{"id":452849,"date":"2026-02-10T02:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452849\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:39:16","slug":"why-canada-and-sweden-closed-practices-and-u-s-flip-flopped-latest-on-olympic-mens-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452849\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Canada and Sweden closed practices, and U.S. flip-flopped: Latest on Olympic men\u2019s hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 The head coaches for the Canadian and Swedish men\u2019s hockey teams broke new Olympic ground Monday when they closed their practices to the media, hiding their systems work and line combinations from prying eyes ready to send that information back home to nations full of fans obsessing over every last detail they can get on their teams.<\/p>\n

They were also hiding those details from their Olympic rivals.<\/p>\n

When Team Canada coach Jon Cooper was asked why he closed practice, though \u2014 something no men\u2019s Olympic hockey team has done since NHL players started participating in the Games in 1998 \u2014 he suggested that \u201cclosed\u201d was the wrong term.<\/p>\n

Canada was skating on the practice rink adjacent to Santagiulia Arena, a temporary facility with flimsy walls and little room aside from the ice surface itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPractice wasn\u2019t closed,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cIt was only done because the rink\u2019s too small. It\u2019s just distractions and people \u2014 there\u2019s just issues to have so many people here. If you\u2019re asking me, did any lines change? Did anything happen? No, it did not. Nothing changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone, however, will have to take his word for it.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s and Sweden coach Sam Hallam\u2019s decisions to get alone time with their players at least temporarily inspired Team USA coach Mike Sullivan to do the same, announcing that U.S. practice would be off limits while the media was waiting to speak to Canada\u2019s players and coaches.<\/p>\n

Even NHL officials in Milan were blindsided by the U.S.\u2019s 11th-hour decision. Ultimately, though, the Americans changed course and allowed reporters into practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it with our practice today,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI think any time as a coaching staff \u2014 when you have an opportunity to spend alone time with your team, we would all prefer that. But we also understand that this is, to a certain extent, a business, and access to the group is an important element of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as a coaching staff, we love having alone time with our team and being able to work on things without having to read about it in a tweet 30 seconds later or whatever it may be. But we understand that\u2019s the world we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, the United States\u2019 forward lines and defense pairs further became clearer Monday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNot that anything is etched in stone, because I just think that\u2019s the human element of sports,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see how it goes. But there were certain things that we liked (from the 4 Nations). For example, we liked the Tkachuk brothers when we put them together. They\u2019re heart-and-soul guys in a lot of ways. They personify what it means to be an American, with their fierce competitive spirit. And so, I thought they were the catalyst for our team becoming a team in that sense of the word.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. also may have provided an inside peek at its power-play units. Quinn Hughes quarterbacked the first unit with Auston Matthews, Kyle Connor, Matthew Tkachuk and Tage Thompson on Monday, and the second unit consisted of Jake Guentzel, Jack Hughes, Brady Tkachuk, Clayton Keller and Jackson Lacombe.<\/p>\n

Because Monday\u2019s practice mostly entailed penalty-kill work, though, with Matt Boldy and Zach Werenski practicing with that unit, Keller and Lacombe may have been placeholders for them on the second unit.<\/p>\n

Special teams decisions were at least partially why Hallam decided to close his practice, saying he just wanted one day where the Swedes could work on special teams without reporters sending out intel to their opponents. Sweden plans to open its practices in the coming days, Hallam said.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Olympic Village stance<\/p>\n

Team USA made it clear from Day 1 that it intends to stay in the Olympic Village, with Brady Tkachuk saying the Americans wanted to experience everything the Olympics have to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the experience is to immerse yourself in the whole Olympic experience, and the village is part of that,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

Team Canada, however, has largely been evasive on the subject.<\/p>\n

Defenseman Drew Doughty was asked after practice on Sunday if Canada would be staying in the village as opposed to using a hotel the NHLPA booked for players.<\/p>\n

