MILAN – About a quarter century ago, when he first joined Team Canada’s front office, general manager Doug Armstrong felt like the Canadians started every tournament “on third base.”
“Using a baseball analogy, everybody else was on second or first,” he said on Wednesday, before the team he assembled opened the Olympic tournament with a 5-0 win over Czechia. “Now there’s a lot of countries on third base, too, and that’s great for hockey.”
The parity through the first two days has been apparent, even between the favored Team Canada and Czechia. It was a neck-and-neck game until the final seconds of the first period, when the youngest player on Canada’s roster – and in the entire tournament – deflected the puck in front to open the scoring.
It was just the start of what is sure to be a long, and possibly illustrious, Olympic career for Macklin Celebrini.
The 19-year-old, who became the youngest Canadian NHLer to score a goal at the Olympics, is expected to be at the center of international best-on-best competition to come.
Like Canada captain Sidney Crosby, the player who Celebrini has repeatedly been compared to during his breakout 2025-26 season, the young superstar will be charged with upholding the standard that comes with donning the Maple Leaf.
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And as the competition around the globe continues to grow, Canada can only hope Celebrini has the same impact that Crosby had.
Celebrini may have gotten Team Canada going on the scoreboard, but goalie Jordan Binnington stopped all 26 shots he saw. Despite backstopping Canada to a championship at 4 Nations this time last year, Binnington has been surrounded by doubters amid his worst NHL season since 2015-’16.
When the red-and-white sweater comes on, however, Binnington does too.
Head coach Jon Cooper alluded to the possibility of getting more than one goalie some time in their first game. The competitiveness of Czechia appeared to prevent that from happening.
