MILAN — Neither of the favorites has been tested at these Olympics yet, not truly. But Team Canada spent the preliminary round marking out its territory as the dominant force of the men’s hockey tournament here in Milan.
Through three games, the last of which was an easy 10-2 win over France on Sunday afternoon, the Canadians outscored opponents 20-3. Twelve different players scored goals in the preliminaries; nine different players did so on Sunday. Canada never trailed.
None of its pairs or line combinations — with Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby as the top three centermen — struggled, but for good measure, coach Jon Cooper combined McDavid and Macklin Celebrini with MacKinnon in Canada’s second game, a 5-1 win over Switzerland. What he got was a Death Star-like weapon, though he opted against using it against the French, who were predictably and totally overmatched on Sunday.
The closest thing to suspense on Sunday afternoon came when Floran Douay tied the game at one just 13 seconds after Tom Wilson opened the scoring for Canada. The suspense lasted 39 seconds before Devon Toews scored, and that was pretty much it.
From there, the most exciting thing was Wilson dropping gloves with Frenchman Pierre Crinon in the third period, with both players promptly getting ejected, as fighting is illegal under IIHF rules. Crinon had caught MacKinnon with an elbow up high a few minutes prior.
The Canadians all but officially sealed the No. 1 seed in the knockout round due to the lopsided margin. The United States could, technically, catch them later on Sunday, but entered their game against Germany needing to make up 10 goals. The No. 2 seed will be in line to face Sweden, widely believed to be the third-best team in the tournament, in the quarterfinals, a result of the Swedes dropping a game to the Finns and failing to run up the goal differential in their other games.
Of course, that is only the expectation for this wildly talented Team Canada. Everything, though, is humming along as smoothly as can be.
McDavid is the tournament’s points leader, averaging one per period of play, and appears on a mission for gold. Crosby’s three points on Sunday made him Canada’s all-time leading point-getter in the NHL’s Olympic Era. Celebrini, who became the first NHL player to convert a penalty shot at the Olympics on Sunday, is dominating the Games at 19 years old. Go down the roster and not a single player is underperforming.
To the extent there is concern, it is that Josh Morrissey was hurt in Canada’s first game (Cooper said he will return before the Olympics are over), and that Jordan Binnington let in two goals against France.
If there’s a crack in this team, it hasn’t shown yet.
