MILAN – The men’s hockey tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 continued Friday with four games.
Early on Friday, Team Finland topped Team Sweden, 4-1 and Team Slovakia dropped Team Italy, 3-2. Also Friday, Team Czechia defeated Team France, 6-3 and Team Canada knocked off Team Switzerland, 5-1.
NHL.com is on site in Milan and will provide insights and observations each day.
Here are 5 things learned from Day 3 of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics:
Canada loads up top line
We knew Canada was explosive. What we didn’t know is that coach Jon Cooper would go nuclear in only the second game of the tournament. Even though the Canadians were leading Team Switzerland 2-1 in the second period, he put together three of the top four scorers in the NHL: Connor McDavid, who leads the League with 96 points (34 goals, 62 assists) in 58 games for the Edmonton Oilers; Nathan MacKinnon, who ranks second with 93 points (40 goals, 53 assists) in 55 games for the Colorado Avalanche; and 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini, who is fourth with 81 points (28 goals, 53 assists) in 55 games for the San Jose Sharks. Celebrini promptly scored to give Canada a 3-1 lead at 4:14 of the second, assisted by MacKinnon. MacKinnon scored the final goal of the Canadians’ 5-1 win at 13:03 of the third, assisted by McDavid and Celebrini. “I mean, three really good players,” McDavid said. Uh, yeah. Did Cooper do it just because he could? Did he do it to intimidate the rest of the field? Who can stop these guys? We’ll learn that as the tournament goes on.
