{"id":467385,"date":"2026-02-08T23:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T23:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/467385\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T23:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T23:48:07","slug":"tom-wilson-skates-on-a-line-with-connor-mcdavid-and-macklin-celebrini-during-team-canadas-first-olympic-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/467385\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Wilson skates on a line with Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini during Team Canada\u2019s first Olympic practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

If early practice line combinations are any indication, Tom Wilson<\/a> appears set to play a massive role for Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

After arriving in Italy with Washington Capitals teammate Logan Thompson earlier in the day<\/a>, Wilson hit the ice for Canada\u2019s first skate ahead of their opening game against Czechia on February 12.<\/p>\n

According to TSN\u2019s Ryan Rishaug<\/a>, the expected checking-line forward took up a spot on the team\u2019s high-scoring first line, playing on the right wing of a trio also featuring Connor McDavid<\/a> and Macklin Celebrini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Team Canada\u2019s first practice lines at 2026 Winter Olympics<\/p>\n

Suzuki<\/p>\n

MacKinnon<\/p>\n

Marchand<\/p>\n

While the inclusion of the rugged winger in Canada\u2019s top six might be surprising to some, Wilson is no stranger to playing first-line minutes with the league\u2019s top players, as he has regularly skated with names like Alex Ovechkin<\/a>, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Nicklas Backstrom during his career with the Capitals.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s role on the line will likely be to create space for McDavid and Celebrini on the smaller-than-normal Olympic ice surface in Milan. McDavid, who recently donkey kicked Wilson in the nether regions during an Oilers-Capitals game<\/a>, plays with a similar two-way, no-nonsense winger with the Oilers in Zach Hyman<\/a>, whom McDavid helped turn into a 54-goal scorer during the 2023-24 campaign.<\/p>\n

With the first-line assignment, Wilson is skating with the NHL\u2019s current leading scorer, McDavid (96), and the league\u2019s fourth-ranked scorer, Celebrini (81). The trio has a combined 226 points this season, including 85 goals. The combination is brand new for Canada as neither Wilson nor Celebrini played for their country at last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s other line combinations show that they plan on spreading out their center depth with McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>, and Sidney Crosby<\/a> all leading their own lines. Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman added<\/a> that Nick Suzuki<\/a> and Sam Reinhart<\/a> seemed to be switching spots on the de facto second and fourth lines.<\/p>\n

Sam Bennett<\/a> and Seth Jarvis<\/a>, both late injury-replacement additions, appear set to begin the tournament as healthy scratches.<\/p>\n

There has been no indication of who will be Canada\u2019s starting goaltender, but the competition is assumed to be between Jordan Binnington<\/a>, who held the spot at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and the Capitals\u2019 Thompson. Darcy Kuemper<\/a> is the projected third goalie.<\/p>\n

While the women\u2019s Olympic hockey tournament is already underway, the men\u2019s action doesn\u2019t start for another few days. Slovakia and Finland will play the first game on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If early practice line combinations are any indication, Tom Wilson appears set to play a massive role for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-467385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467385","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=467385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}