Head coach Jon Cooper speaks with Team Canada players during training.Mike Segar/Reuters
Sidney Crosby scored on his first shot in Milan.
It wasn’t quite the dramatic golden goal that won the 2010 gold medal in Vancouver, but Darcy Kuemper can confirm: the puck went in.
“Yeah, high blocker,” the Canadian goaltender said with a laugh after Team Canada practised Sunday for the first time at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
“Not a bad guy to score on you.”
At 7:55 local time Sunday night, after a light warm-up to shake off the jet lag, head coach Jon Cooper blew his whistle and Team Canada got down to business.
Crosby, winner of two Olympic gold medals, led one of the first line rushes and Kuemper suffered the consequences as Canada kicked off its first Olympics in 12 years with NHL-laden rosters.
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The last time NHLers played at the Winter Games, in a true best-on-best affair, was 2014 in Sochi, where Canada won the gold medal over Sweden.
Just two players remain from that roster: Crosby, who is captaining the 2026 edition of Team Canada, and defenceman Drew Doughty. Both also won gold in 2010, when Crosby’s now-famous overtime goal defeated the United States on home ice.
Beyond those two players, however, it’s all new.
And Cooper, as though sensing how much Canada’s first practice might be followed back home, delivered some buzz.
One of the biggest questions heading into Milan was who would flank Connor McDavid on one of Canada’s highest-octane lines.
Captain Sidney Crosby, left, talks with teammate Connor McDavid during practice.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The answer came in the form of 19-year-old phenom Macklin Celebrini and smooth-skating, brute power-forward Tom Wilson. It was a line even the players themselves were excited to see in action.
Celebrini, still only in his sophomore NHL year in San Jose, found out he was riding shotgun with McDavid when he walked into the dressing room Sunday and saw his name next to the NHL’s best player.
“Just excitement, obviously. I don’t take for granted the position I’m in, even just having a spot on this roster, so just trying to enjoy it all,” Celebrini said “I don’t really have any expectations or anything like that, whatever the coaches think is the right move I’m there for.”
Wilson was a player that Team Canada’s brain trust regretted not bringing to last year’s 4 Nation’s Face-Off, not only because Canada’s first game against the U.S. in that tournament turned into a fight-laden affair, but because he is a speedy, physical presence and a relentless forechecker.
International hockey rules dictate there will probably be no fights at the Olympics – the penalties are far stiffer with ejections and suspensions − but that’s not Wilson’s role in Milan.
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In Edmonton, McDavid has found success playing with Zach Hyman, a straightforward checker like Wilson, who can dig pucks out and feed them to the superstars. This is a similar approach.
“That’s obviously, I think, the hope,” McDavid said of his pairing with Wilson. “Someone that can go in and forecheck, get some pucks back and be good along the wall, and get to the net and bang a few home. That’s what he does really well.”
Cooper is known to juggle his lines and will likely deploy multiple different combinations around McDavid during the tournament. But for now, Wilson heaped praise on his new linemates.
“I’ve played against Macklin and Connor a lot, and it’s not fun. Playing with them is a lot more fun,” Wilson said. “They’re so good with the puck. For me, I think it’s about, go get it for them, get it to them, and get open. And they’ll do the rest.”
Wilson’s a unique player in the NHL, a prototypical power forward, but with jump. McDavid is, of course, one of the fastest and most agile skaters the game has ever seen.
During their first practice in Milan, the two spent time discussing how exactly to use their collective velocity.
“It’s not every day you play with a guy that has his skating ability,” Wilson said of McDavid. “I’m a straight-line skater and a hard worker, and there’s just a few areas where he’s like, I’m going to catch up to you, maybe you don’t need to go there, maybe widen out there. I’ll catch up with my skating.”
Wilson said the more they practise together, the better he expects the line to get.
“There’s just different things when he has the ability that he has, how you have to play the game – creating space for him versus crowding his space.”
This is also not the first time Celebrini has been plunked next to a superstar. At last year’s world championships, he skated with Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon and looked like a seasoned veteran. His performance at that tournament is a big reason why he’s now in Milan.
Celebrini, who was taken first overall in the 2024 NHL draft, said one of the key lessons learned playing with Crosby and MacKinnon was to not simply give them the puck all the time.
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“When you play with someone you’ve looked up to and someone who is one of the best players ever, you look to defer to them,” Celebrini said. “But they don’t always want the puck.”
The key is “just kind of learning those situations, and trusting my abilities and what I can do,” Celebrini said.
It was a lively start to what will be a pressure-packed tournament. Still, Cooper was coy as to how exactly the lines would look once the tournament gets going, with Canada playing its first game Thursday against Czechia.
“Ultimately you have to start somewhere, and this is where we started tonight,” Cooper said.
Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby takes part during practice on Sunday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Crosby said the short tournament leaves no room for error, so he expects the team to be making constant adjustments depending on the situation, and players will be asked to fill multiple roles.
“It’s not a playoff series where you’re trying to feel things out. So from period to period it could easily change based on a lot of different things,” Crosby said. “So it goes back to just being open-minded embracing it, whether it’s your role, who you’re playing with, all that kind of thing.”
He said the Canadian players have come to Milan with a singular goal.
“Guys are willing to do anything to win,” Crosby said.