Czechia has 'toughest start' against Canada in Olympic opener

MILAN -- So much for a soft-opening for Team Czechia, a chance to ease into the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, for its players to get their skates under them, their bearings and all of that.

The Czechs draw Team Canada in the first game of the preliminary round for each at Santagiulia Arena on Thursday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Tele, CBC Gem, RDS2, CBC).

"Yeah, I know, it's probably the toughest start we could have, but it can be a little advantage for us as well," Czechia forward Radek Faksa said. "Nobody knows what to expect from this tournament until the first game, so we can turn it into an advantage."

That's the optimistic viewpoint coming from the Dallas Stars forward, but it is important and a selling point for Czechia.

If there is a time to face the Canadians in this tournament it's early, before they're fully confident in their chemistry, when they too are trying to iron out line combinations and defense pairs, and maybe even figure out who the starting goalie should be.

If there is a team that might be able to put a scare into Canada, or possibly defeat it, it's one that returns 17 players from a team that won gold at the 2024 IIHF World Championship.

"Most of (our) guys, they played World Championship together, they know each other a little bit more," Faksa said. "There's no exhibition games so they (Canada's players) didn't have a chance to play with each other."

Czechia, of course, doesn't have near the same level of skill, talent and depth as Canada.

The Czech skaters have accounted for 267 points (84 goals, 183 assists) in 547 NHL games this season, with Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak accounting for 71 of those points (22 goals, 49 assists) in 52 games.

Canada's skaters have 1,060 points (402 goals, 658 assists) in 1,244 games, including three of the top four scorers in the League in Connor McDavid (96 points; 34 goals, 62 assists), Nathan MacKinnon (93 points; 40 goals, 53 assists) and Macklin Celebrini (81 points; 28 goals, 53 assists).

"I mean, listen, obviously insane power and strength over there, a lot of world's best players over there," Pastrnak said. "At the end of the day we're going to have to focus on us. It's Game 1. We're going to try to build something toward the playoffs. We want to make sure we are ready to play, take it shift by shift. There's been a lot of practices so it's going to take a little bit to get the tempo, but don't look too far. Just take it shift by shift and try to build something big."

The Czechs believe they can, win or lose against Canada.

"They have a really good team," goalie Lukas Dostal said, "but so do we."

Czechia also has better goaltending, at least if you go by the numbers in the NHL this season.

The Czechs' goaltending trio of Karel Vejmelka of the Utah Mammoth, Dostal of the Anaheim Ducks and Dan Vladar of the Philadelphia Flyers has combined for 65 wins, a 2.66 goals-against average and .901 save percentage this season, according to NHL Stats.

Canada's trio of the St. Louis Blues' Jordan Binnington, the Los Angeles Kings' Darcy Kuemper and the Washington Capitals' Logan Thompson has 41 wins, a 2.84 GAA and .894 save percentage, also according to NHL Stats.

Neither team has announced its starting goalie for the game.

"All three of our goalies are great and it really doesn't matter who will start," Czechia forward David Kampf said. "Hopefully one of these guys will have a great game.

"If we play like a team, doing what the coaches will ask, we have a chance."

Even that might not be enough to win, but it could get the Czechs some of what they want out of their Olympic opener.

"Obviously, we know their offensive power and they're going to capitalize on every mistake we make; just going to have to play a perfect game, honestly, to have a chance against them," Pastrnak said. "Listen, we are excited to start the tournament and we just want to feel good about our game no matter win or lose. We want to make sure we're getting ready and playing good hockey and see where it takes us."