Canada to wrap up preliminaries vs. France, Auston Matthews, USA to face Germany

Olympic Hockey Preview: Canada to wrap up preliminaries vs. France, Auston Matthews, USA to face Germany

While the seeding for the elimination rounds of men’s hockey at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic games has already been decided, Team Canada and Team USA are both looking to put a convincing stamp on what’s been an undefeated run for both teams in the preliminary games.

Following wins against Czechia and Switzerland on Thursday and Friday, Canada will face their weakest competition of the preliminaries with a tilt against France on Sunday morning. Canada defeated Czechia in a convincing 5-0 win on Thursday morning before defeating Switzerland 5-1 on Friday afternoon. While Canada and USA have easily been the two teams to beat so far, Canada has emerged as the most dominant force to be reckoned with, possessing a healthy mix of superstardom in Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, veteran stardom in Sidney Crosby, and future stardom in Macklin Celebrini.

Meanwhile, Team USA will face a tougher challenge in a match against Germany on Sunday afternoon. While the States are and should be heavily favoured in this game, they have to face off against one of the top players in the NHL in Leon Draisitl. They have other NHL stars in their lineup such as Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle, Detroit Red Wings defenceman Moritz Seider, and Utah Mammoth forward JJ Peterka, but they’ve proven to be vulnerable as well, coming off a 4-3 loss to Latvia on Saturday morning.

While Canada and USA have locked themselves into the quarter-finals, it’s been a tougher go for Toronto Maple Leafs forwards William Nylander, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Team Sweden, who lost to Finland 4-1 on Friday and have fallen to the 7-seed due to goal differential purposes despite wins against Italy and Slovakia. Their opponent for Monday’s play-off action is undetermined, depending on how Sunday’s games shake out, but it’s clear that the temperature is high for Sam Hallam and the Swedes, with every single goal mattering more than the last from this point forward.

Sunday’s action kicks off with a meeting between Switzerland and Czechia at 6:10am, before Canada faces France at 10:40am, followed by Denmark and Latvia at 1:10pm, closed off by USA and Germany at 3:40pm. All of the games listed are in eastern time.

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