One of the showcase events of the Winter Olympics will be hockey, where NHL players will return for the first time since 2014, and the world's best tennis players will compete in the Games for the eighth time in a row.
What is known: the ice at the main arena will be smaller than what fast and strong NHL players are used to. What is unknown is whether the rink will be fully built with a safe ice surface (seats must be in order) by the time the game starts.
Assuming everything is sorted out, the competition should be excellent, with star players such as Sidney Crosby and Hilary Knight vying for Olympic gold.
How does this work
Each of the 12 men's and 10 women's teams consists of 22 skaters and three goalies, 20 and 2 dressed and playing 5 on 5 in regulation time and 3 on 3 in overtime. The games will be familiar to NHL and PVHL fans: 60 minutes of regulation time, divided into three periods, with no draws. If no goal is scored in extra time, penalty shootouts (outfield player versus goalkeeper for five rounds) are used to determine the result until the gold medal game, when play continues with 20-minute sudden death periods until one team scores. Group play determines the matches for the knockout games.
Who to watch
North American teams are considered the best among both men and women.
This is expected to be Knight's fifth and final Games as she and Kendall Coyne Schofield make way for the next generation of American talent, led by Layla Edwards. Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin is set to play in her sixth Olympic Games and is hoping for a fourth gold medal. In December, in an exhibition match, the Canadians gave up 10 goals to the United States for the first time in the history of the national team.
Finland is the defending men's champion after winning its first Olympic title in 2022 when pandemic-related scheduling issues forced the NHL to withdraw. Canada won in 2014 and 2010, the last two times the tournament featured the world's best players, with Crosby joining forces this time with Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.
As with all team sports, Russia was banned from hockey at the Olympics due to the war in Ukraine. That sidelines many of the world's best players, including NHL career goals-holder Alex Ovechkin and two-time Stanley Cup winners Andrei Vasilevskiy and Nikita Kucherov.
Places and dates
The men's tournament is scheduled to take place from February 11 to 22. The women start on February 5, the day before the opening ceremony, with the final taking place on February 19. The games will take place in Milan at the Santagiulia hockey arena, a new 16,000-seat stadium, and a small skating rink in Rho.
Memorable Moments
Crosby's golden goal that gave Canada an overtime victory in the 2010 finals in Vancouver is etched in hockey history. So did TJ Oshie's shootout success for the United States against host Russia in Sochi in 2014.
Poulin had her own overtime heroics that year, as Canada tied the game late after the U.S. hit the empty-net post that would have sealed the gold. Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and the Americans returned the favor in 2018, beating their archrivals on penalties in the final.
Interesting facts
Men's hockey became an integral part of the first Winter Games in 1924 and actually made its debut at the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp. Canada has won gold nine times (including Antwerp), the most (the Soviet Union won seven times), while Sweden and the United States have won twice each. The American men haven't won since the 1980 Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid. Women's events were added to Nagano in 1998; Since then, either the United States or Canada has won every Olympic title, and the fierce rivals have met in the final six out of seven times.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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