea men's national ice hockey team. The format will be the same as 2010 and 2014; three groups of 4 will compete in three games to determine seeding, each playing every other team in their group, followed by four rounds of elimination games. Each group winner receives a bye into the second round, along with the highest ranked of the remaining teams. The remaining eight teams will play an eliminating qualification game to advance to the quarter-final round. Each quarter-final winner will advance to the semi-finals with the winners playing for the gold medal and the losers playing for the bronze.
On 3 April 2017, the National Hockey League announced that it would not participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. While it was "open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue," the NHLPA "confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the Clubs" and that it would not schedule a break for the Olympics in the 2017-18 season, instead scheduling its all-star game and league-wide bye week for January, a month before the Olympics. The primary disagreement between the NHL, IIHF, and IOC appears to have been over who would pay to insure players. The IOC agreed to insure the players for the 2014 Olympics at a cost of $14 million, but was unwilling to pay again. IOC appeared concerned that if it continued to cover the costs of NHL players, other professional bodies would demand similar treatment. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman noted that the NHL does not directly profit from their presence in the Olympics and that the IOC's ambush marketing rules make it difficult for the league to capitalize on its players' participation, adding that, "in fact, we kind of disappear for two weeks because historically the IOC hasn't even let us join in promoting our participation in the Olympics."
The American Hockey League--a minor professional league that has largely acted as a development league for the NHL, stated that it would allow its players to be loaned to national teams for the duration of the Olympics (although like the NHL, there will not be a break in the season for the Games). CBC Sports reported that AHL players under two-way contracts with NHL affiliates would still be prohibited from attending, but deputy commissioner Bill Daly denied the claim. Two weeks later, Daly reversed that position and stated that AHL players on two-way contracts would indeed be prohibited from the Olympics.
Widely considered the second best league in the world, Russia-based KHL will accommodate a 33-days Olympic break to allow its players to participate in the Olympics.
Qualification
Qualification was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2015 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. The top eight teams in the World Ranking receive automatic berths into the Olympics, the host received an automatic berth, and the remaining teams competed to qualify for the remaining three spots. In April 2014 René Fasel indicated that the Koreans would need a ranking of 18th or better but in September of the same year the policy was apparently changed to guarantee the host a position.
Maps Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Women's tournament
The women's tournament will run from 10 to 22 February. Eight nations will compete. The format will be the same as 2014. The top 4 seeded teams play in group A and the next four in group B. The top two seeds from group A will receive a bye from the quarter-final round. The bottom two group A teams will play the top two group B teams in the quarter-final round. The winner of these two games will play the top two group A teams in the semi-final round. The winners of the semi-final round will play for the gold medal and the losers will play for the bronze.
Qualification
Qualification was determined by the IIHF World Ranking following the 2016 IIHF Women's World Championship. The top five teams in the World Ranking receive automatic berths into the Olympics. South Korea gained direct entry by being host and all other teams competed to qualify for the remaining two spots.
Participating nations
National Olympic Committees have qualified 13 teams to compete. Later, in addition, North Korean team will participate in the women's tournament in a combined Korean team. Men's rosters can be made up of 25 athletes, while women's rosters can consist up to 23. Numbers in parentheses indicates how many athletes each country has qualified. The Czech, German, Norwegian, Slovakian and Slovenian teams will enter only the men's competition, while the Japanese team will be the only one to participate only in the women's competition. All others will play both tournaments.
References
External links
- Olympic qualification schedule, at IIHF.com.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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