EDMONTON, AB – The start of the men's hockey tournament is still a few days away, but Oilers superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have already snagged some headlines in the early stages of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
On Sunday, Hockey Canada announced its captains for the men's national team, with McDavid serving as an alternate alongside Pittburgh's Sidney Crosby wearing the 'C' and Colorado's Cale Makar also donning an 'A' to make up the same leadership trio from last year's 4 Nations Face-Off.
Team Canada also held its first practice on Sunday, with McDavid skating on a line with San Jose's Macklin Celebrini and Washington's Tom Wilson, in addition to taking reps on the top power-play unit with Crosby, Makar, Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon and Florida's Sam Reinhart.
Canada opens the preliminary round on Thursday against Czechia at 8:40am MT.
Draisaitl and Team Germany are next on the schedule that day at 1:10pm MT when they begin their Olympic tournament against Denmark.
On Friday, the Cologne native was one of Germany's flag bearers for the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony, an honour bestowed upon him as a result of a vote conducted by Team Deutschland.
Ski jumper Katharina Schmid was Germany's other flag bearer, though she carried the country's colours at one of the remote events in Predazzo, while Draisaitl took centre stage in Milan.
