As the Olympic tournament enters its playoff stage, one Montreal Canadiens player will be fighting for survival on Tuesday, while the other three wait to find out who they'll face on Wednesday.
When the NHL paused its activities for the Milano Cortina Olympics, four Montreal Canadiens players headed overseas to take part in the competition: Alexandre Texier, Oliver Kapanen, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky. They’ve not all had the same Olympic experience, but three of them are already through to the quarterfinals.
Texier is the only one who hasn’t qualified for the quarterfinals yet. France lost its three games and now faces Leon Draisaitl and Germany in an elimination match on Tuesday at 6:10 AM ET. Needless to say, France won’t be the favourite in that matchup.
The Canadiens’ winger is their only NHLer, while Draisaitl is joined by Tim Stutzle, Moritz Seider, JJ Peterka, Lukas Reichel, Josh Samanski, Nico Sturm, and Philipp Grubauer on Team Germany. However, the Germans won only one of their preliminary-round games, a 3-1 victory over Denmark. They lost 5-1 to the Americans and 4-3 to Latvia, but they still finished second in Group C, while France finished last in Group A. Texier played all three games but was held off the scoresheet each time.
Whoever wins that elimination game will take on Slafkovsky and Slovakia in the quarterfinal. The Slovaks surprised everyone by finishing atop Group B with wins over Finland and Italy and a 5-3 defeat against Sweden. The Canadiens’ first-overall pick at the 2022 draft has been his country’s most valuable player, gathering six points in three games, and he’s now his country’s second-highest goal scorer in Olympic history with 10 goals. At least for one more game, he gets to keep chasing Marian Hossa, who has 14 goals.
Given how well Slafkovsky and Slovakia have done so far in this tournament, it’s hard not to see them as the favourite in that upcoming quarterfinal, which will take place on Wednesday at 6:10 AM ET.
As for Oliver Kapanen, he hasn’t been lucky in these Olympics. He was a healthy scratch in Finland’s first game, was the 13th forward and didn’t lead the bench in the second and was scratched again in the 3rd since his roommate, Anton Lundell, was sick. Still, the Finns finished second in Group B and have earned their ticket to the quarterfinals, where they’ll face either Switzerland or Italy.
The Finns will know their opponent on Tuesday, when the Swiss and the Italians faceoff at 6:10 AM. Then on Wednesday, they’ll take on the winner at 12:10 PM. It will be interesting to see if Kapanen finally gets on the ice in the quarterfinal, but regardless, taking part in the games was a good experience for him.
Finally, Suzuki and Canada won their group, and thanks to their goal differential, they became the first seed in the quarterfinals. As a result, they’ll get to face the winner of the Czechia vs Denmark elimination game, which is scheduled for 10:40 AM on Tuesday.
The winner of that game will take on Canada in the quarterfinal at 10:40 AM ET on Wednesday morning. Unlike Kapanen, Suzuki played in all three of Canada’s preliminary round games, spending most of his time on the wing of a line completed by Brandon Hagel and Nathan MacKinnon. In three games, the Habs’ captain has one goal and a plus-one rating.
The fourth quarterfinal won’t feature any Hab since Team USA elected not to take Cole Caufield or Lane Hutson. Still, the Americans are scheduled to face the winner of the Sweden vs. Latvia elimination game, which will be played on Tuesday at 3:10 PM ET.
The Americans will then take on the winner on Wednesday at 3:10 PM ET. Bill Guerin’s team won Group C, beating Germany, Denmark and Latvia. In those three games, they scored 16 goals and gave up 5, finishing the tournament with a plus-11 goal differential, which wasn’t enough to get the first seed ahead of Canada.
Still, if the two countries win their respective quarterfinals, they won’t meet in the semifinals because teams will be reseeded. The semi-finals are scheduled for Friday, February 20th, while the Bronze Medal game will take place on the 21st and the Gold Medal one on the 22nd. All that remains to be seen is which teams will make it there.
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