After a day of thinking about goal differentials and tiebreak scenarios, the men’s Olympic hockey tournament becomes a win-or-go-home playoff.
Canada, USA, Slovakia and Finland finish 1-4 in that order and get a bye into the quarterfinal games on Wednesday. Before that, the teams finishing ranked 5-12 will play through a qualifying round on Tuesday.
Here is what the rankings look like coming out of the preliminary round.
In the qualifying round, it’s No. 5 seed vs. No. 12, No. 6 vs. No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10, No. 8 vs. No. 9, and the winners will move on to face a predetermined opponent. However, keep in mind that when we get to the semifinals, the remaining teams will be re-ranked, so the top remaining team will meet the…