MILAN (AP) — Like a shock to the system, hockey at the Olympics goes from nobody getting eliminated in group play to a single-elimination knockout round until one team is left standing. It’s Game 7 every time.
“The anxiety just goes up a little bit,” said Drew Doughty, a three-time Olympian for Canada. “But all these guys on our team are made for these situations.”
With Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby leading the way, Canada looks primed for another run to the gold-medal game after winning each of the previous two Olympics with NHL players in 2014 and 2010. The U.S. could be on a collision course to meet its northern neighbor in the final, but Finland, Slovakia and others are out to spoil the story line that fans in North America are rooting for.
The quarterfinals are up next on Wednesday, with Canada set to face Czechia and the U.S. playing Sweden. It’s Finland against Switzerland and Slovakia versus Germany in the other games.
“This is this when the fun begins,” Sweden captain Gabriel Landeskog said.
1 Canada vs. 8 Czechia (4:40 p.m. CET/10:40 a.m. EST)
McDavid has nine points in nine periods, Macklin Celebrini has four goals and Canada outscored opponents by 17 in the preliminary round. Top-four defenseman Josh Morrissey looks as though he’ll return from his injury absence, and two-time Stanley Cup-winning winger Brad Marchand is available for coach Jon Cooper.
Canada is absolutely the team to beat in Milan, and the Czechs know it all too well from getting beat 5-0 by Crosby and Co. in each team’s opener.
“This might be the best team ever,” Czechia’s David Pastrnak said. “So, maybe let’s put the respect aside a little bit and try to take their game to them. Offensively, their power is incredible. … We have nothing to lose, so we’re going to go out there and leave it all out there.”
Teammate Martin Necas joked: “We let them win the first one because we knew we weren’t going to win two in a row against Canada.” Rugged defenseman Radko Gudas respects the Canadians, but doesn’t want Czechia to fear them.
“If you get intimidated, you don’t have anything (and) you shouldn’t be playing pro hockey,” Gudas said. “We’ve got to have 120% of our effort (Wednesday) and be on top of our game throughout the whole game.”
The biggest question for Canada is whether Nathan MacKinnon will play after not practicing Tuesday for what the team called maintenance. MacKinnon took a forearm to the jaw in the game against France on Sunday.
“He’ll play through anything,” Crosby said. “That’s never really in question.”
2 U.S. vs. 7 Sweden (9:10 p.m. CET/3:10 p.m. EST)
Facing Latvia, Denmark and Germany in the preliminary round allowed U.S. coach Mike Sullivan to hone in on his optimal lineup and Connor Hellebuyck to show why he’s the clear-cut starting goaltender. Winning 5-1, 6-3 and 5-1 means the Americans have not tested as much as some other top contenders so far.
That changes against Sweden, which had to play in the qualification round and beat Latvia just to get to this stage.
“As this tournament starts to move forward, the stakes get higher,” Sullivan said. “The competition gets stiffer, and I think our guys are excited for that challenge.”
The Swedes are only seeded seventh because they finished third in their group behind Finland and Slovakia based on a goal differential tiebreaker from one they allowed in the final minute of a 5-3 victory in their round-robin finale. Matthew Tkachuk rightfully called them “one of the powerhouses in the world,” so the difficulty level is ratcheting up big time for him and his U.S. teammates.
“We haven’t seen them yet in this tournament, but we’re very well aware of the personnel group that they have,” Sullivan said.
3 Slovakia vs. 6 Germany (12:10 p.m. CET/6:10 a.m. EST)
Slovakia was the beneficiary of Sweden’s slip-up, but upsetting Finland last week put Juraj Slafkovsky and his teammates in an advantageous spot in the bracket. Only McDavid had more points in the preliminary round than Slafkovsky, who had six on three goals and three assists.
“They’re a good team,” Germany’s Leon Draisaitl said. “They’re a deep team. They finished first in their group for a reason, and for us it’s a matter of finding our game early and getting to it and staying stingy.”
Four years ago in the Beijing bubble, Slafkovsky was tournament MVP when he scored seven goals and led Slovakia to bronze — the country’s first Olympic medal in hockey. One more win, and it’ll be playing for a medal again.
“The whole nation is watching,” said Dalibor Dvorsky, who scored the tiebreaker-changing goal with 39 seconds left against Sweden. “We just love playing good for our country, and hopefully we can make our fans even more happy in the next two games here.”
Standing in the way are Draisaitl and the Germans, who had little trouble with France in the qualification playoffs. Draisaitl, the 2020 NHL MVP and one of the best players in the world, had a goal and two assists in the 5-1 victory and will be Slovakia’s main focal point to content.
“We’ve got to have the head on a swivel, especially with Leon,” Slovakia defenseman Martin Fehervary said.
4 Finland vs. 5 Switzerland (6:10 p.m. CST/12:10 p.m. EST)
Bouncing back from its surprising loss to Slovakia, Finland beat archrival Sweden and ran up the score on Italy to clinch the fourth spot and avoid the extra qualification game. The structure that the Finns typically win with internationally took longer than usual to materialize, but now they look like themselves.
“I think we are ready,” captain Mikael Granlund said. “Whatever comes for us, we want to be at our best.”
Switzerland shut out Italy 3-0 to reach the quarterfinals. Finland will be a tougher test.
“Every time the Finns play a tournament, whether it’s world championships or Olympics, they are always one of the favorites,” Switzerland captain Roman Josi said. “They play really good as a team, so we will have to be at our best.”
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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics