The Athletic Hockey Show - Is Jordan Binnington the right choice for Canada’s Olympic opener?

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

With Canada and Czechia ready for their debuts at the 2026 Olympics, Sean Gentille and Dom Luszczyszyn welcome Michael Russo from Milan to help preview the game, including starting goaltenders and line combos. Plus, Hailey Salvian files an injury update on Canadian superstar Marie-Philip Poulin, what Canada will need to do in Poulin’s absence moving forward, and praises American super-pest Abbey Murphy.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Dom LuszczyszynWith: Michael Russo and Hailey SalvianExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometThis episode was recorded live at 10:00am ET on Thursday, February 12.Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome, welcome. This is the Athletic Hockey Show. I am Sean Jintilly. He is, Domestician. We are live on YouTube today for a preview of Team Canada and Team Chakia. This is day two of the men's tournament in Milan. We're going to talk Canada.

We're going to talk Jackie, obviously. We're also going to talk about Team USA. That's with Mike Russo in a little bit. We're going to talk Team Canada and Team USA. women with Haley Salvia, and that's all on the deck here. We have Marie-Fili-Palin injury updates, yada, yada, yada, yada. It's been a big couple of days in Milan, certainly headlined by the Canada and U.S. Lidlifters here later today, as to use a very old obnoxious broadcasting phrase.

Dom Lus Chishin is here as well. He's co-hosting from Toronto, certainly a very, very far from me right now. buddy. How are you? Very, very far. We definitely did not go play darts or anything this week. I don't know what you're talking about. How are you, man? I am great.

I'm excited. More importantly, this is the big question. Where were you for Damien Clara's brief and beautiful moment in the sun last night? Of course, the Italian goaltender, he made 46 saves. And it was less than two periods against Sweden, wasn't it? But before leaving with a cramp, hopefully. That to me is what Olympic hockey is all about. And we got a little taste of it on night one.

This is a guy who most of us didn't know existed. Yes, he's a legit prospect for the Anheim ducks. But for the vast, vast majority of the viewing audience, that's the first exposure we got to him. And it was beautiful. He was standing on his head and roaming around the crease and doing all kinds of crazy stuff to keep Italy in that game against Sweden. It was memorable and it was fun.

It was awesome. So what the Olympics is all about. It was fantastic to see. sea and Italy's offense came through a little bit as well early on to make it really spicy. That's my first time watching him, obviously, but I did know a little bit about him. Wait a second. Wait a second. You weren't in on the Damien Clara scouting process before the 2023 draft. Come on, buddy. Get it together. No, not at all. I don't really pay too much attention to hockey outside the NHL. For my projections for this tournament, I enlisted some help from some European

statisticians. gave me the 4-1-1 that Clara was a legit initial prospect. He's sick. He's got some theatrics to him in the sense that he could steal some periods. And he did. You got to put the leash on him, too. He's a roamer. I love, I love seeing that.

I know he's sick, sick, so you don't get the full, like, 90s goaltender, you know, experience. He needs to be like 5-Eleven for that. But, man, it was fun. Um, this today though, it is about the North American teams in the men's tournament. Um, we found out a couple minutes ago that John Cooper is indeed starting Jordan Bennington, as expected, uh, over Logan Thompson against Chequia. Tom, you've outlined, uh, why that choice shouldn't be all that difficult and why it should, uh, certainly be different. Uh, word on the street, though, it seems like you're maybe softening the stance a little bit.

I, that's, that's, it's kind of hard to believe. What's going on? Uh, so I wrote an article, uh, on Monday. that some blues fans did not enjoy, which is okay. I'm just outlining the facts and the concerns, because I think this is going to be the toughest game Canada has in the group. Stage, Chequia has their superstar talent up front. They have a goalie that can steal a game, no problem. And Bennington has not been the best this season. I think we all know that.

So I looked at the chances how everything would change if Canada drops this game, which is a possibility. We saw Slovakia beat Finland. I am softening a little bit just because Slovakia did beat Finland, and that puts Finland in a direct path to finish third in their group, and likely 7th, 8th, or 9th. So if Canada runs the table, they do not get a maybe easier game in the quarterfinal. They might get Finland.

And so if that's the case, there's no real concern anymore to finish first or second the group and you can give Bennington this start and he's he earned it after the four nations win i'm not denying that for sure um yeah i as soon as 1041 hits i am a huge Jordan bittington here you go i hope he does well i hope he makes me eat a whole platter of crow i want it to happen i want him to be the best goalie i've ever seen i am rooting for that i just before the tournament you have to have your concern you have to have your concerns and that was obviously the big one.

This is Canadian arrogance from you discounting the Slovakian team like that. You should be afraid of the Slovakosk. Be afraid of your ice Slavkowski. Come on. I am. He's unreal. He's the greatest of all time, I think. Isn't Olympic hockey the best Slopkowski? It's great. It's great. You know who is really on about Slavkovsky was Drans. Durantz was gassing him up so hard. And I love, I love seeing a Durant's prediction come

through because it happens so infrequently. So yeah, we love it. Okay. Russo is here. Mike Russo is here. Joining us now from Milan is, is the is the man on the scene. Michael Russo, buddy, you've been covering everything. We've seen you at women's games. We've seen you at US practices. You're all over the place. How are we doing? How are how are you holding up physically? How are, how of the last 10 days or so gone for you? I haven't held up physically in about 30 years. But I'm doing well. Yeah, you know, I haven't hit the wall yet. I know I've covered Olympics before, and there does come a point where that happened.

So far it hasn't happened, but I think part of it is we have such a good team here and a robust team with five of us hockey writers and an incredible editor in Nowco here that really keeps us all with our eyes on the ball. And so it's been awesome so far. And just walked out into the corridor, watched Jordan Bing, it's Bennington, your guy, lead. Canada onto the ice against Lucas de Stahl. And so now I know, according to Dom's predictions, that they're in deep trouble. No kidding, man. Day 2 actually has already started. We haven't even mentioned this yet.

Switzerland beat France 4-0. Mike, I'm looking for two things for you right off the bat. What's been the most memorable moment from the men's game so far? We've seen three of them. And what's the most consequential? Because those are two separate things. Like, we can all gas up Damien Clara, the Italian goal. and talk about how fun he is, but I don't know how much, I don't know how important that's

necessarily going to be moving forward. So what's most memorable and what do you think is, is the biggest deal overall? Well, so far, my favorite moment was watching Finland have maybe their worst international loss in 20 years and then watching a reporter tried to take a selfie with Stavonado right after it. And then just seeing him sheepishly like posed for it. You can name Laz. We all know it was more class. He was trying to get a photo. I did say to Laz after the Switzerland game, hey, I'm going downstairs to take a selfie with Nino.

But, yeah, no, you know what? I mean, that was definitely the best moment of so far of the tournament. The first game, watching Slovakia upset Finland. You know, I called it a stunning upset on X, and Slovak fans got all pissed with me. Of course, of course. You know, I mean, obviously, it's not like, you know, watching France beat the United States.

or Canada, but, but, you know, still, Finland, who I didn't think was very good in the four nations, they come here and right away, they lose to a team that doesn't have a full body of, of, of, of, NHL players. Obviously, Slfgowski was awesome, and they haven't had a player in that country like that since probably Gabbard, or Hosa. And, you know, but, but I was really disappointed watching Finland. I mean, you know, like just, even that empty net goal there and watching one guy doesn't even have a stick in his hand, and you're watching guys like hints and.

Gramlin and Brantnan and these guys just try to not even put a body on them. It was embarrassing. And so I think that Slovakia winning so far has definitely been the story of the tournament. And that was game one. So it was pretty cool. This is after years of the pesky Finn's narrative too, right? Like that's always been the tag that's followed them around international hockey for the last however many years.

And it did, we didn't see much that yesterday. They don't know what to be a favorite. They're supposed to be this gritty team. And then you watch soft at play as ever to defend. that empty net. It was not very cool. I love this. Mike Russo making enemies in Finland as we speak. We love it. We love it.

Okay. I do want to ask a couple U.S. men's questions because you're, that's your primary, I don't know if I want to say that necessarily, but that's one of your, that's one of your beats at this tournament. Clayton Keller was the extra forward at practice yesterday, which I thought was

interesting, as he did not have a line. Is that something we can expect to see tonight? And what's the logic it play there. Yeah, I think that probably the logic is going with the guys with the Four Nations. I think my guess is that Clayton Keller is going to, at some point, get games. They have back-to-back coming up. I think that Jack Hughes already

is entering the tournament sort of on a short leash. You know, the way that he played wing at the Four Nations, they were really talking about putting him at center here in this tournament. Next thing you know, they put him on the fourth line left wing and not on the power play, at least according to the line rushes, last three or four days.

So it just feels like he could be in trouble. But I mean, then you have J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck. So any of those guys can wind up out of the lineup. But it just feels like Jack is kind of entering the tournament, you know, in a bit of issue. Obviously, he had the groin injury before the tournament started. So maybe they're just going to try to slow play him as well and give other guys opportunities. I love their top three lines. But, you know, my guess is that Keller at some point is going to get games.

Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. And again, they open against Latvia later today. Some of the faces in the lineup will be recognizable as guys who were in the stands during the U.S. women's 50 win against Canada on Tuesday. Sounds like there's some real appreciation there on their parts, Mike. I saw one of your recent posts that Matthew Kuch compared Caroline Harvey to Bobby Orr, which is, you know, that sounds that that's lofty, but also based on the way Caroline Harvey has played hockey for the last. last few years is is not wholly incorrect. So yeah, there's a lot of appreciation there

on the men's side, isn't there? Absolutely. And it was really cool watching the entire US team, or most of the U.S. team, arrive at that game the other day. I know that U.S. men's management has been at pretty much every single one of the women's games. And, you know, Bill Garan jokes yesterday that he called his wife and said that Abby Murphy's is his now favorite player. But Caroline is just, she's something. I mean, there's a reason why, you know, she is, is most people think is going to be the number one pick in the PWHL draft. She skates like no other. You know,

they joke internally on the team that she's the fourth Hughes sibling because one, she's sort of a pet of Ellen Hughes. You know, Ellen is just such a huge fan of hers. Obviously, Ellen is director of, you know, development consultant is her actual title. I wrote a big feature on her the other day. The Hughes Brothers mom. And she's part of the U.S.

women's team and she brings, you know, Caroline. and a lot of the women to Ann Arbor every summer to skate with Jim and her and also sometimes the Hughes brothers. And that was, you know, huge amount of NHL players that skate in Ann Arbor there, the Helibox and the Debrinkets and the Dylan Larkins and some players like that. So she is just, you know, she's a high event player that John Robleski basically says doesn't make the ton of mistakes that you expect from a high event player. and she is coming off back-to-back six-point games and is just, or excuse me, three points each and, you know, six points in her last two games. And she's just been something that it just feels like none of the teams so far in this tournament have been able to handle, including Canada. Mm-hmm. What do you watching for in Canada, Latvia?

And you can answer this through the lens of the U.S. team or just as, you know, a journal who's watching this game. What about this one interest you the most? Well, I think it's going to be complicated. I mean, Dostal is obviously a great, great goaltender. I think the Czechs have a lot of great players that, you know, kind of want to poke the bear here of Canada. You know, I can tell you, Pierre LeBron, is convinced that there is going to be an upset today, whether it's the United States or Canada. Probably, if you're going to look at the two games, it probably would be Canada. The thing is that, you know, I'm just, what I am interested in is right now they have, I mean, the lions are really, one, it just shows you their depth.

But they have Crosby, McKinnon, and McDavid on three separate lines. and you just know that at some point there's going to be the quote-unquote nuclear option where they team a lot of these players up and all of a sudden they start playing together. But right now, I mean, Celebrini's got the luxury of playing with a guy like McDavid and then Tom Wilson on the right.

And it's just going to, I mean, technically, McKinnon's a third-line player right now. And you just know that's not going to, that just speaks to the depth that this team has. And so I'm really looking forward to this game here that starts in about 30 minutes. What do you think of Brandon Hageau? McKinnon because that's that's one of the things that's that's shuffled out over the last

over the last couple of days I think it makes sense you know especially given the given the the way they put together that first line too is you you have the physical element in Wilson for for for for McDavid and then you have the kind of physical element for Hagle for for for McKinnon yeah that's exactly and you know John Cooper's affinity for Hagle and I think that's what yes yes it's way it's well documented that John Cooper likes Brandon Hagle for sure Yeah, exactly. And it doesn't like when the Florida Panthers go after him. Correct. You know, it'll be interesting.

But, I mean, you know, I think the hope here, not that McKinnon needs room created for him, but I think that's the hope is that you've got like Hagle going to the net and creating havoc and going to the dirty areas where McKinnons can just use his speed and pull his way up the ice when he wants. So it'll be interesting. I mean, you know, that's the luxury of a tournament like this. That wasn't the luxury in Montreal and Boston back a year ago is that, you know, in a tournament that is so short, like there, you really didn't have time to experiment. You know, Kyle Connor for the United States winds up scratched in the championship game when he started on the first line.

And here's a good example where they have these prelim games to really, you know, tinker with some things, see what works, not, you know, have the luxury that if, you know, you lose, it's not the end of the world, then you just try to figure it out. And so, you know, I think the hope from all of us is that at some point we see the United States and Canada play against each other. in the metal round. Obviously, that's in a, because they're not in the same group. We're not guaranteed that we are going to see them.

But I think that obviously that's the hope for a lot of us that are here covering it, that we're going to get that sort of, you know, encore that we saw last February. Absolutely. The road to that starts in 25 minutes. Thanks for, thanks for being here, brother. And enjoy the games. Keep up the good word. It's always, it's always fun to watch.

And also, everybody, don't forget to check out Rousse's Twitter page because it is. is the, my God. I got a great, it's a travel log. Yeah, I got a fun story tomorrow when Keith Kachukh, Billeted Quinn Hughes and Brady Kachuk. Of course, of course you do. Let's put it this way. I'll just give you a little tease.

Keith Kachuk taught Quinn how to drive at age 15 before he had a driver's license so they could go to dinner and you know who would drive home. Imagine a 15-year-old Quinn Hughes behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Good God. Help us. Help us. And as Matthew can chuck this on the record in the story, it was 100% the master plan so he could have a couple.

Wonderful, wonderful. So anyway, yeah, it's a fun store. Last thing before you go, how is Brian Boytano as a bartender? Rate him one to ten. He's good. I had one of his drinks. Let's put this way. You should not have the hat trick at 10 a.m.

Okay. If you want to work and cover practice about two hours later. So that's a mistake I made that day. But he's a good bartender. That was a fun story as well. And the title sponsor of the Winter House is Starbucks. So I had to go there. All right.

All right. That's enough. No more product placement from Rousseau. Yeah, exactly. Jeff, our producer, needs to work on me getting a Starbucks in Georgia. Yeah. Yeah, he's working the phones right now for sure. Thanks, brother.

I'll talk to soon. Take care. All right, we're joined now by a women's hockey writer, Cassie Campbell's friend from Milan. You'd have to ask Cassie about that. I don't know. It's coming across as if she likes you from what I see how's all that. Haley Salvin from Milan. Hello. How are, how are you? Hey, good. A little tired. But it's fine. It's the Olympics. Everything's great. Everything will. Do you want to get a complaint? You want to get a complaint?

on record about your experience watching hockey for, you know, three weeks in Milan? I want to make it to pull that at you? What's been the biggest issue? No, I'm not complaining. I'm just a little sleepy. We're pulling double duty, but that's okay. It's been cool to be here. You know, it's actually funny.

