Age: 28 The Past: Never meeting team expectations. A playoff participant each of his first eight seasons, McAvoy only knows a high bar in Boston. At age 21, he suffered a heartbreaking Game 7 loss at home in the Stanley Cup Final to St. Louis<\/a>. He was minus-two in 26:02 of ice time. Four years later, McAvoy\u2019s 2022-23 Bruins famously went 65-12-5 for a record 135 points, only to blow a catastrophic 3-1 series lead to Florida<\/a> in the first round. At 4 Nations last February, McAvoy suffered a shoulder injury that led to a serious infection and season-ending surgery. He was forced to watch the overtime loss to Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n Biggest choke job in NHL history. For people saying Tampa getting swept in 19 you’re wrong. That was bad but they didn’t have 3 chances to close out a team. Maybe Red Wings losing in 94 to the Sharks but I think 2022-2023 bruins take the cake<\/p>\n The Quote: \u201c[4 Nations] cost me my season. It cost me my sanity, in a lot of ways. None of this has been easy and I get emotional when I talk about it. It was an incredible experience and I waited my whole life to be a part of something like that, but the way that it ended, the aftermath of it, and what I had to go through, it cost me a lot more than I was willing to give\u2026\u201d \u2014 April 2025<\/a><\/p>\n The Present: On arguably the best American men\u2019s team ever assembled, McAvoy\u2019s slated to play an important role for coach (and father-in-law) Mike Sullivan. If not, future family dinners might be weird. But while his point totals look great this season, it\u2019s been a mirage. McAvoy\u2019s favorable on-ice shooting percentages are masking poor defensive play. With the Bruins in an uncertain retool, the Olympics may be McAvoy\u2019s moment.<\/p>\n The Future: While he\u2019s only 28, McAvoy\u2019s an old 28. He logs heavy minutes and continues to battle heavy injuries as a warrior for Boston teams always in win-now mode. As a result, McAvoy\u2019s topped 70 games just twice in nine seasons. Jaccob Slavin is USA\u2019s only defenseman 30 or older, meaning McAvoy will be in tough to remain a top-eight American defender in 2030.<\/p>\n 4. Mitch Marner, Canada<\/p>\n Age: 28 The Past: 0-6 in Game 7s. Zero goals, two assists, minus-seven. While Marner escaped from his hometown team last summer, his postseason legacy remains. If we count the winner-take-all Game 5 shutout loss against Columbus in the 2020 play-in, it\u2019s 0-for-7. Marner visibly shrunk in these big games. Sample size aside, his trademark confidence, dangles, and body language wilted time and time again. Toronto<\/a>\u2018s Game 7 aggregate result in the Marner era? Outscored 25-9.<\/p>\n The Quote: \u201cI don\u2019t have any thoughts on that right now. I mean, pretty devastated with what just happened\u2026 Yeah, devastated. I\u2019ve always enjoyed this team and this city, like I always said.\u201d \u2014 May 2025<\/a><\/p>\n The Present: Marner\u2019s production is down away from Auston Matthews, but Marner has played superb defensively in Vegas. For a player long known as a playoff choke artist, Marner was clutch for Canada at 4 Nations. He called game in the opener in Montreal with a roof-raising wrist shot in overtime against Sweden<\/a>. In the title game, he set up Sam Bennett\u2019s game-tying goal, then ladled a perfect pass to McDavid to bury the Americans. Would a second big-time international performance squash his critics?<\/p>\n The Future: A strong, two-way play driver, Marner is a Swiss army knife that can move around a lineup and play special teams. Hailing from a country with waves of forward depth, no Canadian is assured a recurring best-on-best role, though. It\u2019s a big few months for Marner \u2014 a chance at Olympic gold and a fresh playoff slate with the ultra-aggressive Golden Knights this spring.<\/p>\n 3. Elias Pettersson, Sweden<\/p>\n Age: 27 The Past: A promising window shattered. In Pettersson\u2019s eight seasons, the Canucks have only made the postseason twice. A dismal showing for a flawed but once-talented core. \u2018Petey\u2019 hardly deserves all the blame. He was productive (18 points in 17 games) in the 2020 playoffs and played hurt in 2024\u2019s seven-game loss to Edmonton<\/a>. But since those 2024 playoffs, Petterson (29 goals in 116 games) has vanished \u2014 a microcosm of the franchise\u2019s rapid fall from grace.