Vancouver organizers, Canadian Olympic officials and Own The Podium chieftains have been telling us for weeks not to panic about medals in the first week of these Olympic Games. Week 2, they told us, would be Canada's time to shine. Today marks the beginning of Week 2. Is Canada ready to shine? 

The political blog fivethirtyeight.com has taken its statistical resources and applied them to daily medal projections. It reports that Canada, despite being below target for Week 1, remains on target for Own The Podium's desire for 30 medals and our athletes can still make a run at the U.S.'s medal lead. The National Post's Guy Spurrier offers this look at Week 2's medal prospects: 

Denny Morrison had four events on his plate at these Games and a chance to win three medals. His first chance, albeit an outside one in the men's 1,000, went poorly as he finished 13th. "It's the Olympics,'' a disappointed Morrison said after the 1,000. "It's who brings it on that day. I'm usually the kind of guy who performs well under pressure. The first thing you want to do is blame something outside. I need to review my race and find out where I lost things. Because it's in me." On Saturday we will find out if it is.

On the short track, Charles Hamelin is on the same path as Morrison. Last week's 1,500 metres is not his best event but missing the final altogether was a disappointment. He set an Olympic record in his 1,000 heat and will be pushed by both his brother François in this race and by the silver medal his girlfriend Marianne St-Gelais won in the women's 500. 

Speed skating  Men's 1,500 metres, 7:15 p.m. ET/4:15 p.m. PT

Short track  Men's 1,000-metre final, 11:05 p.m. ET/8:05 p.m. PT 

After a slow start to the season, Chris Del Bosco has won two of the last three World Cup ski-cross finals, is ranked third overall and is Canada's clear medal hope. David Duncan (ranked seventh) has a pair of bronze-medal finishes in World Cup races this season and Stanley Hayer (ranked eighth) has a second-place finish this year.

A ski-cross medal would be a good appetizer for the main course, the showdown between Week 1 speed-skating medallists Christine Nesbitt and Kristina Groves in the women's 1,500 metres. Groves won one of the surprising medals with her bronze in the 3,000 while Nesbitt managed to overcome the pressure and a bad skate to hold on to the gold she has been predicted to win in the 1,000.  

By the time the fourth heat in the men's two-man bobsled goes, we will have an idea whether Canadian pilots Pierre Lueders or Lyndon Rush have a shot at a medal. Rush has emerged as the better hope with his fifth-place ranking in the World Cup this season.  

Freestyle skiing  Men's ski-cross final, approx. 4:18 p.m. ET/1:18 p.m. PT

Speed skating  Women's 1,500 metres, 6 p.m ET/3 p.m. PT

Bobsled  Two-man, fourth heat, approx. 6:05 p.m. ET/3:05 p.m. PT

The website Fivethirtyeight.com also projects Canada as the likely winner in the overall gold-medal race, although that battle with the U.S. could come down to who wins women's hockey and whether Canada's ice dancers, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, can knock one of the American couples off the top step. 

Figure skating  Ice dance, free dance, 7:45 p.m. ET/4:45 p.m. PT 

Canada's ski-cross squad has the depth of the women's short-track team with three women in the top four in the World Cup standings this season. Ashley MacIvor is the reigning world champion and second in the standings this season. Kelsey Serwa is third and Julia Murray is fourth, although she remains doubtful after a serious knee injury in late January. 

Freestyle skiing  Women's ski-cross final, approx. 5:03 p.m. ET/2:03 p.m. PT 

The sliding soap opera that is the Canadian bobsled team writes another chapter with the final run of the women's event. The men have their internal personality issues as do the women. Driver Helen Upperton has chosen Shelley Ann Brown to be her brakeman at these Games, allowing Heather Moyse to join pilot Kaillie Humphries and become the more dominant Canadian team this season with five podium finishes in nine races on the World Cup. At the short-track venue, Canada's women's team has a medal in the five previous Games but has not won since the sport's debut in 1992 because of South Korea's hegemony. 

Bobsled  Women's fourth heat, approx. 9:10 p.m. ET/6:10 p.m. PT

Short Track  Women's 3,000-metre relay final, 9:26 p.m. ET/6:26 p.m. PT 

Two words: Women's hockey. Three more words: Us against them. Canada and the United States have met so many times in so many important games, there's nothing left to say. So just enjoy.

Joannie Rochette was fifth in Turin, won the silver medal at the last world championships and will seek to make a real breakthrough internationally here. But hers is a stacked field of competitors and it may be a long-shot. 

For Canada to really own the podium, someone has to come out of the pack to win an unexpected medal. Someone like St-Gelais in Week 1. Or someone like Warren Shouldice or Steve Omischl in men's aerials. Omischl was the overall World Cup champion from 2007-09. Shouldice won silver in the last World Cup event in Lake Placid in January. 

Hockey  Women's gold-medal, 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT

Figure skating  Women's free skate, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT

Freestyle skiing  Men's aerials final, 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT

Charles Hamelin will try to own the day with chances in the men's 500 metres and the men's 5,000-metre relay. Cheryl Bernard's rink has been playing well in early round-robin action and are a definite medal possibility in women's curling. 

Curling  Women's gold-medal game, 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT (bronze-medal game, noon ET/9 a.m. PT)

Short Track  Men's 500-metre final, 10:14 p.m. ET/7:14 p.m. PT ; men's 5,000-metre relay final, 10:51 p.m. ET/7:51 p.m. PT

Can this be Canada's five-medal day? It's possible with the strong men's and women's speed-skating teams racing in the team pursuits and Kevin Martin and his rink almost sure to appear in one of the medal matches in men's curling. Jasey-Jay Anderson, now 34, is still strong in parallel giant slalom -- third in the World Cup rankings this season. And the four-man bobsled teams are back with Rush and Lueders trying again for the medals. 

Speed Skating  Men's team pursuit final, 3:51 p.m. ET/12:51 p.m. PT; women's team pursuit final, 4:14 p.m. ET/1:13 p.m. PT  Canada

Snowboard  Men's parallel giant slalom final, 4:31 p.m. ET/1:31 p.m. PT  Jasey-Jay Anderson

Bobsled  Four-man, fourth heat, approx. 5:35 p.m. ET/2:35 p.m. PT

Curling  Men's gold-medal game, 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT (bronze-medal game, noon ET/9 a.m. PT)

The last event of the Games is the men's gold-medal hockey game. Expectations of an epic Canada-Russia final remain despite Russia's loss to Slovakia on Thursday. Although any medal from the hockey team could help Canada own the podium, a second-place overall finish would be OK with a gold here.

Hockey  Men's gold-medal game, 3:15 p.m. ET/12:15 p.m. PT (bronze-medal game, 10 p.m. ET; 7 p.m. PT on Saturday)