Olympic Hockey Predictions: Canada Favored, But Team USA Among Gold Medal Contenders ...Middle East

The return of NHL players to Olympic hockey fires up everybody’s interest. But we’ve also fired up the Opta supercomputer to rank Team USA and all the gold medal contenders.

Olympic hockey is hot right now. Maybe as hot as ever. 

A thrilling and riveting Four Nations tournament last year ignited interest among the masses in international hockey and the excellent new Netflix documentary “Miracle: The Boys of ’80” reminded us just how exciting and emotional rooting for your country’s team can be.

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics have arrived and with it, the chance for hardcore hockey fans and casuals alike to see NHL players taking part for the first time since the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. 

All-Star games give us a glimpse of seeing the best in the game playing together, but there’s simply no comparison between that glorified exhibition game and the heart and soul each player feels when his country’s crest is emblazoned across his sweater.  

Now we get to see Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon potentially on the same power play, or Jack Eichel rushing up ice with Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk.

Canada and the United States are favorites for sure, but Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Czechia are also very capable of taking home a medal. The group round begins on Wednesday and the tournament concludes with the gold medal game on Feb. 22

An Olympic hockey tournament could go in any number of directions, so to get a grasp of where these 12 teams stack up, we’ve put every team’s TRACR into the Opta supercomputer and fired it up. (Note: We also have all the team projections on the women’s side.)

TRACR uses data points and other factors to calculate how many goals per game (scored/allowed) better or worse teams are or were compared to the league-average club. But nobody needs a computer model to reveal that Team Canada and Team USA are the top teams in this tournament and TRACR’s numbers bear that out.

Canada is atop the rankings, with the highest chance to reach the semifinals and the best chance at a gold medal. The United States is second in TRACR and the supercomputer gives it the highest chance of all teams to reach the quarterfinals and the second-best shot at gold. 

Canada shares a group with Switzerland, Czechia and France, while the Americans are with Germany, Latvia and Denmark. The other group consists of Finland, Sweden, Slovakia and Italy. After Canada and the United States, Switzerland, surprisingly, has the next-best chance at gold, followed by Sweden, Czechia and Finland. 

TRACR considers the IIHF rankings and where these teams were placed in group play, so much of this will change once the competition gets underway. The United States and every other team will be focused on knocking Canada off its perch atop the hockey world. 

Canada won the Four Nations tournament last year and won gold in both 2010 and 2014 – the last two times NHL players participated in Olympic hockey. Actually, the Canadians have won the past four international tournaments featuring best-on-best competition: those two Olympics, the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, and the Four Nations last year. 

The Americans haven’t won a best-on-best elimination meeting between the North American rivals since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. And there was no shortage of bad blood between the hockey superpowers last year, making any matchup between these teams must-see TV. 

Here’s a breakdown of the Opta supercomputer’s top six in the tournament.

1. Canada

For pure star power, it’s hard to beat what Canada can throw out every game.  

Three of the NHL’s top four scorers this season are Canadian: McDavid, MacKinnon and 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini. Canada returns 18 of the 21 skaters who combined to average a tournament-best 3.25 goals per game at the Four Nations.

How the lines will shake out is still uncertain, but with Mitch Marner, Brandon Hagel, Brad Marchand, Mark Stone, Tom Wilson and Nick Suzuki among the forward options, any decision should be a good one. And a power play with Crosby, MacKinnon, McDavid, Cale Makar and any other player is downright lethal. 

Brayden Point will miss the tournament because of an undisclosed injury, and his absence would normally be huge, but taking his place is Seth Jarvis, who has 25 goals and 43 points this season for Carolina, compared to Point’s 11 and 30. 

The same eight defensemen who played for Canada in the Four Nations are back for the Olympics, a group led by Cale Makar and ageless Drew Doughty. 

There were some questions when Evan Bouchard, who leads all defensemen with 63 points, 18-year-old sensation Matthew Schaefer (16 goals) and Jacob Chychrun (21 goals) weren’t selected, but Canada opted not to change its blueline. 

Goaltending could be a weak link for the Canadians, but Jordan Binnington stepped up with some stellar play when needed in the final against the U.S. squad in the Four Nations and figures to be the No. 1 again. 

Binnington, though, is having a dismal season with St. Louis, ranking 57th among qualified goalies with an .864 save percentage and next-to-last with a 3.65 goals-against average. 

Logan Thompson is another option and could be the better one considering his success this season with Washington. He ranks among the league leaders with a .912 save percentage and a 2.45 GAA. Los Angeles’ Darcy Kuemper is Canada’s third goalie.

