{"id":483454,"date":"2026-02-18T17:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483454\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T17:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:33:07","slug":"canadas-lineup-vs-czechia-comes-into-focus-ahead-of-olympic-hockey-quarterfinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483454\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s lineup vs. Czechia comes into focus ahead of Olympic hockey quarterfinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Canada’s Josh Morrissey<\/a> will miss his third consecutive game of the Winter Olympics on Wednesday versus Czechia, while Brad Marchand<\/a> is ready to return to action.<\/p>\n

Morrissey and the banged-up Sam Bennett<\/a>, who missed Tuesday\u2019s hour-long practice due to maintenance, skated Wednesday morning at the Milano Santaguilia Arena practice rink alongside third-string goalie Darcy Kuemper.<\/p>\n

All three will be scratched<\/a> for Canada\u2019s win-or-go-home quarterfinal (10:40 a.m. ET \/ 7:40 a.m. PT, CBC Gem, Sportsnet+).<\/p>\n

The Morrissey scratch comes as a mild surprise as the top-four defenceman was a full participant Tuesday with partner Colton Parayko and looked to be game-ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust taking it day by day and trying to get ready for the rest of the tournament best I can,\u201d Morrissey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry and be a great teammate in any way you can. Every single guy here is a fantastic hockey player. So, you try to watch the game yourself to see what the team is doing with systems and to stay sharp.”<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>, who took two hard hits in Sunday\u2019s 10-2 win over France (one to the chin, the other to the knee), also took a maintenance day Tuesday but will suit up Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Coach Jon Cooper said he had \u201czero concern\u201d over MacKinnon\u2019s readiness to play, and the star forward was spotted sightseeing with captain and friend Sidney Crosby Tuesday night:<\/p>\n

Marchand, 37, has been dealing with a nagging but undisclosed injury that dates back prior to the tournament and has not played since last week\u2019s opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of the reason Marchy hasn\u2019t played here for a bit \u2014 to make sure he was an option for us (in the knockout stage),\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

Here is how Team Canada\u2019s quarterfinal lineup projects to look as they catch the underdog Czechs on a back-to-back:<\/p>\n

Celebrini \u2013 McDavid \u2013 Wilson<\/p>\n

Hagel \u2013 MacKinnon \u2013 Suzuki\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marner \u2013 Crosby \u2013 Stone<\/p>\n

Marchand \u2013 Horvat \u2013 Reinhart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Canada’s Josh Morrissey will miss his third consecutive game of the Winter Olympics on Wednesday versus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-483454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483454","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=483454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}