Susana Vera/Reuters
Always one of the most anticipated disciplines at the Winter Games – particularly in this country – Olympic ice hockey is set to be a tale of two tournaments when play begins later this week.
On the one hand, the women’s tournament will likely be much the same as it has been ever since it was first introduced for the 1998 Nagano Games – that is, with Canada and the United States duking it out for the gold medal once again.
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The men’s tournament, on the other hand, promises to be much different than it has been of late. With the return of National Hockey League players for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, best-on-best Olympic hockey is back with a bang, and with it the first chance for a whole generation of the sport’s current stars to grace one of its defining stages.
What is Canada’s Olympic hockey schedule and when are the gold-medal games?
The women’s tournament begins on Thursday, Feb. 5, while the men’s tournament begins a little later on Feb. 12.
The gold-medal games take place days apart, with the women’s final game on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 1:10 p.m. ET and the men’s on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 8:10 a.m. ET.
Here is the full Olympic ice hockey schedule for men’s and women’s tournaments.
Canadian women’s hockey round-robin schedule (all times ET)
- Thursday, Feb. 5 – Canada vs Finland, 3:10 p.m.
- Saturday, Feb. 7 – Canada vs Switzerland, 3:10 p.m.
- Monday, Feb. 9 – Canada vs Czechia, 3:10 p.m.
- Tuesday. Feb. 10 – Canada vs USA, 2:10 p.m.
Canadian men’s hockey round-robin schedule (all times ET)
- Thursday, Feb. 12 – Canada vs Czechia, 10:40 a.m.
- Friday. Feb. 13 – Canada vs Switzerland, 3:10 p.m.
- Sunday, Feb. 15 – Canada vs France, 10:40 a.m.
Who is on the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey roster?
As it has been ever since she scored the winning goal in the 2010 gold-medal game, the Canadian women’s team will be headlined by Marie-Philip Poulin. Nicknamed Captain Clutch, after she also scored the clinching goals in 2014 and 2022, Poulin will be looking for her fourth gold medal in her fifth Olympics.
She will be joined by some of the biggest and brightest stars in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which wasn’t even in existence four years ago when the Beijing Olympics were being held. Many of those players, such as Brianne Jenner and Sarah Fillier, need little introduction, as both were part of the 2022 team that won Olympic gold in Beijing.
And on the back end, Canada will be backstopped by one of the world’s best goaltenders, in Ann-Renee Desbiens, who played for Canada at each of the past two Olympics. She is in fine form too, currently tied for the PWHL lead in wins with nine, and second in both save percentage (.953) and goals-against average (1.15).
Here is Canada’s full women’s hockey roster:
- Forwards: Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner, Emma Maltais, Sarah Fillier, Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark, Blayre Turnbull, Kristin O’Neill, Julia Gosling, Jenn Gardiner and Daryl Watts
- Defence: Sophie Jacques, Jocelyne Larocque, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Claire Thompson, Kati Tabin and Ella Shelton
- Goaltenders: Ann-Renee Desbiens, Emerance Maschmeyer and Kayla Osborne
Who is on the Canadian men’s hockey roster?
Just like the women’s team, Canada’s men’s team will be headlined and captained by the player who scored the gold-medal-winning goal on home ice 16 years ago in Vancouver. Sidney Crosby, whose Golden Goal has become one of the sport’s ‘Where were you when?’ moments, returns for his third Olympics, having also captained the 2014 team to the top step on the podium.
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain will be joined by a host of younger stars, many of whom were sitting at home as children watching his Olympic exploits at previous Games. They include Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, who famously scored the winning goal for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last year, and Crosby’s fellow Nova Scotian Nathan MacKinnon. Both McDavid and MacKinnon will have to set aside their ongoing fight for the NHL’s scoring title for the duration of the Olympics, with both having eclipsed 90 points already this season.
The Canadian men were forced into two late changes to their roster due to injuries, with Florida Panthers centre Sam Bennett, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP last June in winning a second straight Stanley Cup, replacing Anthony Cirelli on Tuesday and Carolina Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis joining in place of Brayden Point on Thursday.
