Several member of the Florida Panthers power the Olympic medal hunt as eight players have advanced to the quarterfinal round.
We’re down to the final eight nations in the hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
That includes almost all of the 10 Florida Panthers players who traveled to Italy for the Olympic Games.
Only Uvis Balinskis and Sandis Vilmanis of Team Latvia are heading home early following their playoff round loss to Sweden on Tuesday at Rho Ice Hockey Arena in Milan.
On Wednesday, the four quarterfinal games will be played.
Then we’ll know who the final four teams to make it into the medal round will be.
The first game on Thursday will see Panthers assistant coach Jamie Kompon and Team Germany take on surprising Slovakia, who won Group B and earned the bye to the quarters, at 6:10 a.m. ET.
Next up at 10:40 a.m. ET will be Canada, the top seed following the preliminary round, facing off against Czechia after the Czechs defeated Denmark on Tuesday.
All three Canadian Panthers players – Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand – are expected to be in the lineup on Wednesday. Marchand has missed each of Canada’s past two games after logging an assist, two shots and a plus-1 rating in 9:29 of ice time during their opening 5-0 win over that same Czechia squad.
The third quarterfinal matchup will feature the other Olympic team with three Panthers players, Team Finland.
The Finns are set to face Switzerland as the only team to receive a bye into the quarterfinals without winning their group. Finnish Panthers players Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola have all played main roles in the team’s success, through Lundell sat out their final group stage victory – an 11-0 trouncing of Italy – due to an illness. He’s expected to be back in the lineup on Wednesday against the Swiss, a game that features a 12:10 p.m. ET puck drop.
Finally, the last quarterfinal game will feature the United States and Sweden at 3:10 p.m. ET.
Only the U.S. and Canada made it through the preliminary round without a loss, but the goal differential is what propelled the Canadians into the top seed.
Combine that with a third-place showing by Sweden in Group B and that’s how we’ve gotten two of the 4 Nations battling among the final eight at the Olympics.
Gus Forsling has been a consistent defensive force for the Swedes, skating on their top D pairing next to Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres.
As for Tkachuk, he and his brother Brady have been playing quite well while skating on a line with center Jack Eichel.
Tkachuk has racked up five assists, nine shots and two penalty minutes with an on-ice rating of plus-5 through three games in Milan.
The winners from Wednesday will advance to the medal round and meet on Friday. The first semifinal is set for 10:40 a.m. ET and the second will be played at 3:10 p.m. ET.
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Photo caption: Feb 13, 2026; Milan, Italy; Anton Lundell of Finland celebrates scoring their second goal with Eetu Luostarinen during a Group B men's ice hockey game during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)