Olympic hockey always teaches us to expect the unexpected. For example, Canada and the United States were both knocked out of the 2006 tournament in the quarterfinals while Canada entered the 2010 tournament as the sixth seed before taking home the gold.

What surprises await us in Sochi? Time will tell. Here's a stab at some bold predictions.

John Tavares will be the leading scorer for Team Canada

Tavares plays for a struggling New York Islanders team that relies on him to carry most of the load offensively. He does not have much of a supporting cast on Long Island, but Sochi will be a much different story, as he will be surrounded by some of the most talented teammates possible. Also, the larger ice surface plays right into Tavares's offensive game and will allow him to rack up a substantial amount of points.

Sweden, not Canada, will get the top seed in the tournament

Canada may be the most talented team overall, but Sweden will nab the top seed due to group play. While Canada has two cupcakes in its group in Norway and Austria, Finland is more than capable to at least taking the Canadians to overtime or even beating them.

Czech Republic and Switzerland could pose some problems for the Swedes, but they should be able to knock both of them off as well as Latvia without a problem.

Finland could cause a problem for Team Canada and cost it a spot at the top of the bracket.

Jimmy Howard will emerge as a star for Team USA

Jonathan Quick has been struggling mightily lately and Ryan Miller may not be able to regain his form from the 2010 Olympics. If they both struggle in the tournament, Howard is more than capable of stepping in and holding his own in goal.

Howard has been playing much better after coming off of an injury, and despite Sunday's 6-5 loss in Washington, he has been leading his Detroit Red Wings on somewhat of a hot streak.

With some of the league's best defensive defensemen helping him out, Howard could be a huge key for the United States if he gets a chance to play.

Russia will not make it out of the quarterfinals

Team Russia will disappoint on home ice. It is in arguably the most competitive of the three groups with the United States and Slovakia, and could put itself in an unfavorable seed if it struggles in group play.

The Russians have some tremendous talent up front, but a lack of defense on a larger ice surface will come back to cost them. Most likely, they will play the United States or Finland in the quarterfinals; both of which could easily stop Russia's talented but thin offense and score on the below-average defense.

Slovakia will be this year's surprise team

While the pool still may be too deep for the Slovaks to make it out of the quarterfinals, they will put up a bigger fight than most people expect.

Slovakia is led up front by Marian Gaborik, Marian Hossa and Tomas Tatar up front and will have a big presence on the blue line in Zdeno Chara. Lubomir Visnovsky and Andrej Meszaros are also on a defense corps full of NHL veterans.

In goal, the starting goaltender for Slovakia will likely be Jaroslav Halak, who has been known to play great in pressure situations.