Among the teams that will play in the Olympic qualification round, the Switzerland men's national ice hockey team have received the most favourable draw: the Italy men's national ice hockey team, who finished last in the overall group-stage standings.
Switzerland
If a team ends up in a group where the Canada men's national ice hockey team are playing at full strength, it is almost impossible to finish first, so they reached their ceiling with second place.
Their path in the qualification round will be slightly, though not much, easier than that of the Czechia men's national ice hockey team, who will face the Denmark men's national ice hockey team.
After all, the Danes have several players from the National Hockey League who can influence the result, whereas the hosts have none.
Italy
The Italy men's national ice hockey team managed to hold out for a long time only against the Slovakia men's national ice hockey team, who eventually reached the quarter-finals directly (2:3).
However, in the other matches the gap was substantial.
The Finland men's national ice hockey team did not ease off at all and put 11 unanswered goals past Damian Clara.
The Italians have faced sides from the elite group of world ice hockey in recent years, but we do not see any grounds to expect a similar rout here.
The Switzerland men's national ice hockey team scored only four goals against the France men's national ice hockey team, who finished above the Italians only on tiebreakers.
Switzerland vs Italy Prediction
Indeed, at the 2019 IIHF World Championship Patrick Fischer's Switzerland men's national ice hockey team beat the Italy men's national ice hockey team 9:0, but three years later at the same kind of tournament the score was only 5:2.
We believe there will not be a huge margin here either, especially as the referees may, as usual, be inclined to favour the hosts.