Here is the full Canada men’s hockey roster:
- Forwards: Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Brad Marchand, Macklin Celebrini, Sam Bennett, Nick Suzuki, Sam Reinhart, Bo Horvat, Seth Jarvis, Brandon Hagel, Tom Wilson, Mark Stone
- Defence: Cale Makar, Travis Sanheim, Devon Toews, Shea Theodore, Josh Morrissey, Thomas Harley, Colton Parayko and Drew Doughty
- Goaltenders: Jordan Binnington, Logan Thompson and Darcy Kuemper
How to watch and stream Olympic hockey in Canada
CBC is Canada’s official Olympic broadcaster, including for all of Canada’s men’s and women’s hockey games. The 2026 Winter Games will be available to watch on CBC through your TV provider, or to stream for free on the CBC Gem app or at CBCGem.ca.
TSN is also an official broadcaster at the Olympics, and will carry all Team Canada hockey games on TSN1. You can find the channel’s full broadcast schedule here.
You can also follow The Globe and Mail’s live coverage of all the latest news and analysis of the Games on our website or mobile app.
How does Canada match up with the U.S. in Olympic hockey?
Canada beat the U.S. in the final of the NHL's Four Nations Face Off last February, and is looking to repeat the victory in Italy.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
In both the men’s and women’s tournaments, it appears that our neighbour to the south represents the biggest obstacle standing between Canada and a gold medal.
On the women’s side, that obstacle has become something approaching insurmountable of late. Despite Canada winning four of the six Olympic gold-medal matchups between the two countries – including four years ago in Beijing – the United States has dominated the rivalry of late, and is currently on a six-game win streak in the head-to-head matchup.
That includes winning both meetings at last year’s world championship – including a 4-3 overtime win in the final – and all four meetings in the Rivalry Series last fall, which saw Canada outscored 24-7.
On the men’s side, Canada memorably bounced back from a round-robin defeat to the U.S. in Montreal at the 4 Nations to upend the home team in Boston in the final, with Mitch Marner and McDavid memorably connecting for the winner.
Are the hockey rinks – and the Olympic ice – ready?
The Olympic ice hockey tournament will be played out at two rinks. While the smaller, 5,800-seater secondary arena, built inside the Fiera Milano exhibition centre, is ready and waiting for the puck to drop, the larger arena, the Milano Santagiulia Arena, has been plagued with delays and controversy.
The 11,800-seat venue will play host to the majority of the big games, including the semi-finals and finals for both women’s and men’s tournaments. However, the ice surface there will be 3.15-feet shorter than the standard 200-foot-long NHL rinks, although it will be 0.3-feet wider than the 85-foot wide rinks that NHLers are used to.
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Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Olympic Games, said on Sunday that despite construction delays, he is “absolutely certain” that the rink will be good to go come Friday, when it is scheduled to play host to its first game.
The NHL said it was “pleased” with a test event held at the venue last month, though it didn’t pass without controversy, as there was a short stoppage while a hole in the ice was repaired. However, teams were allowed to start practising on the ice this week, with France captain and longtime NHL veteran Pierre-Edouard Bellemare telling The Associated Press on Tuesday that the ice was “Not bad,” and “Pretty decent quality.”
Why were NHL players absent from the last two Olympics?
Crosby, who won gold with team Canada at both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games, and other NHL players will be back in the Olympics once again.JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images
Despite taking part in every Olympics from 1998-2014, some NHL owners had questioned the value in attending overseas Games where the time difference made prime-time viewing difficult. And while the International Olympic Committee had paid the insurance costs for NHL players in 2014 (to the tune of roughly US$14-million), the IOC refused to do so for the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
The NHL attempted to counter this by trying to extract financial compensation from the IOC in exchange for sending its players, but the IOC shut down every avenue that the NHL explored, so the NHL decided to pull out of the 2018 Winter Games.
In 2022, with the NHL still trying to readjust to the impact of COVID-19 and its effect on its seasons and schedules, it felt that it couldn’t shut down the league once again for Olympic participation.
Who won gold in hockey at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics?
In the women’s tournament, Canada enters as defending champion, having beaten the U.S. 3-2 in the gold-medal game four years ago in Beijing.
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On the men’s side, Finland managed to earn its first-ever Olympic hockey gold in 2022, defeating Russia 2-1 in the gold-medal game. Russia was competing under the Russian Olympic Committee flag, with Russia banned from competing as a separate nation because of doping violations. Canada missed the podium after losing to Sweden in the quarter-finals.
Russia will not be competing at all this time around, having been banned from international competition in April, 2022, by the International Ice Hockey Federation after the invasion of Ukraine.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the first women's hockey game is scheduled for Feb. 6. It will take place Feb. 5.