The thing about being at the Olympics is it doesn't really feel like you're at the Olympics because I'm just, like, I'm just covering a women's hockey tournament. like this just feels like women's worlds but with higher stakes. Meanwhile, there's, you know, um, skiers announcing that they cheated on their girlfriend and

Levino and, uh, penis injectors and Cortina. Like, it's crazy. There's, there's all these crazy stories going on and I'm just kind of at the rink ring being like,

wow. Wow. What's happening here? Except it's, except it's Milan and not Utica or London on. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't been chased by a German shepherd in the streets yet. That has yet to happen.

We'll see, though. Yeah, there's been no carbon monoxide alarm or anything else that's made me fear for my life yet. I've got no complaints. I'm just a little sleepy. Utica memories. You know what? You know what, Sean? I'm sorry, I will put a complaint on the record.

You would. No, listen. You're in Italy, right? think there's going to be like people don't eat dinner until late p.m. Everything's open late. Everything closes at like 11 o'clock. That's interesting. So in the games because of broadcast start at 9-10 local. So like if you don't eat before, you're screwed. I had a, there was a gluten-free sandwich at Santa Julia yesterday. Thank God. It had provolone and artichokes on it. Very weird. So I haven't really been having this like cool Italian dining.

experience. So that's my only complaint is the food's actually kind of strange. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Anyways. Canada has a complaint. Canada has an issue. Marie-Philippe-Pelen is out. She appeared to injure, we'll call it a lower body injury. That was in the preliminary round. Misses the game against the United States. Canada loses is 5-0, and it looked like a 5-0 loss. That was pretty uneven, pretty ugly. They were outshot 22 to 10 by the second intermission, which is, and by that point, it was pretty well decided.

What's the latest on Pallin's injury? Let's just start there. What do you got? Because this is something you've been all over since the start. Well, the latest is that she's obviously not playing against Finland to end out their preliminary round game. This was a game that was supposed to be played as their Olympic debut, but because of that norovirus outbreak, which feels like weeks ago now, they're playing it on February 12th on the Thursday day before the quarterfinals are set to start. Canada plays on

the 14th at least, so they do get a day off. So no Poulin to round out their final two preliminary round games. And it sounds like, so officially she is day to day with a lower body injury. I think by now we've all seen the video. And it was a very difficult to watch Poulin takes the big hit by Christina Kaltunkova. Her right leg kind of bent funny under her. She's on the ground. She's grimacing. She doesn't put any weight on that right leg.

And then she hobbles to the locker room after trying to take a spin on the power play and immediately coming off. So it didn't look great, but head coach Troy Ryan said the injury is not as bad as it looked because like that's the thing. Like it looked bad. Like everyone in the arena like gasped because Poulin is the. ultimate competitor. She is tough.

And to watch her look like she was in so much pain, take a spin. And like she took the face off, made it pass on the power play and waved to the bench like I'm coming off. And the fact that like you don't see that often from her. So you knew it was bad. It looked bad, but sounds like it's not as bad as we think. And team Canada is very optimistic. Like we'll see what happens.

She's going to be assessed daily. But Canada is optimistic. that we will see Poulin again at this tournament. The question, Sean, is just like when that happens. And to me, the fact that she's not playing against the U.S. or Finland, like that in a vacuum isn't all that worrisome because there's no point. Like, don't risk it. If she didn't, if she woke up any less than 100%, she shouldn't be playing.

You make it to the quarterfinals no matter what. I honestly wouldn't even play her in the quarterfinals on the 14th. They're probably going to play Germany. and unless Sandra Abstrider plays on her head and has one of the best goalie performances we've seen since Florence Shelling in 2014, I just don't think there's any need to risk playing Poulin until the semifinals. And even then, she should probably only play like 10, 12 minutes. Right.

