{"id":456376,"date":"2026-02-03T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/456376\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:28:07","slug":"cirelli-out-for-olympics-replaced-by-bennett-on-team-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/456376\/","title":{"rendered":"Cirelli out for Olympics, replaced by Bennett on Team Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/anthony-cirelli-8478519\" title=\"Anthony Cirelli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Cirelli<\/a> will not play for Team Canada in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 because of a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n<p>The Tampa Bay Lightning forward will be replaced by Florida Panthers forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/sam-bennett-8477935\" title=\"Sam Bennett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Bennett<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cirelli left with 1:44 remaining in the first period of a 6-5 shootout win against the Boston Bruins in the Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday. He was injured on a hit by Bruins forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/mark-kastelic-8480355\" title=\"Mark Kastelic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Kastelic<\/a> and did not return.<\/p>\n<p>Cirelli, who has 35 points (15 goals, 20 assists) in 49 games this season, won the Stanley Cup twice with Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021. The 28-year-old was one of 10 Lightning players chosen for the Olympics with forwards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/oliver-bjorkstrand-8477416\" title=\"Oliver Bjorkstrand\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oliver Bjorkstrand<\/a> (Denmark), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/zemgus-girgensons-8476878\" title=\"Zemgus Girgensons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zemgus Girgensons<\/a> (Latvia), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/jake-guentzel-8477404\" title=\"Jake Guentzel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Guentzel<\/a> (United States), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/brandon-hagel-8479542\" title=\"Brandon Hagel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brandon Hagel<\/a> (Canada), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/pontus-holmberg-8480995\" title=\"Pontus Holmberg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pontus Holmberg<\/a> (Sweden) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/brayden-point-8478010\" title=\"Brayden Point\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brayden Point<\/a> (Canada) and defensemen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/erik-cernak-8478416\" title=\"Erik Cernak\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Erik Cernak<\/a> (Slovakia), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/victor-hedman-8475167\" title=\"Victor Hedman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Hedman<\/a> (Sweden) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/j-j-moser-8482655\" title=\"J.J. Moser\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">J.J. Moser<\/a> (Switzerland).<\/p>\n<p>Bennett will join Panthers teammates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/brad-marchand-8473419\" title=\"Brad Marchand\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Marchand<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/sam-reinhart-8477933\" title=\"Sam Reinhart\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Reinhart<\/a> on Team Canada\u2019s roster. The 29-year-old forward has 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists) in 55 games this season and won the Stanley Cup twice with Florida in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The NHL Olympic break begins Friday. Canada&#8217;s first game is against Czechia on Feb. 11 (10:30 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, CBC Gem, CBC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Cirelli will not play for Team Canada in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 because of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-456376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}