Canada’s forward depth already looks like an Olympic cheat code
Maybe it was Slovakia’s upset over Finland or the scare Italy gave Sweden. Whatever the reason, Canada opted for urgency to open its 2026 Olympic tournament vs. Czechia – and started its grind line.
You know, the lunchpail guys, the bottom sixers, out there to bring energy. The center with two gold medals, two Hart Trophies, two Art Ross Trophies, two Rocket Richard Trophies, two Conn Smythe Trophies and three Stanley Cups. Flanked by a playmaker who sits eighth in NHL scoring over the past decade and a Stanley Cup champion captain ranked fifth in the NHL in points per game this season.
Yep, those are your down-and-dirty dogs, all right. Mitch Marner, Sidney Crosby and Mark Stone.
Hey, no sarcasm there. Those three are dogs. Crosby has spent his entire legendary career known as the generational superstar with a fourth-liner’s work ethic. Marner and Stone are two of the game’s best two-way wingers, sitting first and fourth in the NHL in takeaways over the past 10 seasons. They brought instant fire from puck drop Thursday, with Canada putting Czechia on its heels in a hailstorm of chances. But it’s nevertheless telling that Canada could trot a trio so accomplished out there for its “third” line. Marner-Crosby-Stone tilted the ice and converged for the game’s crucial second goal early in the second period, with Marner executing a beautiful backhand saucer pass to Stone while jumping over Czech defender David Spacek.
Minutes later, however, Bo Horvat delivered a jaw-dropping goal from the fourth line, taking a pass from Brad Marchand while in full stride, splitting the Czech defense and sliding a nifty backhander through Lukas Dostal’s five-hole to make it 3-0. Horvat’s 24 goals in 44 games with the New York Islanders this season constitute a 45-goal pace befitting a frontline NHL player. On this team? He’s merely a No. 4 center who sat for a shift now and then as coach Jon Cooper gave 13th forward Sam Bennett some time with Florida Panthers teammates Marchand and Sam Reinhart.
Canada’s bottom six alone was enough to overwhelm Czechia Thursday, and that’s before we even mention that Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini were flying all over the ice on the top line, or that Nathan MacKinnon looked as ferocious as ever, or that the Crosby-McDavid-MacKinnon tic-tac-toe power play goal was downright unfair.
The top end of Canada’s forward group was always going to be its greatest strength. McDavid, MacKinnon and Celebrini sit first, second and fourth in NHL scoring this season, after all. But Thursday’s 5-0 win highlighted how impossible the Canadians are to match up with at 5-on-5 no matter which of their players take the ice. Even their supposed checkers carry elite pedigree; whereas a team like Czechia an counter Canada’s best lines with star power of its own through the likes of David Pastrnak and Martin Necas, the lineup thins out quickly. Not Canada’s. Its fourth line rotation included three reigning Stanley Cup champions, a future Hall of Famer in Marchand and the reigning Conn Smythe winner Bennett as the extra man. Canada got goals from five different players Thursday – representing members of all four lines in Celebrini, Stone, Horvat, MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki. Per JFreshHockey and Dimitri Filipovic, the top seven players in scoring chance contribution Thursday were all Canadian forwards and included players from three different lines.
“I thought the team overall was great. We had contributions all over the lineup, and it was a good win,” McDavid told reporters shortly after the game. “I thought as the game went, we got our legs going. We were able to sustain a bit of offensive pressure on them and kind of tilt the rink on them.”
With such a deep and versatile forward corps, there is less pressure on Canada’s defense group, which, aside from Cale Makar, is not one of the team’s biggest strengths on paper in terms of true star power. Thursday suggested that Canada’s defensemen won’t have to do too much if the forwards remain this electric. The likes of Thomas Harley, Drew Doughty and Co. can play a relatively simple, game, limiting mistakes, getting the puck to the forwards quickly, and that will be enough. And at least for this first contest, the decision to return the same eight defensemen from the 4 Nations squad looked smart, as their chemistry with deft puckhandling goaltender Jordan Binnington was apparent.
Team USA has been talked up entering the tournament for its incredible depth top to bottom. The Swedes also have a roster with few holes. But the Canadians showed Thursday their forward depth is so potent that the rest of their lineup only needs to be good, not even great, for the team to dominate. It just so happened that Binnington was better than good – brilliant, actually – and Canada was untouchable as a result.
And after two of the tournament’s other top dogs were pushed hard in their opening matchups, Canada’s win over Czechia looks all the more impressive. This is still clearly the team to beat, having not allowed an Olympic goal in best-on-best action since the 2014 Sochi Quarterfinal – at 15:41 of the first period. That’s 224:19 of shutout hockey. Good luck to the rest of the field in Milan.
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