Not even as the 13th forward. Like you're just, let's just not introduce that variable to the mix at all, right? Bring her in to gear her up for the gold medal game. That's where we know she makes the big end. impact. Like that's as bad as the loss was, um, on Tuesday for team Canada. Like, there's the huge asterix, which is, well, Poulin wasn't playing because we know. And well, it's also the prelims. So to me, the only reason to not freak out is like Canada wasn't playing with its best Olympic player. I mean, the best Olympic player of all time. I think we all know over

the years if you can get there. It's a game of inches. And it just. takes like one big goal from, you know, the biggest gamer on the planet. So to me, I do everything I can to save Poulin so she can be ready for the moment when she shines the most. It kind of hints it maybe some bigger picture, longer term problems for Team Canada. We can maybe save those. Let's look at the smaller, shorter window here. Why what happened? I personally greatly enjoyed the preliminary game between the United States and Canada. It was the Abby Murphy Show.

Yeah. Let's talk about Murphy for a second while we're here. She was impactful in a lot of different ways. We saw more crazy setup work from her. Wild, wild ice vision, another wild assist. But she was also, you know, drawing penalties and bumping goalies and doing the Abby Murphy stuff that she's become accustomed for. You know, there was a topic of conversation on the Canadian broadcast, certainly. Cassie was a, um, upset about it for one. The Abby Murphy professionalism discourse has has hit in a very big way. So what have you seen from her? Are you surprised by it at all? And maybe you can just kind of segue into the stuff you said on television a day or two ago because I think it was it was perceptive and incorrect about about the Abby Murphy experience. She is the ultimate unicorn. No, I was not surprised. I've been watching Abby Murphy do stuff like this for years now. And what, what it almost felt too on the nose. And Cassie's right. Like, Abby Murphy is the, like, she loves a cell job. She loves it. She is great at it too. Because she knows it pisses everyone off. Like, it was almost, it was, it was so on the nose for Cass to say, like, this bothers everyone. like team Canada's mad about it. Troy Ryan's talking to the refs about it's like right. Like that's the point. Like she's doing it because she knows that you hate it.

Like she is the master of the game within the game because like yeah, the score is five nothing. But again, like games between the US and Canada get so tight. Like the margins between these two teams realistically aren't that big. But Abby Murphy is so good at doing the little things to be like, here's where I'm going to add value. I'm going to piss you off. so much that you are focused on cross-checking me in the corner instead of getting the puck

and exiting the zone. I'm going to annoy you so much that you're taking illegal hits on me and putting our power play back on the ice. She got under their skin. She got in their heads. She got Canada off their game. She drew four penalties. And they were all like contact penalties, illegal hits, interference, cross-checking, a legal hit. Like that is what she does. She does it on purpose. She wants to get in people's heads. She's so good at it. And then, like, the other side is, she does the backhand, no look past to Hannah Bilka. Right. And she sets up, Hannah Bilka twice, actually, I think, in that game. Like, she had three assists and drew four penalties and pissed everyone off. Put Anne-Ren-Dabien in a leg hold. Like, had her legs wrapped around DeBien's pads. Like, those are the things,

this is top of mind because I've been working on a rivalry series story. And those are the kind of things that, like, Tessa Bonan was just telling me about this. Like, that stuff, that's what, like, the Lamerues were great at. And I know we want to make all these, like, comparisons to Brad Marchand or Matthew Gochuk, but, like, Abby Murphy really is cut from the same cloth as the twins, because the twins can do the forearm shiver and they can do the drive by the bench and they can get into a line brawl in 2013 twice leading up to the Olympics, but then they can also pull off the, you know, kind of deeks that put the best goalie on the,

on the planet on their ass. So, Abby Murphy is, you know, an expert at doing all the dirty stuff, but also having some of the most beautiful highlights we've ever seen. And she just completely dominated them. And even Troy Ryan after the game said,

like, if you can't, like he basically said my advice to the players usually is like, don't get involved. if you can't match her. And so to me, it's like, Kristen O'Neill, like, or Sarah Filier, like, don't get into the mix if you're not going to then also go back and score. Like, if you're not going to get in the mix on the score sheet and the penalty box,

just don't get involved. Turn your cheek, walk away. So, yeah, the diving's annoying, but, like, maybe look internally. The skill levels, ultimately, but also stop complaining about Abby Murphy and play the hockey game and score a goal. Like you gave them five power plays because she pissed you off. Like, I'm sorry. I agree with Cassie.