<\/p>\n The Quote: \u201cI truly believe we\u2019ll be back here.\u201d \u2014 May 2024<\/a><\/p>\n The Present: Pettersson\u2019s words after the Canucks\u2019 playoff elimination are haunting. 22 months after winning the Pacific Division with 109 points, Vancouver is dead last in the NHL. The team is on its fourth coach in five seasons. The fracture between Pettersson and J.T. Miller eventually shattered. Miller was dealt. Franchise player Quinn Hughes was traded in December. And Pettersson, a 102-point scorer in 2022-23, has played at an unthinkable 57-point pace the last two seasons. Life comes at you fast.<\/p>\n The Future: Two seasons into an eight-year, $92.8-million contract, Pettersson will be difficult to move. On a franchise thin on young talent, Vancouver is charitably a half-decade from contention. If Pettersson plans to achieve team success during his prime, it will have to be internationally. Once a key face of the Swedish program\u2019s future, the 27-year-old badly needs to launch a career revival in Italy.<\/p>\n 2. Connor Hellebuyck, USA<\/p>\n Age: 32 The Past: Three consecutive playoff flops. Per MoneyPuck<\/a>\u2018s Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx), Hellebuyck\u2019s last three postseason runs are not pretty: worst in NHL (2023); worst in NHL (2024); 23rd out of 28 goalies (2025). We\u2019re talking about the best goaltender in the world here. In his last 23 playoff starts, Hellebuyck has only kept it under three goals on five occasions. It\u2019s simply not a level of goaltending that the Jets could expect to contend with in the postseason.<\/p>\n The Quote: \u201cI\u2019m not going to go and tell you I don\u2019t want to be better. I absolutely need to be better if we\u2019re going to win.\u201d \u2014 May 2024<\/a><\/p>\n The Present: Hellebuyck is hardworking, accountable, and durable. There\u2019s much to love about his game. Given an injury and Winnipeg\u2019s struggles, he\u2019s not arriving to the Olympics in peak form, however. But a near-decade of regular-season dominance and a stellar showing at 4 Nations (.932 save percentage) means it will be Hellebuyck\u2019s net to lose. There are serious demons to exorcise for the reigning Hart Trophy winner.<\/p>\n The Future: With three Vezina Trophies and an MVP, Hellebuyck\u2019s a future Hall of Famer<\/a>. But his Jets are down to a 10% chance of a playoff spot per HockeyStats.com<\/a>. Hellebuyck\u2019s signed in Winnipeg through 2031 on a team that increasingly looks like its contention window has slammed shut. He\u2019ll be approaching his 37th birthday by 2030, so this may be Hellebuyck\u2019s last gasp to start at an Olympics.<\/p>\n 1. Auston Matthews, USA<\/p>\n Age: 28 The Past: Inability to score in big games. Much of what\u2019s written above about Marner applies equally to long-time bestie Matthews. The three-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner has not scored in six Game 7s, either. In fact, Matthews has just four goals in his last 23 playoff games. Shooting 4.3% over that span is terrible luck, sure. But in a sport where \u201cfinding a way\u201d is king, Matthews\u2019 navigation system has been permanently off when it\u2019s mattered most.<\/p>\n Canada captain:<\/p>\n \u2022 20 playoff series wins USA captain:<\/p>\n \u2022 1 playoff series win [Note: Matthews actually has two playoff series wins.]<\/p>\n The Quote: \u201cThat\u2019s part of life. It\u2019s not always going to work out in your favor. You know, for me, like, it sucks, but there\u2019s nothing that I can do to fix that now. It\u2019s about trying to just get better and be better as we move forward here for this team.\u201d \u2014 February 2025<\/a><\/p>\n The Present: That was Matthews after the 4 Nations loss. One year later, his team\u2019s chance at redemption is here. Matthews had primary assists on both of his team\u2019s goals that night and nearly ended the game twice in overtime. He didn\u2019t wilt in the moment. But it still wasn\u2019t enough. Matthews heads into the Olympics in a familiar place\u2026 under fire. His Leafs are fading from the playoff picture and injuries and inconsistency have limited his all-world sniping (26 goals in 51 games).