Qualification for the men's tournament at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Contents
Qualification
Twelve teams qualified for the ice hockey event. The top nine teams in the IIHF World Ranking after the 2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championship received automatic berths into the ice hockey event. All remaining member federations could attempt to qualify for the remaining three spots in the Olympics. The four lowest entrants (32nd ranked Bulgaria, 36th ranked Spain, 37th ranked Mexico, and 41st ranked Turkey) played off for a spot in the first round. Teams then ranked 19th through 30th (except China who declined) played in a first qualification round in November 2008, where the top three teams from the round advanced to the second qualification round. Teams ranked 10th through 18th joined the three top teams from the first qualifying round to play in a second qualification round. The top three teams from the second qualifying round advanced to the Olympic ice hockey tournament.
Qualified teams
^ Quebec City and Halifax are site for 2008 World Championship only, thus the site where qualification through the rankings is determined.
Note: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden had been mathematically determined to qualify for the 2010 Olympics before the start of the 2008 World Championship. Belarus, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United States qualified for the 2010 Olympics by their performance in the 2008 World Championship.
Group A
All times are local (UTC+2).
Group B
All times are local (UTC+2).
Group C
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group D
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group E
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group F
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group G
All times are local (UTC+1).