Olympic hockey preliminary round schedule

The good news: Six Kings will participate in the Sochi Olympics. Hooray! The bad news: Four Kings will compete in Group A, in which the United States, Russia, Slovenia and Slovakia will play preliminary round games in the middle of the night, Los Angeles time. Other than the midnight Slovenia-Slovakia game – Slovenia’s best chance to put up points in the standings – all preliminary round games featuring Dustin Brown, Jonathan Quick, Slava Voynov and Anze Kopitar will begin at 4:30 a.m.

United States (Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown)
Date – Game – Time (PT) – Live TV
Thu, Feb. 13 – Slovakia vs. United States – 4:30 a.m. – NBCSN
Sat, Feb. 15 – United States vs. Russia – 4:30 a.m. – NBCSN
Sun, Feb. 16 – Slovenia vs. United States – 4:30 a.m. – NBCSN

Russia (Slava Voynov)
Date – Game – Time (PT) – Live TV
Thu, Feb. 13 – Russia vs. Slovenia – 4:30 a.m. – MSNBC
Sat, Feb. 15 – United States vs. Russia – 4:30 a.m. – NBCSN
Sun, Feb. 16 – Russia vs. Slovakia – 4:30 a.m. – USA

Slovenia (Anze Kopitar)
Date – Game – Time (PT) – Live TV
Thu, Feb. 13 – Russia vs. Slovenia – 4:30 a.m. – MSNBC
Sat, Feb. 15 – Slovakia vs. Slovenia – 12 a.m. – MSNBC
Sun, Feb. 16 – Slovenia vs. United States – 4:30 a.m. – NBCSN

Watching Canada, on the other hand, won’t require you to change your sleep schedule. All three of their preliminary round games will begin at 9:00 a.m. Los Angeles time and will be carried on the USA Network.

Canada (Drew Doughty, Jeff Carter)
Date – Game – Time (PT) – Live TV
Thu, Feb. 13 – Canada vs. Norway – 9 a.m. – USA
Fri, Feb. 14 – Canada vs. Austria – 9 a.m. – USA
Sun, Feb. 16 – Finland vs. Canada – 9 a.m. – USA

The playoff round will begin in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, February 18. After the bronze medal game is contested at 7:00 a.m. PT on Saturday, February 22, the gold medal game will once again be a middle-of-the-night affair, taking place at 4:00 a.m. PT on Sunday, February 23.

More on the Men’s Tournament schedule – including times, networks, and seeding criteria – can be found here, courtesy of SBNation.com. The Women’s gold medal game will take place at 9:00 a.m. PT on Thursday, February 20. More information on the women’s tournament can be found here. LA Kings Insider will have stories on all games in which Los Angeles Kings participate.