\u201cUhhhh, yeah,\u201d he said. \u201cTonight we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada forward Nathan MacKinnon was asked the same question after practice on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I think we have both options,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forward Sam Bennett and goaltender Logan Thompson, on the other hand, said their understanding is that Canada will leave the village at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the plan,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just not clear if that will be a permanent exit.<\/p>\n

One thing MacKinnon did confirm was that the men\u2019s team planned to gather to watch Canada\u2019s women\u2019s team take on Team USA on Tuesday evening, but not in the arena. They will do so on television.<\/p>\n

Canada does not play its first game until Thursday, against the Czech Republic. Canada may stay in the village until Wednesday and move to the hotel \u2014 where it will have access to meeting rooms and video that are not available in the village \u2014 the night before its first game.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s hard to say for sure. Much like their closed practice Monday, Canada is playing it close to the vest.<\/p>\n

Canada, U.S. had homework ahead of the Olympics<\/p>\n

When Canada named its Olympic roster on Dec. 31, the players who made the team were given access to an online portal where they could watch videos and get up to speed on systems.<\/p>\n

Canada forward Mitch Marner said Sunday that most of the systems remain unchanged from what Cooper ran at the 4 Nations Face-Off, but there are six players on Team Canada who were not at that tournament: goaltenders Thompson and Darcy Kuemper, and forwards Macklin Celebrini, Bo Horvat, Nick Suzuki and Tom Wilson.<\/p>\n

For them, that video platform was essential prep work for this tournament. And they knew Cooper was taking attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, as a coach, you want to put your players in the best position to have success,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cSo all the information we can give them, the better. You can\u2019t come to this tournament and run through everything in one shot. It was a ton of preparation that went in for players \u2014 we would narrate videos and whatnot \u2014 and when the team was picked, they had access to watch all this.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo a little bit of teacher to pupil, and then we had the ability to see who watched it and who didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendance, according to Cooper, was very high.<\/p>\n

Sullivan did much the same thing with Team USA, which welcomed three players who weren\u2019t on the 4 Nations roster: Keller, Lacombe and forward Tage Thompson. (Quinn Hughes also didn\u2019t play at 4 Nations due to injury, though he was on the original roster.)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur coaching staff put together some video meetings that we sent to the players where they had an opportunity to watch them on the plane ride over, and then we reviewed it when we got here,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cBut we did the same thing with the 4 Nations experience. Also, we sent them a number of video meetings in advance, where they had an opportunity to look at it more than once. And we just felt like it gave us an opportunity to get ahead of it. It also cut down on some of the information overload that is always one of the concerns when you get in these types of experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

As opposed to taking attendance on the back end of an online platform, Sullivan took the scholastic analogy a step further.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far,\u201d Sullivan said, \u201cbased on the quizzes we\u2019ve given them, they\u2019ve all passed with flying colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s goaltending up in the air<\/p>\n

Just like the United States and Canada, Hallam is keeping his starting goaltender quiet \u2014 as of now, even to his own goaltenders.<\/p>\n

Filip Gustavsson said Monday he doesn\u2019t know yet whether he, Minnesota Wild sidekick Jesper Wallstedt or the New Jersey Devils\u2019 Jacob Markstrom will get the nod in Sweden\u2019s opener Wednesday against Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just been rolling all three goalies in practice, and we have two more days, so we\u2019ll see,\u201d said Gustavsson.<\/p>\n

Gustavsson is 13-1-3 in his past 17 starts for Minnesota, so he enters the Olympics confident and seemingly playing better than Wallstedt and Markstrom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel confident, and we\u2019ve been doing well in Minnesota, so I feel like my game is in a good spot,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, (Sweden\u2019s coaches) can see that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 The head coaches for the Canadian and Swedish men\u2019s hockey teams broke new Olympic ground Monday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,54125,161,38,5280,4,2602,100,92,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-452849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","16":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","17":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116044023934724963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}