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Three things Canada must do against Finland to advance to the Gold Medal Game
Photo credit: Mike Segar/Reuters via Imagn Images
Feb 19, 2026, 15:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 19, 2026, 14:57 EST
Exhale, Canada.
If you weren’t emotionally invested in this Canadian team before Tuesday’s game against Czechia, then I would imagine that you are now.
Even though the quarterfinals were much, much closer than most people expected, there was still plenty to love about that Canada game.
Mitch Marner’s overtime beauty doesn’t happen if Jordan Binnington doesn’t make a pair of jaw-dropping saves, both at the end of regulation and in overtime.
Those saves wouldn’t have mattered if Nick Suzuki didn’t give Canada a much-needed depth goal late in the game, and this game wouldn’t have been close if it weren’t for some early dominance by Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini.
There were plenty of positives as we got our first true classic of these Winter Games, but now it’s time for Canada to look forward. Here are three things that they must do if they want to win on Friday and advance to the Gold Medal game.
Quicker Transition Play
This is not going to be about how Evan Bouchard should be on the team. This is about the players who are in Milan right now for Team Canada.
Puck moving from the blueline continues to be my biggest issue with this team.
Based on what we saw in the quarterfinal against Czechia, I think it might be time for Jon Cooper to make some tough decisions, and he and his staff started to recognize that as that game went on.
Drew Doughty and Colton Parayko both saw their minutes drop in the third period of that game, playing close to a minute less than they did in each of the first two periods. Neither player was benched, but Thomas Harley saw his minutes balloon. He played 9:28 seconds in the final period after playing a combined 11:08 through the first two periods.
Harley and Theodore were the most heavily used pairing late in that game next to Makar and Toews.
They valued having a strong puck mover in Harley on the ice after both Doughty and Parayko made multiple noticeable gaffes with the puck in the first two periods.
In overtime, the only defensemen to see the ice were Harley, Makar and Toews.
The minute drop off for Doughty wasn’t significant, and he did get a shift with just over two minutes remaining once the game was tied, but I think he needs to be sheltered even more.
If Josh Morrissey is healthy, he absolutely has to be in the lineup and while I don’t expect someone like Doughty to be moved out of the lineup, that will probably be Travis Sanheim, I think that Morrisey, Harley, Toews, and Makar need to be leaned on very heavily in the final two games of this tournament.
Both Harley and Morrisey are left-shots, so maybe early in the game they can be used on separate pairings to ensure that Canada always has a trusted puck mover on the ice, but if things get tight, Jon Cooper might have to get creative.
The forwards also own a big part of this. I thought both Mitch Marner and Mark Stone were very good at making sharp plays in the neutral zone to get through a stingy Czech team.
More from Nathan MacKinnon
The same Nathan MacKinnon who has six points in four games? Yes, that Nathan MacKinnon.
Half of his points have come on the powerplay in this tournament and only one of his three even strength points didn’t involve Connor McDavid or Macklin Celebrini.
If Sidney Crosby is out for the semi-finals, then Canada probably can’t afford to keep all three of MacKinnon, Crosby and Celebrini on one line. They’ll need to have a second line that can consistently drive offense and I think that’s where they’ll need more out of the Colorado Avalanche star.
McDavid and Celebrini will continue to dominate, I have no doubts about that but Jon Cooper and his staff need to find some combination of players that will give them a strong second line.
Could it be as simple as sliding MacKinnon into the spot that Crosby held between Stone and Marner? Could this be an opportunity to try and get Sam Reinhart going? I think both are decent options.
Ride the hot hand
There was a lot to love about the way that Nick Suzuki handled his elevated role in that quarterfinal game.
Yes, he scored the massive goal to even things up with just over three minutes to play but I loved everything that happened on that goal.
First, he made the smart decision to hold onto the puck at the blueline and take it into the zone instead of chipping it in while his linemates changed. Valuing puck possession is something I want this forward group to keep doing.
Secondly, he made a great second effort to retrieve the puck in the offensive zone. A level of work ethic that should be expected from this roster.
Then he went hard to the net and got rewarded for all of those little decisions he made.
Outside of that, I also thought he had a great shift right before Czechia unfortunately took a 3-2 lead. He was doing a lot of similar things: winning battles along the boards and making some great second efforts to retrieve loose pucks.
Canada should lean on him more in the semifinal and ride a potential hot hand. He looks way more comfortable at centre than he did on the wing earlier on.
The Finns are going to play a strong, structured defensive game very similar to how Czechia played when they had the lead. They’ll clog the neutral zone and give up possession of the puck to avoid having to make a high-risk play.
To counter that, I think Canada needs to value puck possession and efficiently moving through the neutral zone.
If they do that, they will get plenty of quality looks and should be able to punch their ticket to the Gold Medal game.
PRESENTED BY DAILY FACEOFF’S OLYMPIC COVERAGE
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