Tuukka Rask, Loui Eriksson, Zdeno Chara named to their respective Olympic rosters

The official Swedish, Slovakian, and Finnish rosters were released today, which leaves only Canada and Russia remaining to be announced.

To the surprise, again, of no one, Tuukka Rask was named to the Finnish Olympic team. Loui Eriksson, though his status for the Olympics is still in question, was also named to the Swedish Olympic team, and Zdeno Chara was named to the Slovakian Olympic team.

Rask will be sharing the Finnish net with Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks, and their third goaltender will be Kari Lehtonen; that's a daunting setup in net even without Pekka Rinne, who is still sidelined by an infection in his surgically-repaired hip. The timing on this announcement should make Saturday's Bruins-Sharks game interesting, as we could end up seeing Rask and Niemi duke it out.

Chara will likely be expected to anchor the blueline for Slovakia; that team doesn't have much else going for it on defense. Lubomir Visnovsky, Andrej Meszaros and Andrej Sekera are the only other NHL defensemen going for Slovakia - and with no Gaborik to provide a scoring touch up front, Chara will have his work cut out for him.

If Eriksson is healthy in time for the games, his medal chances should be good; although some of their choices on defense are questionable, Sweden is fielding an otherwise formidable lineup, and should give the other frontrunners an incredibly hard time.

Canada and Russia's teams should be announced in about an hour. The Slovakian and Finnish rosters can be found here; and Sweden's can be found here.