2. USA

A case can be made that Team USA boasts a better group of defensemen than Canada with Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, Charlie McAvoy and Brock Faber as puck-rushing options backed by the steadiness of Jaccob Slavin and Noah Hanifin. 

The same can be said of the three goaltenders the United States will bring to Milan. 

Connor Hellebuyck was the top choice in the Four Nations and is regarded as one of the NHL’s best, but it’s not as easy a decision this time because he hasn’t been as sharp since returning from knee surgery in December. Playing behind the disappointing Jets, Hellebuyck is 5-10-7 with a .890 save percentage and a 2.90 GAA in his last 22 starts. 

Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman are both capable of carrying a team in a short tournament, though both have struggled with inconsistency this season.

As they did in the Four Nations, the Americans will rely heavily on the trio of Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk to lead the forwards. 

Eichel has only gotten better since the Four Nations and is ninth in NHL scoring with 68 points. Matthews, though, is having a down season by his standards for struggling Toronto, and Tkachuk didn’t make his season debut until Jan. 19 due to surgery for a torn adductor and sports hernia.  

Team USA Schedule – Group C

All games 3:10 p.m. ET, USA Network

The Americans have plenty of other forward options and will need production from the likes of Brady Tkachuk, Jake Guentzel, Matthew Boldy and Kyle Connor this time around. 

If they come up short, the player selections will surely be questioned because three of the four American-born goal-scorers in the NHL were left off the roster: Jason Robertson (32 goals), Cole Caufield (32) and Alex DeBrincat (30) certainly did more than enough to be included. 

3. Switzerland

 A wild card in this tournament could be Switzerland, a nation that doesn’t yet have the cache of the big four on the international stage but features 10 NHL players and 17 with NHL experience.

Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Kevin Fiala and Nino Neiderreiter are the most recognizable forwards from the NHL for the Swiss, and Roman Josi, J.J. Moser and Jonas Siegenthaler lead the defense. 

4. Sweden

Sweden features the most recognizable NHL players in this tournament after Canada and the United States and is always a threat for a medal. The Swedes may not boast of a superstar like McDavid or Eichel, but they possess good depth and solid goaltending.

William Nylander will play a top offensive role along with Lucas Raymond, Adrian Kempe, Filip Forsberg and Jesper Bratt. Rasmus Dahlin will be counted on to anchor a defense that still has veterans Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson playing big minutes. Hedman has been limited to 21 games this season due to injuries and Karlsson is in his 17th NHL season.

Jacob Markstrom and Linus Ullmark could have battled for the starting goaltending job for Sweden, but Markstrom has not played well for New Jersey and could be relegated to a backup role. Ullmark just recently returned to Ottawa after stepping away from hockey and is not part of the team. 

That leaves the Minnesota duo of Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt as the top choices. Both have similar numbers, though Gustavsson is more experienced and is likely to get the nod.

5. Czechia

Another strong contender could be Czechia, which has medaled twice since NHL players first began participating in the Olympics in 1998.

If there’s to be a third medal for the Czechs, it’s likely David Pastrnak will play a large role. The Boston Bruins superstar is on pace to surpass 100 points for the fourth consecutive season and will be logging major minutes in this tournament.

Martin Necas and Tomas Hertl will provide offensive support and defensemen Filip Hronek and Radko Gudas will be asked to match up against the opposition’s top line. The Czechs have three NHL goalies in Karel Vejmelka, Lukas Dostal and Dan Vladar, though it’s unclear which one will see the most time in net. 

6. Finland

Finland is always part of medal contention in any international tournament, and this Olympic team is no different, though the absences are just as notable.

Captain Aleksander Barkov will miss the Olympic hockey tournament following a knee injury he suffered in training camp with the Florida Panthers. Proven goal scorer Patrik Laine is working his way back from abdominal surgery and goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukonen isn’t on the team after suffering an injury while with the Buffalo Sabres.

This remains a strong forward group with Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz, Artturi Lehkonen and Anton Lundell. Miro Heiskanen will carry the bulk of the load as the top defenseman and the rest of the unit is solid but can’t match either the Canadians or Americans.

For more coverage, follow on social media at Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook and X.

Olympic Hockey Predictions: Canada Favored, But Team USA Among Gold Medal Contenders Opta Analyst.

Hence then, the article about olympic hockey predictions canada favored but team usa among gold medal contenders was published today ( Tuesday 10/02/2026 - 07:30 PM ) and is available on The Analyst ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Olympic Hockey Predictions: Canada Favored, But Team USA Among Gold Medal Contenders )

Also on site :

• Russia exposed plot to blow up Black Sea gas pipelines – Putin
• Police: Two killed in shooting at West San Jose shopping center
• OpenAI COO says ‘we have not yet really seen AI penetrate enterprise business processes’