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Edmonton Oilers superstar shines in Winter Olympics debut with three-point outing in Canada’s win over Czechia in Milano-Cortina.
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Published Feb 12, 2026  • 5 minute read
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Canada’s Sidney Crosby speaks with Connor McDavid as they celebrate their win over Czechia at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. AFP via Getty ImagesArticle content
Connor McDavid had six chances to score — maybe more — in the first Olympic hockey game of his life.
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And he wasn’t superb. He wasn’t dominant. He didn’t take your breath away with speed the way he can.
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But he introduced himself to the Olympic hockey tournament with a first-period hit — not exactly his style of play — and then another one, and it was almost as though he was sending a message — to himself, to Team Canada, to everyone involved in this magnificent event.
This has been a long time coming for McDavid, the greatest player in the game, who had to get to his 11th National Hockey League season before being able to line up for Team Canada on Olympic ice. That’s the wait of a lifetime for this once-in-a-lifetime player.
And this was only the beginning. No goals, three assists in the 5-0 win over Team Czechia in Team Canada’s opening match at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
Three points. It was Gretzky-like in a different kind of way.
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Gretzky never would start a big series with a hit. That wasn’t his way. That wasn’t how he played at any time in his career.
But sometimes, a game would end and you would look at the game sheet afterwards and there was Gretzky, who you barely noticed, ending up with four or five points.
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How did he do that?
The special players find a way. McDavid was sharp against the Czechs, but not in a McDavid kind of sharp way. He wasn’t Los Angeles Kings dominant like we’ve seen before. He wasn’t Dallas Stars-playoff-like, can’t-stop-that-speed McDavid. But against Czechia, he didn’t have to be all that.
The win is what matters here. The shutout matters. The continued streak about not being scored on matters. But what the opener at any Olympic Games means for a contending country is putting your flag in the ground and beginning the pursuit up the mountain.
How does Olympic hockey differ from NHL?
Olympic hockey is nothing like the NHL. Not like the Stanley Cup playoffs. Not like anything else in the sport.
The round robin is rather meaningless, big picture, for Team Canada. Their toughest opponent, Czechia, was shutout Thursday morning. Now they play Switzerland and France. And then the real stuff begins.
The NHL and the IIHF have set up this kind of draw years ago to ensure that no team full of NHL players would get knocked out early. So you get in your three round-robin games and then it’s Game 7 and Game 7 all the way to the gold-medal Game 7.
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Winner take all. And really, with three countries — Canada, the United States and Sweden — all in contention to take home top medals. So what you look for if you’re Jon Cooper, the Team Canada coach, is building your program in a very short time.
You want Game 2 to be better than Game 1. You want Game 3 to be better than Game 2. Each day and with each practice you look to build a collection of players into a team.
That’s the process and that’s the goal for Team Canada, who opened the day with Sidney Crosby at centre, followed by Nathan MacKinnon at centre and McDavid — if you can believe it — as the third line to come out in the their opening game.
You start with Crosby out of respect. Then it’s then a coin-flip between MacKinnon and McDavid, the two most explosive players in the game. And then you let the game happen.
And what started with a McDavid hit moved to a play in the final seconds of the first period: Time running out, McDavid does a turn-up in the offensive zone, finds Cale Makar, whose shot is deflected in by the kid, Macklin Celebrini, for a last-few-seconds goal after one rather close period of hockey.
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The goal was perfect in a way. The two giants, McDavid and Makar, combining with the teenager who was given the wondrous opportunity of starting his Olympic journey on McDavid’s flank.
After Mitch Marner made a spectacular backhand saucer pass to Mark Stone, which gave Canada a 2-0 lead, the game tilted and never really looked close again.
How do these centres line up with past Team Canadas?
When Canada won gold in 2014 in Sochi, it did so with Crosby and Jonathan Toews as its top two centres. In 2010 in Vancouver, the Canadians had Crosby, Toews and Ryan Getzlaf as its top centres.
Great as any of those players may be, they’re not speedy game-breakers the way McDavid and MacKinnon can be. Really, there have been few Team Canada rosters over the years to have centres like this team has. There was Gretzky and Mario Lemieux playing together in the Canada Cup of 1987 — that’s as good as it may ever get.
McDavid and MacKinnon, on a team with Crosby, on a team with Nick Suzuki and Bo Horvat — who both scored in the 5-0 win — gives a shouting indication of just what kind of depth Canada has up front in this tournament.
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What else was there to like?
There was, from many perspectives, a lot to like about the Canadian win in Game 1. The forever-beleaguered Jordan Binnington was against sharp in the Canadian goal.
He was especially sharp through the first two periods where he faced a lot of shots — just not a lot of second shots. For that you can credit the Canadian defence for being strong around their net.
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The new additions — Suzuki, Tom Wilson, Celebrini — all made a difference for Canada.
Some of the old dawgs, in particular Drew Doughty on defence, Brad Marchand sliding a lovely pass to Horvat for his goal, fit in nicely.
It is just one game though in a process of building towards the medal-round games. McDavid will be better, more spectacular, because he’s McDavid. MacKinnon, who scored a goal assisted by Crosby and McDavid — and how cool is that, if you’re him — will be better.
That’s the best part of winning 5-0. You saw the beginning for Team Canada. The first McDavid Olympic moments.
There will be more to come.
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