The Canadian men shook off a slow start to post a dominant 5-0 victory over Czechia to kick off their 2026 Olympic Games.
Macklin Celebrini, the youngest player on Team Canada, opened the scoring late in the first period off a Cale Makar point shot to give Canada a 1-0 lead heading into the 1st intermission. Mark Stone and Bo Horvat would give the Canucks a bit of breathing room in the second period scoring at the 13:20 and 2:29 mark respectively.
From there, the flood gates opened in the 3rd as Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Suzuki padded Canada’s lead, as Czechia had few answers for the offensive onslaught they were faced with. Were it not for Lukas Dostal making some timely saves, the score could have easily been more lopsided than it ultimately was. The Anaheim netminder turned aside 31 of 36 shots he faced, including several high danger shots late in the game.
Leading the way for Canada was Connor McDavid who registered 3 assists on the day, and was all over the ice throughout the contest. Jordan Binnington, who helped guide the Canadian side to gold at the 4 Nations Faceoff last year stopped all 26 shots he faced to post his first career Olympic shutout.
While many pointed out, and rightfully so, that goaltending could be Canada’s Achilles heel heading into the tournament, the native of Richmond Hill, ON looked poised throughout the contest, and rarely looked out of place in his crease.
At one point, Czechia’s Radek Faksa appeared to intentionally make contact with Binnington, leading to small pileup at the side of the net. However, the usually temperamental netminder shrugged things off and settled back in for the rest of the contest.
It seems to be a tale of two goaltenders when it comes to the 32 year old. This season with St. Louis he’s registered a paltry .864 SV% to go along with a 3.65 GAA and an 8-17-6 record. However, internationally, he’s stood tall for Canada in the crease, making big saves for the team when called upon.
There were a few instances where his “active stick” and propensity to wander out of his crease created some anxious moments for Canadian hockey fans today, but that seems to be part and parcel with the Binnington experience at this point in his career.
Despite the lopsided victory, it wasn’t all good news for Canada on Thursday. Blueliner Josh Morrisey left the game to deal with apparent injury and did not return to the contest. Shea Theodore would go on to play alongside Colton Parayko in Morrisey’s spot for the duration of the contest. Should the Jets defender miss any time, Travis Sanheim would ostensibly draw into the lineup in his place.
The Canadian men will be back in action on Friday at 3:10pm ET to take on Switzerland, while Czechia will do battle with France at 10:40am ET. The Swiss side downed France 4-0 earlier in the day Thursday.
Photo: Eric Salard. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.