Canada leaning on past experience heading into Olympic quarterfinals

MILAN -- It's win or go home time, and Team Canada is ready for it.

"We had a job to do with the first three and we've done that," forward Sam Reinhart said. "Now it's shifting focus and it's starting for real."

Canada completed a three-game sweep of Group A in the preliminary round of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 by defeating Team France 10-2 at Santagiulia Arena on Sunday. By winning the group, the Canadians avoid the qualification round and will go into the quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed.

The Canadians outscored Team Czechia, Team Switzerland and France 20-3 for a plus-17 goal differential.

Now they turn their focus to the elimination stage of the tournament, which means flipping the switch from coming together as a team and building their game and identity to playing basically only Game 7s from here on out.

"The stakes are higher but that's why you put in so much preparation," Canada captain Sidney Crosby said. "That's why you really work to get your identity as a team so that when you get to these big games that you're out there and the intensity, the speed, it's all there, but you understand your game and that remains the same. That's why you put all the work in for these opportunities and for us we've got a lot of guys who have been in these situations. They understand what's at stake and we all need to elevate our game in those situations."

Canada's roster has a wealth of Game 7 experience in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, led by Brad Marchand's 13 and Crosby's eight.

Every coach on the bench from Jon Cooper to Bruce Cassidy to Rick Tocchet to Pete DeBoer have coached in Game 7s.

Seventeen of Canada's players played in the 4 Nations Face-Off final against the United States last year, winning 3-2 in overtime.

Crosby and Drew Doughty can dig into their experience of going all the way to the top of the medal stand in the Olympics in 2010 and 2014 if anybody else on Canada's roster wants a better understanding of what it's about and what it takes.

"The anxiety just goes up a little bit but all these guys on our team are made for these situations," Doughty said. "I'm sure there will be a little bit of butterflies before an elimination match, but at the same time guys step up and we'll be just fine."

Cooper said he felt Sunday's game against France was the first time that this group of Canadian players played together in a game that wasn't or didn't feel like it was winner take all.

Every game in the 4 Nations Face-Off took on that tone even though they weren't winner take all until the final.

The same happened here when Canada faced Czechia on Thursday and Switzerland on Friday. The Canadians knew going into both if they won they would have a chance to lock up first in Group A before playing France, which happened.

"This group has never really failed that (do or die) game before," Cooper said. "I didn't want this one to slip through the cracks. It didn't. Now we're ready."

And rolling.

Twelve players scored a goal in the preliminary round, led by Macklin Celebrini's four, the most by a teenager in an Olympic tournament with NHL players. Celebrini is 19 years old.

Connor McDavid, Mark Stone, Nathan MacKinnon, Bo Horvat and Crosby each have two goals.

McDavid has nine points (two goals, seven assists), already the most by a Canada player in an Olympics with NHL participation. It's also most points by a player in the preliminary round at an Olympics featuring NHL players.

"We have so many guys stepping up," Doughty said. "There are so many guys playing well. Everybody is contributing."

Cooper said he evaluated the team Sunday on how it played without the puck because that's how he can judge if they're improving as a team.

"You want to win this tournament, you better be giving up one or two goals a game -- anything more than that the game is in jeopardy," Cooper said. "That's how it was for me and for the most part in this tournament we've done a pretty good job. That's how I'm grading them."

He deflected when he was asked if there are areas he would nitpick, probably because there isn't much to complain about.

"When you don't have exhibition games there's no time for dissecting too much stuff," Stone said. "But now we've got video on ourselves so you can dissect where you want to get better and I think we've done a pretty good job at that."

Canada also comes out of the preliminary round with only one real injury scare.

Josh Morrissey left the first game against Czechia with an undisclosed injury and hasn't played since, but Cooper said the defenseman will be at practice Tuesday and they'll go from there.

Marchand didn't play the past two games, but Cooper said he'll be a factor in this tournament before it is over.

"Our top dogs have led the way, and in a tournament like this that's what needs to be done," Reinhart said. "We've got guys filling different roles that can impact the game in different areas. Now we roll from here."

They're ready for it.

"We're going in the right direction," Doughty said, "but I know for sure we haven't played our best yet."