Losing to Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off Last Year, Matthews gets his shot at vengeance in what promises to be an epic rematch
After losing to Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year, Toronto Maple Leafs star Matthews gets his shot at vengeance in what promises to be an epic rematch when his American squad meets them again in the final of the men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. A gold medal is always the standard for any Olympian, and the same goes for Auston Matthews and Team USA. As they get ready for the gold-medal game on Sunday, it’s only appropriate that they will meet Canada in the final. A win for the USA and Matthews would begin a new legacy for the Americans.
Matthews was on the ice when Connor McDavid scored the overtime winner to help Canada win that previous best-on-best encounter. That result gave bragging rights to the Canadians for the last year. Questions from fans and media surfaced wondering if Matthews he was indeed the right person to lead the Americans against them a year later.
Those questions carried into the beginning of this tournament, as well.
It was a razor-thin victory where Canada needed overtime to clinch the win, despite having lost to the Americans in the round-robin portion of that four-team tournament. Matthews put up three assists in three games during that event, two of which were primary assists on both of the Americans’ goals in the 3-2 overtime championship loss. He also had a glorious scoring chance to end the tournament in overtime, but the shot was stopped by Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington. Despite the outcome, Matthews was defensively sound in the three games he played.
Unlike last year, the Maple Leafs star is healthy. He is no longer dealing with the lingering upper-body injury that kept him out of the countries’ final round-robin game of the tournament last year. At this Olympic tournament, Matthews has already recorded three goals and three assists in five games. While he was surprisingly quiet in the 6-2 semifinal win against Slovakia, many wonder if he is about to unload against Canada as tensions flare again.
“I mean, the two times we played them, they were extremely tight, competitive games,” Matthews told reporters in Italy, including TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, as he reflected on the games last year against Canada. “I think these two countries have shown that they're at the top of the hockey world”.
The rematch almost didn’t happen. USA narrowly defeated Sweden in the quarterfinals in overtime, while Canada avoided a near-disaster to defeat Czechia in overtime in their own quarterfinal match. The Canadians also just squeaked by Finland, scoring the go-ahead goal in the final minute of regulation time.
Ultimately, nobody really remembers how you got there; they just remember how you finish. If Matthews can help shepherd the Americans to a win against many of the world’s best and avenge the heartbreaking loss of last year, the narrative around No. 34 will certainly change.
“They're special players. They're a very, very good team all around, top to bottom,” Matthews said of Canada. “So it's going to take a full team effort from our group, and it's a challenge that we have to meet head-on”.