Team Canada fully aware all eyes will be on gold medal game 

MILAN -- When Team Canada skates onto the ice at Santagiulia Arena on Sunday, it will be wearing the weight of a hockey-proud nation and responsible for carrying on the nearly quarter-century tradition of world dominance on the international level.

That's the pressure facing Canada before the puck drops in the gold medal game of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 against Team USA (8:10 a.m. ET; Peacock, NBC, ICI Tele, CBC Gem, CBC, SN [JIP], TSN [JIP], RDS2).

"We know what's at stake here," Canada coach Jon Cooper said, "and we know there are 40 million people at home on the edge of their seat waiting for this to happen.

“I just want everybody to know that it wasn't easy to get here for either team."

It's never easy to continue to be the best of the best, but Canada has been at six of the previous seven tournaments featuring NHL players; winning gold at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 4 Nations Face-Off last year.

Sweden won the gold medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics, the only best-on-best competition Canada hasn't won since Czechia won gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

"You always feel that responsibility as a Canadian, you want to be the best," Canada forward Tom Wilson said. "It's been our game for a long time. The guys that are pulling the jersey on, it's our responsibility to go out there and prove why we're the best, why we should be the best and continue to be the best.

“But that being said, it's 2026. The Americans have a heck of a team; their programs are first-class now, and they’ve got some amazing superstar talents in that room. Every guy that will be on the ice will be a heck of a hockey player, so it’s going to be such a fine margin now."

All of that is to say there's no shame should the Canadians lose Sunday. The Americans have come far enough that they are basically even with Canada except for one major detail:

In the three instances since 2002 that the U.S. and Canada have played in a winner-take-all game, the Canadians have come out on top, winning the Olympic gold medal games in 2002 and 2010, and the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game last year.

Canada lost to the U.S. in in the preliminary round in Vancouver and in the round-robin part of the 4 Nations Face-Off, but never when a medal was on the line.

Canada also defeated the U.S. in the semifinals of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

"We talk about it," Canada forward Macklin Celebrini said. "Whenever you represent the maple leaf, whenever you represent Canada at any level, it means something more and there's a little bit of pressure on you to execute. That's what we're just going to try to do."

Twice already in this tournament it has come oh-so close to going the other way, with Team Czechia putting a scare into Canada in the quarterfinals and Team Finland doing the same in the semifinals.

In many respects, it's almost unfathomable that Canada is playing for gold at the Olympics because it was less than four minutes away from losing to the Czechs in the quarterfinals and less than 10 minutes from losing to the Finns in the semifinals.

But Canada rallied to win 4-3 in overtime against Czechia on Wednesday. It scored three unanswered goals, including two in the last 9:26, capped by Nathan MacKinnon's power-play goal at 19:24 of the third period, to win 3-2 against the Finns on Friday.

"Yeah, it hasn't been the smoothest quarters and semis for us," McDavid said. "I think that adversity is good. Going through that has brought us closer; you can definitely feel that in the group. It's been fun to play in those games. That's what it's all about."

Canada survived each time despite trailing in the first period.

Czechia led 2-1 at first intermission. Finland had a 1-0 lead that it extended to 2-0 with a short-handed goal early in the second period.

Canada outshot Czechia 30-14 and Finland 31-9 after the first, but those games were nailbiters.

"It's easy probably for people to sit there and say we haven't played well, but I think we've played well, we've just put ourselves in tough spots," McDavid said. "But when we've been down, I feel like we've been the better team. I thought we were the better team most of the game (Friday) night and even against the Czechs too.

“We've been doing a lot of good things, rolling things over, line after line, wave after wave. What can we do better? Not put ourselves in a hole."

They already feel the weight of a nation. They're already responsible for carrying on a legacy of greatness.

Trying to play with that pressure while also chasing a game against the Americans might just be too much for even this terrific Canadian team to handle.

But maybe not.

"We're going to go into that game just doing everything we can to win because of that rich history of winning and what it means to our country and all the people back home," Celebrini said. "We just want to make everyone proud."