Beijing holds a unique distinction as the only city ever to host both the Summer Games (2008) and Winter Games. As the 2022 Olympic men’s hockey tournament gets underway, the only thing that’s for sure is that it will also be unique.

The incredible sacrifices that players, coaches, officials, media, organizers and volunteers have made to get here during the global pandemic have been well-documented. Now, as 12 national teams gear up to do battle in 30 games between 9 and 20 February, our focus turns to the battle for glory on the ice.

Here are eight burning questions.

1) Will ROC get all-star goaltending?

Russian hockey fans know that even having the best in the business between the pipes is no guarantee of success. Just look at the 1980 Miracle on Ice when the U.S. college kids earned a stunning 4-3 upset over the Soviet Union with goalie Vladislav Tretiak, who was named to the IIHF’s Centennial All-Star Team in 2008. Or the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship semi-final when Finland blanked Russia 1-0 despite facing Andrei Vasilevski, soon to capture the Vezina Trophy and two Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Usually, when teams with Russian players fall short, goaltending is an Achilles heel. In 2018’s OAR gold-medal victory in PyeongChang, when the towering Vasili Koshechkin was named Best Goalie (1.38 GAA, 93.6 save percentage, two shutouts), it was a refreshing change of pace.

The current trio of ROC goalies is remarkably lacking in IIHF experience, although 26-year-old SKA St. Petersburg starter Alexander Samonov made a strong first impression at the 2021 Worlds in Latvia (1.32 GAA, 94.4 save percentage, two shutouts) despite his team’s quarter-final exit against eventual champion Canada. It’s an open question whether the goalies will step up here.

2) Can Canada win gold without NHLers?

The last time Canada won an Olympic gold medal without NHLers was 24 February 1952. The Edmonton Mercurys, a senior hockey team, sealed the deal with a 3-3 tie against the Americans in Oslo. The combo of a round-robin format and helmetless players underlines just how long ago that was.

Even when the Canadians have brought their greatest NHL stars and triumphed, there have been bumps in the road and close calls. Recall the 5-2 opening loss to Sweden in Salt Lake City (2002), the nail-biting 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. on Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in Vancouver (2010), and the surprisingly narrow 2-1 quarter-final win over Latvia in Sochi (2014). The 2018 bronze-medal team, sans NHLers, showed good fighting spirit, but spotted Germany a three-goal lead in the semi-final and fell 4-3, dashing the hopes of Canadian fans.

So who knows what will happen with this curious roster that ranges from an aging Triple Gold Club member in captain Eric Staal to A-grade NHL prospects like Owen Power and Mason McTavish? The late replacement of injured head coach Claude Julien with Jeremy Colliton gives the young former Chicago bench boss a chance to mirror what Mike Babcock did at the 2004 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship when he took over from an unwell Joel Quenneville and won gold in Prague.

3) Could youth spawn another U.S. miracle?

Two years ago, nobody would have believed you if you said 19-year-olds like Matty Beniers and Jake Sanderson – no matter how highly touted – would appear at both the 2022 World Juniors and Olympics. The U.S. breeds a wealth of young talent nowadays, including six first-round picks in the 2021 NHL Draft, but it’s going to be tough for a squad with 15 active NCAA players to win the championship in Beijing against much more experienced foes.

To put things in perspective, the Americans have an IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship gold-medal drought that dates back to 1933, despite bringing in big names like Auston Matthews, Johnny Gaudreau, and Connor Hellebucyk in recent years. There’ll need to be some awfully convincing renditions of the Herb Brooks pre-game speech from the 2004 movie Miracle (“Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world”) for the U.S. to capture its first Olympic title since 1980.

4) What will these Olympics mean for Jukka Jalonen’s legacy?

Even if head coach Jukka Jalonen had retired immediately after winning his second IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship title with Finland’s 3-1 final triumph over Canada in 2019, he could still have dined out on his reputation from Helsinki to Rovaniemi for decades to come. The bluntspoken 59-year-old Riihimaki native – also the architect of Finland’s 2016 World Junior medal on home ice – always seems to milk the most out of his rosters, whether they feature Sebastian Aho and Patrik Laine or industrious but not world-famous KHLers.

The latter, of course, is the case in Beijing. But based on Jalonen’s track record – including the 3-2 overtime loss to Canada in the 2021 Worlds final – many are picking Finland to make the gold medal game again. If Jalonen can top the podium for Finland’s first Olympic title, he will cement his legacy as one of the all-time great coaches in hockey history.

5) Can Sweden succeed without star power?

Tre Kronor has captured two Olympic gold medals courtesy of some of hockey’s biggest names. Peter Forsberg was the golden boy in 1994 with his jaw-dropping one-handed shootout goal on Canadian netminder Corey Hirsch, but Tomas Jonsson, Hakan Loob, and Mats Naslund also suited up in Lillehammer and played key roles. (All four wound up in the Triple Gold Club.)

