A quick rundown of the national rosters, plus some predictions and omissions:

CANADA

The host favorites have Scott Niedermayer as their captain, Sidney Crosby as their star and a goaltending trio of Marty Brodeur, Marc-Andre Fleury and Roberto Luongo. Their roster is an All-Star squad of talent.

Glaring omission: Martin St. Louis.

Prediction: Gold. What else for this loaded group? The pressure of playing at home may be the only thing that stymies the Canadians.

UNITED STATES

A young, fast group, the Americans are underdogs — not 1980 underdogs, but not many think they will contend for gold. They do have a difference-maker in Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who could do for the United States what Henrik Lundqvist did for Sweden four years ago.

Glaring omission: Kyle Okposo deserved a shot.

Prediction: Silver.

FINLAND

A Sweden-in-2006 run is likely for the Finns because of their goaltending strength. The Wild's Nicklas Backstrom and the Flames' Miikka Kiprusoff will be the tandem in net. Expect a lot of low-scoring games — not too much firepower beyond the aging Teemu Selanne and the Koivu brothers.

Glaring omission: Jussi Jokinen is a clutch scorer.

Prediction: A surprising bronze.

RUSSIA

They have the offense, but where's the rest? Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk — the Russians are loaded up front. On defense, it's Fedor Tyutin and ... Dmitri Kalinin? And in goal, Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Brzgalov will need to be sharp. Too much hype here, not enough two-way play.

Glaring omission: Alex Kovalev.

Prediction: A disappointing fifth.

CZECH REPUBLIC

It'd be fun to see our old friend Jaromir Jagr lift the Czechs once again, and he's got some good young players around him — David Krejci, Milan Michalek and Tomas Fleischmann among them. But the defense is too old and goalie Tomas Vokoun's best days are behind him.

Glaring omission: Vinny Prospal.

Prediction: Sixth.

SWEDEN

Lundqvist may try to steal another medal for the Swedes, but if he falters, there's nothing behind him in net. A very strong team from front to back, led by the Sedin twins, but injuries cloud the picture.

Glaring omission: Mikael Samuelsson, who told his country what it can do with its selection process in a very off-color, un-Swedish manner last week.

Prediction: Fourth.