{"id":469364,"date":"2026-02-15T03:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/469364\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T03:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T03:10:09","slug":"tom-wilson-appears-to-lose-spot-on-team-canadas-top-line-with-connor-mcdavid-and-macklin-celebrini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/469364\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Wilson appears to lose spot on Team Canada\u2019s top line with Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Wilson<\/a> was a surprise inclusion on Team Canada\u2019s top line to start the 2026 Winter Olympics<\/a>. The 31-year-old winger began the tournament riding shotgun next to superstar center Connor McDavid<\/a>,\u00a0with 19-year-old phenom Macklin Celebrini<\/a> completing the trio.<\/p>\n

While Wilson played the entirety of the team\u2019s first game on the line, head coach Jon Cooper made a change in Canada\u2019s 5-1 win over Switzerland on Friday. Instead of having Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> centering his own line as he was doing previously, Cooper slotted the high-scoring pivot in the spot Wilson once occupied.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour job as a coach is to put the team in the best situation to succeed,\u201d Cooper explained to TSN postgame<\/a>. \u201cTake away the fact that they\u2019re all phenomenal players, number-one picks, many times it doesn\u2019t work. There has to be chemistry between the group, and those are three guys that need the puck, and there\u2019s only one puck out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to admit, there was a lot of unselfishness between those guys, and that\u2019s what you want to see. My point, though, with those guys, is as electrifying as they can be with the puck, it\u2019s how they play without. I thought, for the most part, they did a great job. When the game was still in the balance, those guys were a big reason the tide turned, so good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the move, which happened during the game\u2019s second period, both Celebrini and MacKinnon picked up goals against the Swiss. All three players on the line expressed how special it was to be playing with each other after the team\u2019s big win.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig fan of [MacKinnon\u2019s], watch a lot of Colorado games with some special players there,\u201d McDavid told The Athletic\u2019s Arpon Basu<\/a>. \u201cI have an understanding of where Nate likes to go and likes to be. We play the game similarly, too, so I think we have a good understanding of where we might want the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said it wasn\u2019t cool,\u201d MacKinnon told TSN\u2019s Mark Masters<\/a>. \u201cI love the game. I\u2019m inspired by Connor. I think he\u2019s the best & he pushes me to be even better. To play on a line with him is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s fun to play with those two guys,\u201d Celebrini added<\/a>. \u201cYou just need to watch them to know what I\u2019m talking about. They\u2019re just two special players, and it was fun to play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wilson was on the line, the Canadians were excelling, and the Washington Capitals alternate captain picked up his first career Olympic point on a Thomas Harley goal in the first frame<\/a>. After the switch, Wilson ended up playing on a newly formed line with Brandon Hagel<\/a> and Nick Suzuki<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move to swap MacKinnon and Wilson while the line was performing well even surprised the Colorado Avalanche superstar. MacKinnon started the game between Hagel and Suzuki on the team\u2019s de facto second line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought with Willy, they were playing great; they scored a goal,\u201d MacKinnon said<\/a>. \u201cNot really sure why, but I\u2019m ready to play wherever. I\u2019ve played right wing lots in my career. I understand the position, and obviously playing with the best player in the world and maybe the second best player in the world in Macklin, it was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson finished the game as one of Canada\u2019s most sparingly used players, seeing just 9:43 of total ice time. Only Bo Horvat<\/a> (9:26) and Seth Jarvis<\/a> (9:19), who started the game lined up on the fourth line and as the team\u2019s 13th forward, respectively, played less than Wilson.<\/p>\n

Through two games, Wilson is averaging 12:54 of ice time and has recorded one assist and two shots on goal.<\/p>\n

Whether Cooper sticks with the ultra-loaded top line for the rest of the tournament remains to be seen. The Canadians wrap up Group A play against France on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Wilson was a surprise inclusion on Team Canada\u2019s top line to start the 2026 Winter Olympics. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-469364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}