
With the preliminary round of the 2026 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament now in the books, teams will now face elimination starting with the qualifier-round matchups on February 17. Of the seven members of the Vancouver Canucks at the Olympics, only Kevin Lankinen and Finland have managed to play themselves straight to the quarter-finals. This means that the following six Canucks will take part in the qualifier-round matchups to continue their quest for a medal.
The first matchup of February 17th’s elimination games features Germany and France, two teams that have a fairly limited NHL presence on them. While the lone active NHL player on France’s squad is Alexandre Texier of the Montréal Canadiens, Germany does have an interesting pool including Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider, and JJ Peterka. Canucks forward Lukas Reichel is also on Team Germany and scored his first Olympic goal in his team’s 4–3 loss to Latvia.
Two Canucks will take part in this particular qualifying matchup, as Filip Hronek and David Kämpf have both been big pieces in Czechia’s lineup. Czechia’s tournament has likely not gone the way they thought it would, as they kicked off the 2026 Winter Olympics with a lopsided 5–0 loss to Team Canada. While they did take down France by a score of 6–3, this game was surprisingly close for parts of the game. In their final game, they lost to a Switzerland team that has impressed throughout the tournament by 4–3 in overtime.
Sweden and Latvia’s matchup means that at least one member of the Canucks will be eliminated before the quarter-finals, as Elias Pettersson plays for Sweden and Teddy Blueger and Anri Ravinskis play for Latvia. Despite a 4–1 loss to Finland in their second game of the preliminary round, Sweden still managed to win two of their games. Latvia’s tournament has been shaky, as they dropped two and won one by a narrow score of 4–3. The winner of this matchup will take on a strong Team USA — one that already defeated Latvia by 5–1 in the preliminaries.
Feb 15, 2026; Milan, Italy; Filip Hronek of Czech Republic against Switzerland in men's ice hockey group A play during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn ImagesGermany vs. France: 3:10 am PT
Switzerland vs. Italy: 3:10 am PT
Czechia vs. Denmark: 7:40 am PT
Sweden vs. Latvia: 12:10 pm PT
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