Recapping the 2026 Winter Olympics Men's Hockey Preliminary Round

Quick note to the reader (you can skip this stuff if you just want to read about hockey)—I do have an actual "first post/introduction" planned for the website. It's coming out soon. In the meantime, I'll be sharing my thoughts about various sports (mostly hockey) and may dip my toes in Chicago sports.

Okay, now that's out of the way. Let's talk Winter Olympics.

I haven't been able to catch every big game. But from what I've seen, I'm left feeling a little mixed (if not, mostly excited).

We're getting as close to best-on-best as we can get now that NHL players are back in the Olympics. There are already three injuries, one of them a season-ending one in Kevin Fiala. Could this be something the NHL discusses before the next Winter Olympics?

The most interesting thing about the Olympics has been the change in ice dimensions. Instead of the old Olympic-sized rink (which was actually last seen in 2018), we're getting a rink that's three feet shorter. That "shrinking" is done in the neutral zone. A smaller neutral zone has forced teams' defenses to play with tight gaps, making teams play a dump-and-chase style. Offense is created off the forecheck and outcyling the opponent's defense.

Let's run through the Preliminary Round.

Group A

Team Canada clinched the bye after steamrolling through Switzerland, France, and Czechia. Following a 10-2 beating of France, Canada finished the prelims with a +17 goal differential.

Canada is the favorite to win gold, and it's hard to argue against it. Head coach Jon Cooper has elected to move Nathan MacKinnon up to Connor McDavid's and Macklin Celebrini's line. Which is insane. McDavid, by the way, has nine points in three games. Celebrini has six in three.

While Czechia looked like they'd be the best in the bunch (other than Canada), their -3 goal differential is a disappointment. They finished in third place with only one win. Switzerland took second with one win in regulation and one in overtime. Team France didn't win anything and got a player suspended for picking a fight with Tom Wilson. Wilson will not face any suspension because the aggressor, Pierre Crinon, displayed "provocative behavior" that is the main reason for his banishment. Crinon also laid a nasty hit on MacKinnon before the "fight."

Fight is in quotations because let's be real, that shit was weak.

Group B

Team Slovakia clinched Group B with six points and a +2 goal differential. Despite losing to Sweden on Saturday, Slovakia's third goal of the game (in a 5-3 loss) gave them the highest goal differential to clinch. This happened during Finland vs. Italy, which was an 11-0 rout. Because of Finland's victory, they won the "wild card" into the quarterfinals. By the way, Juraj Slafkovsky had an impressive opening game with two goals and an assist to help Slovakia win 4-1 over Finland.

Team Sweden has definitely been the biggest disappointment of the Olympics. They were even favored as gold medalists by some (certainly not by me). Some experts are pointing their fingers at the coaching staff with questionable usage of players like Filip Forsberg, who had been seeing minimal icetime despite being a clear top-six player. Sweden now has to overcome Latvia in the qualification playoffs.

Group C

Team USA had the easiest of the preliminary rounds headed into the Olympics. They shared Group C with Germany, Latvia, and Denmark. The US dominated with a +11 goal differential and three wins in regulation. Their blue line with Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, and Jake Sanderson will continue to be a monster. Auston Matthews currently has five points and leads Team USA in that category. Matthew Tkachuk has five points, but he also looks like he's not playing up to 100 percent.

Team Germany faces off against Team France for an easy playoff round for the Germans. Leon Draisaitl was quiet in their last game against the US. He only created three scoring chances in that game (according to the Hockey PDOcast's excellent breakdowns), but that can be attributed to the US's excellent defending and the fact that Germany was playing on the tail-end of a back-to-back (a 4-3 loss to Latvia).

You can check out the full schedule of the Qualification Playoffs here. I know, I know... I didn't break down every team (sorry Italy!) or go super in-depth. I just had some thoughts and observations from games that I did see that I wanted to get out there before we move on.

We'll see if I chime in again following the qualification playoffs. I might also write about what's going on over with the Women's competition. Right now, Team USA will be in the gold medal round.