Day one of the 2026 Olympic women's hockey tournament is in the books with USA beating Czechia, Italy defeating France, and Sweden picking up an important victory over Germany.

While those were the results, there were plenty of additional storylines on day one. Here's a look.

Many believe Emma Soderberg was Sweden's starter for this tournament, but the fact Sweden started Ebba Svensson Traff against Germany in what was a crucial game for quarterfinal positioning says otherwise. This shouldn't come as a complete surprise. Svensson Traff has outperformed Soderberg all season. Svensson Traff has played twice as many games in the SDHL this season as Soderberg posting a .933 save percentage and has faced more shots than any other goaltender in Sweden. She also played two games compared to one for Soderberg at the final stop on the Women's Euro Hockey Tour posting a .930 save percentage compared to Soderberg's .842. Sweden has Italy next, who may actually have the second best offense in Group B behind the Swedes.

The age and health of Canada's roster were already concerns. Now however, Canada will face the added task of needing to turn around from games against USA and Finland to close out their round robin, and flip the page to quarterfinal competition with potentially only 24 hours rest. The rest of the competition, aside from the ill Finnish team that has had Norovirus rip through their roster, will all enjoy 3-4 days off after the round robin before elimination games begin. If Canada suffers an injury, or even has bumps and bruises, it could spell disaster for their hopes of upsetting Team USA later in the tournament. Or, it could give them extra pre-tournament prep time, and keep them sharp and from overthinking when it comes time for the win-or-go-home games. Time will tell. 

Italy spent nearly two months training in Montreal, including playing Canadian university teams. Facing France, who has significantly more experience against higher calibre teams, Italy was dominant outshooting France 46-15. France's lone goal in the 4-1 game came on a seeing eye shot on the power play.

Nadia Mattivi, Italy's captain has a target on the PWHL in the near future and she looked good in this game, as did Olympic gold and silver medallist Laura Fortino, who didn't look like she'd missed a beat having not played as much the past two seasons. 

Italy's dual passport players like Kristin Della Rovere and Justine Reyes were dangerous up front, but perhaps their most consistent threat was domestically trained forward Matilde Fantin, who is a rookie this season with Penn State and was Italy's top scorer at the World Championships this year.