MILAN \u2014 Canada boarded a plane for Italy last weekend with lots of firepower \u2014 and a few questions.<\/p>\n
The NHL\u2019s return to Olympic competition following a 12-year absence meant offensive dynamos Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon would finally get a chance to show their wares on the world stage.<\/p>\n
There was excitement around the inclusion of Macklin Celebrini up front, too.<\/p>\n
The areas of concern \u2014 at least on the outside \u2014 lay elsewhere. A perceived weak link, how would the goaltending hold up? And what about a defence corps that included the same eight blueliners from the 4 Nations Face-Off? The group was solid, but plenty of worthy talent was also left at home.<\/p>\n
Through two outings at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, the star-studded and focused Canadians have silenced any negative chatter.<\/p>\n
The hockey power opened its men\u2019s tournament Thursday with a 5-0 victory over Czechia before handling Switzerland 5-1 some 30 hours later with similar efficiency.<\/p>\n
The team is also far from satisfied despite having already clinched first place in Group A and a spot in the quarterfinals with one game remaining in the preliminary round.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe job is to keep getting better,\u201d Canadian head coach John Cooper said Friday night. \u201cTo come in here and play the back-to-back, we passed that test. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou think about the travel, the practices, the games \u2026 it adds up. It\u2019s tiring, not only on the body, but on the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The much-maligned Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues produced a 26-save shutout in the opener before Logan Thompson \u2014 one of the best statistical NHL netminders over the past two seasons with the Washington Capitals \u2014 made 24 stops the following night.<\/p>\n
The blue line has held up despite losing Josh Morrissey of the Winnipeg Jets early Thursday to an injury that will keep him out until at least the quarterfinals. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve defended, I would say, relatively well,\u201d added Cooper, whose team stayed off the ice Saturday and will wrap up round-robin play Sunday against France. \u201cWhen we\u2019ve broken down, both our goaltenders have been there for us. Still a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cale Makar and Devon Toews are an elite defence pair with both the Colorado Avalanche and Canada, but the inclusions of veteran Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings and Dallas Stars counterpart Thomas Harley were both criticized when the likes of New York Islanders rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer was left out.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just control what you can control,\u201d Harley, a late injury add to Canada\u2019s 4 Nations victory 12 months ago, said of Olympic naysayers. \u201cThere\u2019s always outside noise \u2026 we\u2019ve learned to tune it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper said trust and familiarity played a role in selecting the country\u2019s eight rearguards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a luxury of picking some pretty darn good players,\u201d said the Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss. \u201cThere\u2019s guys sitting at home that easily could be playing on this team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys that are here, it\u2019s a duty to make sure you do your country proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDavid, who has six points through six periods to open his Games account, said a team that has yet to allow a goal at 5-on-5 continues to iron out its systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking through it,\u201d said the Edmonton Oilers captain. \u201cMaybe that familiarity from the 4 Nations helps, too. A little bit of that carry-over, understanding what the coaching staff\u2019s asking from us. And getting good goaltending, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper said it\u2019s important to find the right tone with a group as talented as Canada. And to this point, the probing roster queries have been answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cJob as a coach is let these guys breathe, let them go be hockey players,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cBut understanding that in the end, it\u2019s how many (goals) you keep out. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
THREE-HEADED MONSTER<\/p>\n
Cooper created a superstar line of McDavid, MacKinnon and Celebrini \u2014 a trio of No. 1 overall picks at the NHL draft \u2014 late in Friday\u2019s first period. <\/p>\n
Celebrini, of the San Jose Sharks, and MacKinnon, a teammate of Makar and Toews in Colorado, clicked for goals in the second and third periods, respectively, after McDavid scored on a power play in the first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like playing them when they\u2019re on their own team,\u201d Thompson quipped. \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine when there\u2019s three of them on a line.\u201d<\/p>\n
DEPENDABLE OPTION<\/p>\n
Cooper slid Suzuki from the wing to centre \u2014 his natural position \u2014 after putting MacKinnon with Celebrini and McDavid. The Montreal Canadiens captain didn\u2019t blink.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuzuki\u2019s a Swiss army knife,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThat kid can play anywhere. He can play goal if we asked him to.\u201d<\/p>\n
FRENCH CONNECTION<\/p>\n
France suffered a 4-0 loss to Switzerland in its Thursday opener, but gave Czechia all it could handle for a time in what ended as a 6-3 loss Friday.<\/p>\n
The roster includes Montreal forward Alexandre Texier along with former NHLers Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Stephane Da Costa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey compete hard, they\u2019re physical,\u201d said Canadian captain Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to worry about ourselves in terms of making sure we get better, regardless of our opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Canada boarded a plane for Italy last weekend with lots of firepower \u2014 and a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-475155","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\/475155","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=475155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}