{"id":598702,"date":"2026-02-18T13:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/598702\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:17:17","slug":"are-the-olympics-headed-for-mens-and-womens-u-s-canada-gold-medal-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/598702\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Olympics headed for men\u2019s and women\u2019s U.S.-Canada gold medal games?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Canada vs Czechia<\/a> in the 2026 Winter Olympics men\u2019s hockey quarterfinal<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Red Light newsletter\u00a0<\/strong>\ud83c\udfd2\u00a0| This is\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s\u00a0hockey\u00a0newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning to everyone except anybody who books a mandatory work meeting for Thursday afternoon. Seriously, go check your calendars right now.<\/strong> Did you do that? There\u2019s still time to apologize and reschedule, because absolutely everyone\u2019s got something better to do that day \u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n (Alexander Nemenov \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd47 Gold ShowdownIt\u2019s happening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives. And now, it\u2019s here. Or should I say, we\u2019ve got Team Canada vs. Team USA for women\u2019s hockey gold<\/a>, baby. Puck drop is Thursday at 1:10 p.m. ET.<\/strong> (Full Olympics schedule, customized to your time zone, is here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Full credit to Team Switzerland, which absolutely made Canada sweat it out in yesterday\u2019s 2-1 win, but the (almost) inevitable gold medal matchup is here. And while we all knew this was probably coming, the path to get here has seen some surprises.<\/p>\n

Most notably, this matchup no longer feels quite like the coin flip it usually is. If we\u2019re stealing lines from Avengers movies, it\u2019s Team USA that\u2019s been playing Thanos for the last year, earning the role of favorites<\/a> along the way. The Canada-USA rivalry has been uncommonly one-sided recently, with the Americans sweeping the four-game rivalry series late last year and then smoking the Canadians<\/a> 5-0 in their round-robin matchup. Forget beating the Americans, hardly anyone can even score a goal on them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, is this one an easy call? Not so fast.<\/strong> For starters, Canada didn\u2019t have Marie-Philip Poulin in that round-robin game; she\u2019s back in the lineup now, and she\u2019s one of the few players in the sport who can single-handedly tilt the odds. She also became the Olympics\u2019 all-time leading goal scorer<\/a> in yesterday\u2019s win. And despite all of Team USA\u2019s well-earned confidence, this is still Canada, winner of five of the last six gold medal showdowns between the two teams, including the most recent in 2022.<\/p>\n

And maybe the biggest reason to play wait-and-see before simply handing gold over to the Americans: These two teams always seem to find a way to surprise us. Remember the utter madness<\/a> of 2014? If we get even a fraction of that on Thursday, all bets are off.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sweden faces Switzerland for bronze<\/strong> at 8:40 a.m. ET on Thursday. Sweden has medaled twice in women\u2019s hockey, including a surprise silver in 2006 that remains its most recent podium appearance. The Swedes were blown out by Team USA yesterday but will look to rediscover some of the momentum from their upset elimination of the Czechs<\/a>. Switzerland has one medal in its history, a bronze in 2014, and should have some confidence after taking Team Canada to the brink.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Canada\u2019s Macklin Celebrini. (Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\ud83e\ude93 Chopping BlockLet the eliminations begin<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have a few extra days to wait for the gold medal game on the men\u2019s side; that doesn\u2019t come until Sunday morning. But the path to get here is already in motion, with the playoff phase of the tournament starting today.<\/strong> From here on out, everything is an elimination game.<\/p>\n

(Well, technically the two semifinals aren\u2019t, because the losers of those games still get to play for bronze. But nobody came all this way after all these years to play for third place.)<\/p>\n

To get you caught up, all 12 men\u2019s teams make the playoff phase<\/strong>, with the top four getting a bye to tomorrow\u2019s quarterfinals. The four teams with byes are Canada, the U.S., Finland and, in a mild surprise, Slovakia. Those teams aren\u2019t in action today, but they\u2019ll be watching to find out who they\u2019ll play tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The other eight teams are playing for their tournament lives. Two of those games are already over, and let\u2019s pour one out for the tourney\u2019s two underdog teams: Germany beat France, and Switzerland advanced against Italy. We\u2019ll preview the other two games down below. (As a reminder, our forecast page<\/a> is constantly updating as the tournament goes on. It\u2019s glorious. Don\u2019t miss the women\u2019s page<\/a>, either.)<\/p>\n