It's brutal. It's tough to watch. But like maybe stop focusing on Abby Murphy and do something on the ice. Well, simply how do you expect candidates to compete in a hockey game when they don't have their best player? That's just an unreasonable expectation. I think, I mean, I was talking to Dom about this. He has his model.

the percentages only drop by 3%. Because on paper, like, this is still a super team. These are still the 19 next best skaters in this country. And I don't want to hear anything about the young players left behind. Like, these are the 19 best players to try to win a gold medal. It's unacceptable. So the first time they've ever been, like, I'm sounding like a homer. This is the first time that Canada's ever been shut out in the Olympic competition.

It's not just because Poulin was not the ice. It's because you had four shots. in the first period. Like, what were you doing? They got completely outskated and I don't want to say outclassed because that's over the top. But Team USA, that's like kind of crazy. I got to calm down.

Yeah, they weren't outclass, but they were outskated. They were outskilled. They had four shots on goal in the first period. Like the only, I'm rambling now, it's fine. The only player who stepped up to me in Poulin's absence was her wife, Laura Stacey. And I usually, like, I do a good job at separating the two, but like, Laura is the only one who put her money where her mouth was because she's the one that came out and made the statement of like Mary Philippe Poulin, like she lifts us up all the time. She puts us on her shoulders. It's time for us to return the favor. And she's the only one who did it. So if you're like, it was just not what you expected to see when you're going into a big rivalry game and everyone's talking about how we got to get the job done. for her without her. It was just like, it was just a blah effort.

Well, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of it. The preliminary rounds finishing up here. We don't know what the knockout round matchups are going to be, but it'll be interesting. And again, biggest through line here is Marie-Philippe-Lenn. Out until further notice. Haley will be in Milan, tracking all of that. Thanks for joining.

Go get some decent food, I guess. You're not at the rink right now. so you can actually have a decent meal. So maybe go try to make that happen. I'll try. We'll see. I'm going to eat some gluten and see how it goes, I think. Today's the day.

I'm going to full send on a croissant. I have an idea of how that'll go. Have a nice day. Thanks for everything. Bye. Thank you, Haley. We do have something of a Poulin update here. It's 1031.

It's nine minutes before Puck drop in Canada to check you. But Marie Flew-Puland skated this morning with medical staff and their coaches. Troy Ryan told the CBC's Claire Hannah that she felt well. And this is a direct quote, an extra couple of days will do her justice. So things are looking up. I know Haley said as much, but it's always good to see those things tracked on the right direction because nobody wants to see Marie Fuliplan seriously injure herself during an Olympic game. Also, Canada currently up 4-0 on Finland in that prelim game. So everything is going according to plan there. Okay. Eight minutes to puck drop now. Dom, Canada,

check you, 1040 Eastern. I wanted to ask you about the Czech top line. That's Tamash hurdle between Martin Nitchis and David Posernak. Those are three high-end NHL players. I think they're going to lean on them

pretty heavily. What are your thoughts on what that's going to look like for Check you here? That is my expectation as well. When I was doing my projections, I have to sort of guess how each team would use each player because we obviously we don't know um so for canada USA you expect balance sweet and the same i thought finland would lean on their top six more and

they did not do that with random getting the eighth most minutes so you never really know but it feels like check check he has loaded up that top line they have like three star players one genuine superstar you have to expect that'll go first line second line first line third line, first line, fourth line or something along those lines, right? And that will be the big test for Canada as whether they can stifle that top line for sure. One to ten, how personally afraid of Lucas Dostall are you? Uh, eight. Eight. Pretty terrifying goalie. I was 14 years old in 2006 and I don't even think I watched the game against Switzerland. I think I was at like an east side Mario's like eating dinner with

my family thinking it's Switzerland, it's fine. And then there's a small TV in the corner getting updates that Canada just can't score. And they have so many more weapons right now. But I think the goalies that they are going to face in group A between Dostel and Leonardo Genoni are could be really tough. Genoni is the Swiss goaltender, by the way. Yeah. Italian last name, but a Swiss national.

