Ice hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics: Canada and USA meet in tense final

Meanwhile, the United States has its own stars, but they don’t have the offensive talent that the Canadians do.

“The Tkachuk brothers [Brady and Matthew]“And Jack Eichel, that offensive line works well together,” Bennett said.

“What they haven’t gotten is a lot of goals from captain Auston Matthews, he hasn’t dominated any of the games yet. They’re okay, but nothing more than that.”

However, the Americans have the best defender of the games in Quinn Hughes, who scored the decisive winning goal against Sweden.

“He might be the best three-on-three player in the world,” Bennett said. “He likes to keep the ball and is always looking to play an exciting game.”

It sets up a mouth-watering finale for an Olympic ice hockey competition that has benefited greatly from the return of National Hockey League (NHL) players for the first time since 2014.

The attendance of players from North America’s top league had been in doubt for some time due to concerns about the quality of the ice at Milan’s unfinished Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, but they were a huge boon to the games.

“This is the highest level of hockey we’ve ever seen at the Olympics,” Bennett said. “NHL players have made a world of difference.

“In the last two Olympics, the matches were good but they lacked quality in the final third, the big moments. The players didn’t have the skill set to break the game down, so they watched a lot of difficult and boring matches.

“Some of what the players were doing here was amazing. One of the goals scored for Canada, McDavid got this pass out the back door [behind the goal]it landed as McKinnon half-volleyed the ball. That’s when you get to know him.

“I was getting phone calls from people in the hockey world, and all they were saying was, ‘This is pretty good.’ There were periods where Kent [Simpson, BBC co-commentator] And I just sat there watching and smiling and laughing.”

Canada has won gold in three of the five Olympics when NHL players showed up and will fancy their chances in Sunday’s game could be as good in the stands as they are on the ice.

It is very likely that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Milan for the match.

Not only is Canada obsessed with country hockey, Carney is too – when he was governor of the Bank of England, he played for a recreational team in Haringey, north of London.

The big question is whether his American counterpart will be in Italy as well.