The bigger picture:<\/strong> This tournament is wide open, but we\u2019re still on track for the Canada-U.S. men\u2019s final that everybody is rooting for, and by \u201ceverybody,\u201d I mean the NHL\u2019s marketing department. Those two teams came into the event as the favorites, and so far neither has stumbled enough to change that perception.<\/p>\n

That said, seeding could matter more than we thought:<\/strong> A Team Sweden win this afternoon means it\u2019d face the Americans in a battle of powerhouses worthy of a semifinal or even gold medal showdown. Instead, one of those teams would be knocked out of the medals entirely. Sweden still needs to take care of business to make it happen, but that\u2019s where a lot of the attention will be today.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udca1 Trivia Time<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll do this one \u201cWho am I?\u201d style.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Hockey Hall of Famer who had a long and successful NHL career. I played in two Olympics and represented two different countries in the process. I also competed in an additional best-on-best tournament, where I represented a third country. And my son, a successful NHLer in his own right, went to two Olympics of his own \u2014 and did so representing a fourth country. Who am I?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few hints:<\/strong> While not quite a generational superstar in the Mario Lemieux\/Wayne Gretzky mold, this player is hardly obscure; he made the NHL\u2019s all-time top 100 list, as well as The Athletic\u2019s vastly superior NHL99 ranking<\/a>. He\u2019s the answer to at least one other reasonably famous trivia question. And finally, this player was mentioned in a couple of my recent columns<\/a>, so you should be able to figure this out as long as you read everything I write.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n (Alexander Nemenov \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa What to Watch<\/p>\n

The spotlight is on the men today, with the start of the elimination round. Germany and Switzerland are already through in the early games. That leaves us with two games on the day\u2019s schedule, and both will be of interest to fans of Team Canada or Team USA.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Denmark @ Czech Republic men<\/strong>
\ud83d\udd5a 10:40 a.m. ET<\/strong>
\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 USA Network (joined in progress), Peacock<\/strong>
\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 CBC (joined in progress), Sportsnet, CBC Gem<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one will be ongoing or over by the time you read this newsletter. Don\u2019t sweat it: You can catch up with our live coverage<\/a>. Anyway, both teams finished the group stage with one win, although Denmark hung tough against Team USA for most of their meeting. The winner gets Team Canada tomorrow, which would be a Group A rematch for Czechia, which fell 5-0 in the first meeting.<\/p>\n

The Danes will presumably turn to veteran Frederik Andersen to steal one here, or at least hold them in long enough to get the offense going; they\u2019ve scored just eight goals so far, with three of those coming from ELH star Nick Olesen. The Czech offense has been largely driven by Martin Ne\u010das, while David Pastr\u0148\u00e1k has just one goal in the tournament and Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hertl has been held pointless. Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l should get the start in goal.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Latvia @ Sweden men<\/strong>
\ud83d\udd52 3:10 p.m. ET<\/strong>
\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 USA Network (joined in progress), Peacock<\/strong>
\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 CBC, TSN (joined in progress), Sportsnet, CBC Gem<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a tough tournament so far for the Swedes, who came in as a medal favorite. Their loss to Finland put them at the bottom end of a three-way tie for Group B and produced a tougher path through the elimination phase. That said, they\u2019ll still be heavy favorites over Latvia, which managed a win over Germany but should be out-gunned here. Only four different Latvian players managed to score in the round robin, so they\u2019re likely to need a big game from goalie Art\u016brs \u0160ilovs to have a chance.<\/p>\n

The winner gets Team USA tomorrow. And while you never want to look too far ahead or count out an underdog, it\u2019s OK to start penciling in some plans for a monster Sweden\/USA clash that we didn\u2019t think we\u2019d see this early.<\/p>\n