Yeah, he's had some major international success for them. recently uh do stalled 930 save percentage in his last nine before the before the break too so he was playing he was what did you know that did you know what's pinnington at his last nine oh boy did it start with a seven low eight okay the other the other the other north american games today at three 10 eastern that's the united states against latvia um russo talked about jack hughes i think that's an interesting wrinkle here. Maybe dealing with the lower body thing still. He's a fourth line winger at practice, which is wild.

I don't think that's 0 for two on position and spot in the lineup that I think people would have guessed for him going into this. That's certainly something to watch. The third defensive pair, it's Jake Sanderson and Zach Werenski. That's seeing those guys listed as a third pair is pretty fascinating. Do you think that's an issue? Is that a pro or a con for the United States? Because I think you can kind of view it both ways.

Yeah, it is somehow both because you get through a stack top four. You get the soft sheltered matchup and it's a top three defenseman and one of the best two-way defense in the world in Sanderson. It is a luxury that USA has that they can even bring out that pair as a third option. To me, that's probably their second best pair, maybe in their top pair with how good both those guys are. It's, it makes me think they're going to rotate more, but it'll be interesting to see whether they begin the mix, because obviously you want Hughes out there as much as possible. Slavin and Faber are a great shutdown pair. I think we saw that during Four Nations as well. So

I, it's a, it's a very nice problem to have too many defensemen. We did our top Canada and USA teams going back to 1998. And as great of the 2010 and 2014 teams were, you look at that defense core you see names like jack johnson ryan whitney it's oh it's the Olympics are back baby jack johnson's taken strays yeah knew what was going to happen and to think that the third pair is now zack rinski and james anderson they've come up a long win i think that's one of the reasons they enter this tournament as a co-favor yeah you could argue that warrenski's presence on the roster and what he brings to it is is one of the u.s's biggest edges over canada is he's this is a prime time ultra high-end offensive defensement

and with all due respect to Josh Morrissey is great. I don't know that Canada has any kind of comp for that behind McCar. So the fact that Werensky's the number two behind Hughes and there's no real analog in Canada is something much. Canalog? Canalog? Anada.

There's also another game. Denmark's playing Germany at 3 Eastern. Quick over under. How much is Morric Sider going to play in that game? 29.5 minutes. I put him down for 30. I think he's going to play half of every game. But we'll see if that actually happens. Heiskin played 27-ish for Finland.

They have a few more NHL defensemen. The German team has some great defensive players. I think the Dell, the German League, has a very strong defense reputation. And there's a lot of players who can hold their own in that way. having cider at the top of that is going to be massive, but they got some guys who can shut players down. So we'll see how much they lean on cider.

I think it'll be a lot. One last over-under. How long will it take you to get to the largest screen you can find in public here? Probably two minutes. I'm going to sprint. Sprint to the local bar. Let's see it. Enjoy the games, buddy.

And that's it for us. That's it for this live edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Thank you, Dom. Thank you, Rousseau. Thank you, Haley. Thank you, producer, Jeff. Thanks to you find folks at home watching and listening. The next show is later today. We're going live again on YouTube after Team USA Latvia. I will not be present for this. It will be Dom once again, Jesse Granger and their special guest,

slightly more accomplished in the world of international hockey, a fellow by the name of David Backus, Team USA legend, a 15-year-old vet, 15-year NHL vet. He's going to join the show. He's going to share his thoughts on the first U.S. men's game at the Olympics. So stick around for that. Enjoy it. Enjoy that game.

Enjoy all the other games. And we'll see you again real, real soon.