<\/p>\n The Future: Captaining USA to gold won\u2019t completely erase a decade of postseason failure. But the relief would be immense for Matthews. Despite the big-game pain, his work ethic and patience have never wavered. At 28, Alex Ovechkin faced much of the same criticism<\/a>. It worked out okay for him. With Toronto\u2019s future murky at best and a third spin as \u2018Captain America\u2019 doubtful without gold, nobody needs to deliver over the next two weeks more than Matthews.<\/p>\n Also considered: J.T. Miller (USA); William Nylander (Sweden); Bo Horvat (Canada); Jack Hughes (USA); Jaccob Slavin (USA); Sebastian Aho (Finland<\/a>); Connor McDavid (Canada); Jake Oettinger (USA) <\/p>\n Bonus: USA<\/p>\n It\u2019s been an objectively ugly 30-year run for the Americans in best-on-best play. USA\u2019s landmark 1996 World Cup title was supposed to bring a seismic shift in hockey\u2019s world order. In many ways, it did. The share of Americans in the NHL has grown steadily for decades. On paper, USA is rivalled only by Canada today. But high-stakes hockey is played on ice, not paper. And there\u2019s no sugarcoating how reliably multiple generations of Americans have buckled on the biggest stages.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s USA\u2019s showing in the last eight best-on-best competitions:<\/p>\n YearEventFinishNotes1998Olympics6thLost quarter-final to Finland; trashed rooms2002Olympics2ndLost gold medal game to Canada2004World CupSemi-finalistLost semi-final to Finland2006Olympics8thLost quarter-final to Czechia2010Olympics2ndLost gold medal game to Canada (OT)2014Olympics4thLost semi-final to Canada2016World CupNot ranked0-3 record; didn\u2019t advance from group play20254 Nations Face-Off2ndLost championship game to Canada (OT)<\/p>\n Will USA\u2019s breezy competition in pool play \u2014 Denmark<\/a>, Germany<\/a>, Latvia<\/a> \u2014 allow them to ease into the event? Or will a soft schedule make it difficult to crank the dial for three straight must-win games? There are many individual players desperate for team success at the 2026 Olympics. But it may be the Americans as a hockey power that are most desperate to mute three decades of best-on-best flops.<\/p>\n Data from\u00a0Hockey-Reference<\/a>;\u00a0NHL.com<\/a>; Natural Stat Trick<\/a><\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n Recently by Paul Pidutti<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n Catch Every Goal from the 2026 Milan Games! The 2026 Milan Games are almost here, and the world\u2019s best men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey players are ready to battle for gold! The Nation Network is bringing you every game, every jaw-dropping save, and all the drama with live reaction streams and full recaps. Don\u2019t miss a moment of Olympic hockey action\u2014men\u2019s, women\u2019s, and everything in between\u2014on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel.<\/a>\u00a0Subscribe now and stay on top of every play!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Olympics offer an unparalleled platform to quickly rebrand a reputation. To capture gold, a team must win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-468299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
NHL Team: Boston Bruins<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770824529_985_image.webp\"\/)
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NHL Team: Vegas Golden Knights<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770824529_49_image.png\"\/)
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NHL Team: Vancouver Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770824529_32_image.webp\"\/)
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NHL Team: Winnipeg Jets<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770824530_384_image.webp\"\/)
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NHL Team: Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770824530_427_image.webp\"\/)
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\n\u2022 3 Stanley Cups
\n\u2022 2 Conn Smythe trophies
\n\u2022 2 Olympic golds
\n\u2022 Golden goal scorer
\n\u2022 4 Nations winner
\n\u2022 2016 World Cup winner (and MVP)<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Captain of the team that is synonymous with losing<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/OLY-101-ShowPromo-CatchEveryGoal_article.png\")
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