Who Canada is most likely to play in men's Olympic hockey quarter-finals
Team Canada remains perfect heading into the quarter-finals of the men’s Olympic hockey tournament, but who will they face?
The Canadians enter the knockout stage as the top-seed after posting a perfect 3-0-0 record and a goal differential of +17. That means that Canada will get a bye through the quarter-finals, alongside the USA, Slovakia, and Finland. All four countries will have to await the results of a qualifying round to determine their quarter-final opponent.
Canada will face the winner of Tuesday’s Czechia-Denmark qualifying round game.
The eighth-seed Czechia is the overwhelming favourite to knock off the ninth-seed Denmark. On top of finishing ahead of the Danes in the preliminary round, the Czechs also boast a lineup with 11 NHL players, compared to Denmark’s four.
If it shakes out as expected, this would be the second meeting between Canada and Czechia during these Olympic Games. The Canadians opened up their tournament against the Czechs last week, rolling to a 5-0 shutout victory. If these two match up again in the quarter-finals, Canada would be heavily favoured to move on to the semi-finals.
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Elsewhere in the Olympic bracket, the Americans will await the winner of Sweden and Latvia. The Swedes finished the preliminary round with a 2-1-0 record, but fell short of a bye due to a few tie-breakers. It’s expected that Sweden will get a shot at the USA, as Latvia is among the weaker teams in the tournament.
An upstart Slovakia team found a way to slide in as the third seed heading into the knockout stage. They will face the winner of Germany and France, where Leon Draisaitl’s German team will hold an edge.
Lastly, Finland rounds out the top four and will play one of Switzerland or Italy. The Swiss will be favoured to move on over the last-seed Italians.
Qualifying round games are set to be played on Tuesday, while the quarter-finals get underway on Wednesday.