Bellemare, France hoping to 'earn respect' with Olympic showing

MILAN -- The facts lay out the challenge Team France faces Sunday.

"Their worst player is going to be better than our top player," France captain and former NHL forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. "And this is the truth."

France has one NHL player at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026; Montreal Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier.

Team Canada has 25 NHL players, all superstars, including the first, second and fourth leading scorers in the NHL this season playing on the same line in Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Macklin Celebrini, respectively.

As Bellemare said before the tournament began, France likely wouldn't even be in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 if Russia wasn't barred from participation by the International Olympic Committee.

Canada has won the gold medal in the past two, and three of the past four Olympics that have featured NHL players. It is the sport's premier global superpower.

So, yes, it would be insane for the French players to think they're going to win against Canada, the team considered to be the best in the world in the final game of the preliminary round for each at Santagiulia Arena on Sunday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Télé, CBC Gem, RDS2, CBC).

France lost 4-0 to Team Switzerland on Thursday and 6-3 to Team Czechia on Friday in its first two games, both valiant, hard-working efforts cut short because it didn't have near enough talent and skill to hang with two quality national teams.

Canada defeated Czechia 5-0 on Thursday and Switzerland 5-1 on Friday.

But the French don't even have to make it a close game against Canada to get what they want out of this Olympic tournament. To Bellemare, they'll get what they want if they simply just make it a hard game for the Canadians.

"We came here to earn respect," said Bellemare, who played 700 NHL games from 2014-24. "There was never talk about a medal. For us, we tried to explain to all of our newspapers at home; they don't know the game, they don't know our team, they compare us with handball or soccer or basketball or rugby. We are not there. At this international level, France is nowhere near 12th. That's the truth, and we're in the tournament where this is supposed to be the 12 best nations in the world. We knew it was going to be difficult, but we always said whatever the talent that we're facing, they can not have more heart than us and more legs. Play like dogs and we'll see at the end of the game."

France has already done that in two games.

Switzerland got out to a quick 2-0 lead Thursday, but France made it a game, hung in, played hard and didn't get blown out. Timo Meier scored twice in the last 10 minutes of the third period for the 4-0 final.

It was better for the French against Czechia. Down 2-0 after the first period, they scored three goals in the first 5:54 of the second period to take a 3-2 lead. The Czechs scored two more in the second and another two in the third to win 6-3, but it was tight all the way.

"It's just unfortunate that a couple of mistakes there and there and there and the score looks like we were totally out of the game where actually, even if they had triple the amount of shots, it was 4-3 in the second," Bellemare said. "You would have told me that two years ago, I would have signed a contract in no time. Once again, it's a good lesson for us that when we do what the coach asks us to do, it doesn't matter what level, it works."

France lost each game with mistakes befitting their experience and talent level; mistakes that NHL players will regularly capitalize on, especially against inferior competition.

But the French will live with the mistakes in this tournament because they provide the necessary education and experience required to grow at this best-on-best level.

And that's why playing hard, smart and mature against Canada is much bigger to French hockey than the likely result.

Essentially, what they do is more important than how they do, Bellemare said.

"This is a moment that can mold a generation," Bellemare said. "This is the moment that can force kids to see, 'OK, against those guys' -- because we're never going to play against guys like this in our league in France -- so this is the moment where you're playing against the best. That's a privilege to do that and those mistakes, if you don't see them as a lesson, then there's no point in playing this game that we all love so much."

Texier needs to be the first one to learn the lessons.

As France's only NHL player, he wears a burden that used to cloth Bellemare in French hockey circles.

"You do feel like you have to try everything to support the team," Bellemare said.

But Bellemare pointed to Texier's six hits against Switzerland as being more valuable than anything he does with the puck because of the lesson it teaches France's young players.

"That's our values," Bellemare said. "I don't care about him scoring three. This is better for our team. This is better to show our youngsters. If he scored three, the guys are not going to be like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm going to try to do that.' They know they can't. But if he goes and he grinds the hardest, like everybody can do that. If he does it, everybody can."

If they do, respect follows. France is starting to earn it. A workmanlike effort against Canada will bring more of it.

"When I played [in the NHL] after World Championship and before the next one, you can hear it in the locker room, guys talking about which teams are going to be there," Bellemare said. "They can be like, 'Oh, we're playing France.' And one guy is laughing about it, and then the other guy is like, 'No, we played them last year, that was a nightmare.' This is the kind of respect that you get to earn. Is the media going to give us that kind of respect? I don't know. We don't have McDavid. We don't have anybody fancy and everything, and we are a small country. But at the end of the day if we can be here and show our value to our countrymen and show that those guys are working like nutjobs, I'd be happy, happy with that."