Coast to Coast<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd4a Wait, the guy from Team France who fought Tom Wilson got kicked out of the tournament by his own federation for egging on the crowd afterwards<\/a>? Huh.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude0a Shayna Goldman is back with an Olympic vibe check<\/a>, including the mystery of why Filip Forsberg\u2019s ice time is so low.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd47 Your two favorite newsletter guys teamed up to rank all 14 realistic gold medal matchups<\/a> that are still in play for the men.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc74 A 40-year-old trying to create a legacy. A 40-year-old trying to cement a legacy. A 38-year-old trying to add to a legacy. Mark Lazerus talked to three aging captains chasing different kinds of glory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd85 Meet the coach with his fingerprints all over<\/a> the U.S. women\u2019s and men\u2019s Olympic hockey teams.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd6 The Athletic\u2019s Julian McKenzie has an excellent new book out called \u201cBlack Aces: Essential Stories from Hockey\u2019s Black Trailblazers,\u201d and we\u2019re running excerpts this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd2a My close personal friend and co-worker Chris Pronger is back with another column<\/a>, and he thinks there are five teams left on the men\u2019s side that can win gold.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f \u201cThe Athletic Hockey Show\u201d is going live on YouTube every day after the games are done, so make sure you\u2019re subscribed on YouTube<\/a>, or listen anytime wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n (Don Collier \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd14 No Dumb Questions<\/p>\n

We believe that in hockey, as in life, there are no dumb questions.<\/strong> So if you have something you\u2019ve always wondered about the sport, ask away by emailing us at redlight@theathletic.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You have one job<\/strong><\/p>\n

What does \u201cFOGO\u201d mean? I\u2019ve heard the term used in NHL games and again recently at the Olympics, and I assume it stands for something, but they never explain what it means.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOGO is a relatively recent addition to the hockey lexicon, and it does indeed stand for something. Specifically, it\u2019s an acronym for \u201cface off, get off.\u201d<\/strong> In other words, a FOGO situation happens when a player is sent out to take a faceoff, with instructions to immediately come to the bench for a line change afterwards.<\/p>\n

These days, you tend to hear it most often in the NHL at the start of three-on-three overtime. Strategy for the extra session has become far more structured over the years, with most teams choosing to focus on possession, including that annoying thing where they\u2019d rather regroup in their own end than risk giving up the puck on a poorly chosen shot attempt. That\u2019s made winning the opening faceoff especially important, as the team that wins might have the puck for several minutes.<\/p>\n

The problem, for at least a few teams, is their best faceoff guy isn\u2019t really someone you want out there in the sort of wide-open, end-to-end hockey that overtime can turn into. So, they send out the faceoff guy, with orders to win the opening draw and then get off the ice<\/strong> so somebody with a little more offensive flair can get out there.<\/p>\n

Outside of overtime, the same concept can apply, although it\u2019s a little trickier. You\u2019ll sometimes see a team use the strategy on a defensive draw, although that really only works if it wins the draw. It could make sense on a neutral-zone draw late in a game, too.<\/p>\n

Basically, if you see a guy take a faceoff and then vanish, you can assume he\u2019s been FOGO\u2019d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Peter Stastny at the 1984 Canada Cup. (Bruce Bennett \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Trivia Answer<\/p>\n

The player we were looking for was Peter Stastny<\/strong>. He was on the Czechoslovakian team in his first Olympics back in 1980, then was able to represent Slovakia by the time he returned in 1994. In between, he was part of Team Canada at the 1984 Canada Cup, as seen in the photo above. And his son Paul, despite being born in Canada, represented Team USA at the Olympics in 2010 and 2014.<\/p>\n

(Stastny\u2019s other trivia claim-to-fame is that he was the guy who ranked second to Gretzky in NHL scoring in the 1980s. He\u2019s also one of the only players to score eight points in a game<\/a> and made the cut in last week\u2019s Olympic roster-building game<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Red Light? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Canada vs Czechia in the 2026 Winter Olympics men\u2019s hockey quarterfinal. Red…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":598703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,246556,50,293,3777,52,247705],"class_list":["post-598702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-top-stories","tag-womens-olympic-ice-hockey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116091830553613791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}