Goddess Amy

• Best uniforms: Sweden… classic and classy
• Best sighting from another league: Double J — Jaromir Jagr — from watching him play and some of the interviews, he’s grown up a lot I think.
• Biggest surprise: Probably Norway. They just about pulled it out last night and looked really good.
• Best non-NHL player: Tore Vikingstad from Norway. Boy has some skills.
• Ugliest player *: I don’t know … ugly is in the eye of the beholder. But if I had to pick one, maybe Andrei Markov or a couple of the Belarusian guys.
• Prettiest player *: Probably Toby Enstrom of Sweden.
• Most unusual name: Tore Vikingstad… it’s perfect for a Norwegian.
• Best goalie mask: I really like Ryan Miller’s mask a lot.
• Worst/lamest goalie mask: I can’t think of one. They are all pretty great.

Goddess Kaat

• Best uniforms: USA: I’m a homer, but you can’t beat the red, white and blue throwback-kinda jerseys they wore in their win against Canada. A bit of a nod to the 1980 Miracle on Ice team. Classic. I like them even if they do look a bit like the New York Rangers out there. Honorable mention to the Czech Republic with their old school coat of arms on the front. I just dig them.
• Best sighting from another league: Richard Zednik. He’s always been one of my favorite players. As regular readers may know, I have a strange array of favorite players and he is one of them. So great to see him playing and playing well — especially after the horrible skate to the neck. Honorable mention: Jaromir Jagr. The NHL lost a character when he defected to the KHL.
• Biggest surprise: That either Canada or Russia will go home sans medal. And how awesome Jeremy Roenick has been as a color commentator for NBC. As the old McDonald’s slogan goes: “I’m lovin’ it.”
  
• Best non-NHL player: Jaromir Jagr. As much as I want to say Richard Zednik. It’s Jags.
• Ugliest player *: Phil Kessel. He’s played like crap so far. Has he even been on the ice?
• Prettiest player *: Ryan Miller, baby. He’s been incredible.
• Most unusual name: Janis Sprukts. I was fascinated by this last name when I saw him play in the KHL. It still gives me a mixture of intrigue and giggles. And it looks awesome in Cyrillic. To wit: “Спруктс.”
• Best goalie mask: Henrik Lundqvist always has cool masks. I am digging his Tre Kronor/Lady Liberty mask. Kind of the duel personality — Sweden’s crowns and a symbol of the U.S. on the other.
• Worst/lamest goalie mask: I know not everyone can afford to get a new mask just for the Olympics — or can they? They probably can, but are too superstitious or something. But I think Miikka Kiprusoff is lame for wearing his regular season mask. And, under normal circumstances, I love that mask of his — with the bad ass flaming skulls and all. It’s awesome, but I’d like to see something new for the Olympics. Show a little flare, Miikka baby.

Goddess Savvy

• Best uniforms: Germany. The Germans always have great uniforms, no matter what the sport.
• Best sighting from another league: Rosie — Vladimir Ruzicka — coaching the Czech Republic! :-)
• Biggest surprise: Besides the obvious? U.S. upsetting Canada and Canada needing a shootout to beat Switzerland?
• Best non-NHL player: n/a
• Ugliest player *: Tomas Plekanec. He’s always the ugliest player, and that goes both ways.
• Prettiest player *: David Krejci. He’s getting lots of well-deserved recognition from NBC’s announcers.
• Most unusual name: Is there any better name for a Norwegian hockey player than Vikingstad? Did he make that up?
• Best goalie mask: Tomas Vokoun. I like the Czech coat of arms. (Props to Miller, though, for including a shamrock on his mask as a tribute to Jim Craig.)
• Worst/lamest goalie mask: Thomas Greiss. He’s using his Sharks mask. Fail.

* Note: Prettiest/ugliest player was open to interpretation. It could have meant looks, style or play, however the goddess chose to interpret that question.

Bold Predictions

So, herewith, and without consulting one another are our picks — a few bold ones in there. We’ve also picked our tournament MVP and a players we expect to surprise you — maybe for good or bad. Amy selected two possible MVPs — we’ll let her get away with that, but just this once. She also selected a second set of winners — BEEP — not gonna happen. You gotta go with your gut. So for the purposes of this table, it’s first instincts. For the record, Goddess Amy said her table would look different if the goalies wigged and stunk. For the purposes of our exercise, we are assuming everyone is firing on all cylinders. Maybe we’ll do the all-oops team picks tomorrow. Ha ha!

Anyway, let’s see who comes closest … and see if you agree with our picks. If not, tell us why.

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	MVP	Surprise
Amy	Russia	Canada	Sweden	Jarome Iginla or Alex Ovechkin	Bobby Ryan
Kaat	Canada	Russia	U.S.A.	Canadian fans	Ryan Miller
Sasha	Sweden	Canada	Russia	Peter Forsberg	Loui Eriksson
Savvy	Russia	Canada	Czech	Evgeni Nabakov	David Krejci
** It should be noted all picks were in before the men’s tournament began.
** Kaat selected the people of Canada as MVPs. Not only being a proud kid of a Canadian mom, but also she thinks they will push the Canadian team past the Red Machine. Selecting a player, she’d go with Sidney Crosby. How Cliché !