In 2006, Forsberg and Mats Sundin assisted on Nicklas Lidstrom’s iconic gold medal-winner against Finland early in the third period, and goalie Henrik Lundqvist made a game-saving stop on Olli Jokinen before the final siren.

You get the picture. It’s all about the creme de la creme. Similarly, Sweden wouldn’t have won its last three Worlds gold medals in 2013, 2017, and 2018 without contributions from stars like Lundqvist, the Sedins, and William Nylander.

Although the Swedes have a range of quality KHL and SHL talent, the two biggest 2022 names are arguably Marcus Kruger and Joakim Nordstrom, a pair of hard-working forwards who won Stanley Cups during the 2010’s Chicago Blackhawks dynasty. Since 1980, Sweden has consistently finished fifth at the Olympics when it hasn’t won gold. This time, the onus is on coach Johan Garpenlov’s crew to prove the sceptics wrong.

6) Will the Czechs finally get back on top?

Like PyeongChang, this is a tournament where dark horses have a real chance. Especially after the Germans’ fourth-place finish at the 2021 Worlds, you can’t rule out the 2018 Olympic silver medallists making a second straight final in Beijing. You can’t rule out seeing the Swiss get to the gold medal game, emulating their 2013 and 2018 Worlds runs, both of which ended with losses to Sweden.

However, you can argue that the country that longs the most to win its first Olympic gold medal of the 21st century is the same one that triumphed at the first “NHL Olympics” in Nagano in 1998: Czechia.

Now, the 2018 bronze medallists may be longing, but they’re still a long shot. Expectations are low. David Krejci is one of just four players to lead the NHL playoffs twice in scoring in the 21st century (along with Yevgeni Malkin, Anze Kopitar, and Nikita Kucherov), but at 35, the former Boston Bruin who joined HC Olomouc this season is past his prime, like 36-year-old captain Roman Cervenka (SC Rapperswill-Jona Lakers). These are just a few examples. Smarts will have to trump speed for the Czechs to succeed. Staying healthy is also vital.

But if a goalie like Simon Hrubec of reigning Gagarin Cup champion Avangard Omsk gets hot, you just never know.

7) Who will lead the tournament in scoring?

So many candidates, so few certainties. For the favoured ROC squad, you certainly have to consider SKA St. Petersburg’s nifty Nikita Gusev, who led the 2018 scoring parade with 12 points in six games, including four points in the gold medal victory over Germany alone. Vadim Shipachyov was a bit player in PyeongChang, getting into just one game, but the 34-year-old Dynamo Moskva captain perennially contends for the KHL scoring title (67 points in 48 games this season) and could be in the mix here. On paper, ROC stars like these should be able to pad their stats on the power play.

For the other teams, the picture is murkier. For the U.S. and Canada, you wonder if a Matty Beniers or Mason McTavish could catch fire and emulate what Eeli Tolvanen – at 18 – did for Finland in 2018 (3+6=9, third in overall scoring).

For Finland’s Niko Ojamaki to be leading the KHL in goals (29) by a wide margin with Vityaz Podolsk is a big statement, but a member of Salavat Yulayev Ufa’s top line – Markus Granlund, Teemu Hartikainen, and Sakari Manninen – could also contend for first place in the scoring race.

Then again, in this topsy-turvy environment, it could just well be a Swede, Czech, or German who isn’t even favoured to crack the top 10. Stay tuned.

8) What will the long-term impact on hockey in China be?

The goal is to get even a small percentage of China’s population of 1.4 billion to fall in love with the sport. Hosting the Winter Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for visibility.

The Chinese women didn’t make the quarter-finals as they’d hoped, but they battled and earned respect with wins over rival Japan (2-1 in a shootout) and Denmark (3-1). If the men’s team wins one game in a tough Group A featuring Canada, the U.S., and Germany, they’ll be over the moon.

The second best-case scenario is for China – led by ex-NHLer Jinguang Ye (Brandon Yip), who also captains the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star – to achieve a viral moment. An amazing save, a penalty shot goal, a spectacular passing play or set of dekes that you don’t need to be deeply versed in hockey to appreciate. If it involves a domestic-born and trained player like 23-year-old KRS forward Rudi Ying, so much the better.

Get enough people buzzing, from Beijing to Shanghai to Chongqing, and ramped-up investment, training facilities, and commitment to getting China into future Olympic and IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships will follow, along with increased interest in the KHL and NHL. There are no guarantees. But hockey in China – currently wedged in 32nd place in the IIHF Men’s World Ranking, behind Spain and ahead of Australia – seems fated to rise. It’s just a question of how much and how quickly after 2022 and of programs that will be in place at Chinese ice rinks.

Off the ice the IIHF has recently launched digital platforms in China to help make ice hockey more popular and get its digital offerings into the country.