‘Not gonna find a better hockey game’: What to know about Canada vs. USA

“You’re probably not gonna find a better hockey game.” — Quinn Hughes, USA

“It’s going to be as fast and physical and skilled as you can ever imagine.” — Tom Wilson, Canada

MILAN — Matthew Tkachuk smiles at a question posed to him from a sports psychology journalist.

The voice of Team USA has been asked how he mentally prepares for moments like this.

“My dad just told me, growing up, to play better,” Tkachuk says with a grin.

He’s not joking. 

But he proceeds to give a grown-up answer, slight insight into how he’ll go about trying not to end up a bridesmaid Sunday.

He’ll watch game film, then he’ll imagine how the gameplay looks and feels.

“I like to visualize the stuff that I’m involved with the most. So, that’s in the trenches, along the walls, going up against players,” Tkachuk says. 

“The good thing about playing Canada versus playing, like, Slovakia is, we’re very familiar with a lot of the players, either playing with or against.” 

Oh, these two teams of destiny — one bound for glory, the other gut-wrench — are familiar. Intensely so.

They know each other almost as well as they know themselves.

From management groups through coaching staffs through athletes, Team USA and Team Canada are nearly identical to the outfits that battled to a 1-1 head-to-head record at 2025’s 4 Nations Face-Off, one shot the difference in that championship.

Could there be a more perfect tiebreaker? Or one more thickly coated in legacy and rivalry and patriotism?

“We’re not back home. We’re in Italy playing,” begins all grown-up Tom Wilson, who grew up playing at North Toronto Memorial Arena. 

“But it’s not that long ago that you were the kid in the classroom when they wheeled those old big TVs in. You’d put the antennas up so you can get the signal and watch Team Canada play. I remember being there. 

“And seeing your local rink with watch parties cheering you on, I mean, that’s why we’re here. We’re here for our country. We’re here to try and make them proud. It’s not about us. If you ask any single guy in that room, it’s way bigger than us. And all I can do, all we can do, at this point is just leave it all out there for our country.”

Both sides will. 

Heck, they’ve been visualizing this showdown since mini sticks and Drumsticks.

U.S.A. versus Canada: The finale our sport deserves.

All this buildup gets its bittersweet release.

“I mean, it sounded like since the first game of the tournament, everybody was saying… We’ll be on a collision course for the finals. That was all I saw,” Charlie McAvoy says.

“So, you guys scripted this pretty well.”

Will Sidney Crosby play? How about Morrissey? Thompson?

Team Canada closed Saturday’s practice so prying eyes could not play amateur doctor with the country’s captain.

“He looked really good out there on the ice today, so hopefully he’s in,” said Nick Suzuki, who has slid into Crosby’s centre spot between Mitch Marner and Mark Stone.

That determination will be made Saturday night.

Crosby has now skated twice behind bolted doors since leaving Canada’s quarterfinal win over Czechia, and the staff reportedly rushed to have a custom brace made for what we suspect is a knee injury.

What No. 87 will not do is gear up and sit on the bench as Canada’s 13th forward simply to be a voice, which is what Team USA did with Tkachuk in the 4 Nations final.

“No. No. It’s too important,” coach Jon Cooper said. “We don’t want to have somebody in there as an inspiration when we could have a player that could be capable of helping. You never know if guys are gonna get hurt in the game. He wouldn’t want to do that either.”

We do know that Josh Morrissey will not play in the gold medal game.

Morrissey suffered an upper-body injury in Canada’s opener nine days ago. At that point, Cooper stated that “by no means” should we rule the top-four defenceman out for the tournament. Although Morrissey has practised a few times since, he’s still not healthy.

“Out of respect for Winnipeg,” Cooper did not specify Morrissey’s injury or say if he had a setback.

“We want Josh in this game, and he helps us. Puck mover, everything he does,” Cooper said, referencing injured Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli. 

“If they’re not capable of giving what they think is optimal effort, they don’t want to put the country at harm. They understand what we have here. Josh, in the end, he just wouldn’t be able to perform at what he could. We made the decision.”

On the flip side, the Americans are essentially at full health.

Sniper and power-play threat Tage Thompson did leave Friday’s semifinal win after taking a puck off the foot, but coach Mike Sullivan says that was for precautionary reasons.

Thompson practised Saturday.

Two roads to confidence

Although it coasted through the round robin, top-seed Canada (5-0) has arrived here the hard way.

It trailed 1-0 and 2-1 to the spunky and plentiful Czechs in the quarterfinal before staving off elimination with Marner’s 3-on-3 overtime goal.

Then it fell behind 2-0 to the Finns in the semis, needing three straight goals (and a blueline camera) to advance in the game’s final minute.

“It’s been a lot. Two nail-biters,” Connor McDavid says. “The best teams in the world going at it with the best players in the world, all playing for something very meaningful. 

“This is what we’ve been missing, isn’t it? It’s been great hockey.”

Drew Doughty says the Canadians are living comfortably in the stress of it all. 

“This is building character, and this is why we play the game,” Doughty says. “Big moments like this, we knew it’d be a tough road.”

Meanwhile, Team USA (5-0) has been rolling like a snowball down a double-black diamond, building momentum and confidence with each game.

Jack Hughes, who struggled to find his niche at 4 Nations, has shone bright. Ditto for brother Quinn, who missed that tournament due to injury and, outside of Crosby, will be Sunday’s greatest X-factor.

Toss in McAvoy, who missed the 4 Nations final with a bad shoulder, and Team USA has added a fresh and fierce new top pair since these countries last clashed.

Outside of a mild OT fright against Sweden in the quarters, the Americans haven’t had their Olympic nightmare flash before their eyes.

Connor Hellebuyck has been the best goalie in Milan. He says his confidence is at an “all-time high.” He also said that he let in a goal against Slovakia only because “I got a little bored in there, and it cost me.”

Ain’t cockiness if you back it up.

“We have everything. We have chemistry. We have awesome D-men, we have awesome scorers, playmakers, penalty kill, power play, like, we have it all,” McAvoy says.

“This team is extremely close, and I think we’ve gotten better every game. So, going into Sunday, hope it’ll be our best one yet.”

U.S. coach Mike Sullivan is devising a plan to shut down the world’s most potent power play and offensive threats with the world’s best blueline.

Yes, he guided Crosby’s Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups, and still…

“I think this American team is the best team that I’ve ever been around,” Sullivan says. “This group of players has a certain personality to them that is contagious with their energy and their resilience and their care for one another and how hard they play for each other, and that excites me about just having the opportunity to compete with these guys. I couldn’t be more proud of them all.”

Special teams matter

Expect grinding, hard-fought, low-scoring action 5-on-5. No space on a rink smaller and softer than an NHL one.

Which means power plays and penalty kills will be critical.

The U.S. has yet to allow a goal shorthanded, going 15-for-15, while the Canadian PP is bonkers at 7-for-16. And it was Nathan MacKinnon’s last-minute power-play goal in the semis that got them here.

“I think Macklin won, like, eight battles on that last power play to keep the puck in the zone and just keep pushing and keep pushing, and (Sam Reinhart) in there making little plays,” Wilson says.

“There’s a lot of pressure on the power play to get the job done. And those guys are so special. Obviously, Cale (Makar) — not forgetting Cale. They’re our dogs. And it’s fun to watch them snap it around.”

Line ’em up

The Americans have essentially landed on their optimal lineup with minimal tweaking. Jack Hughes got a slight promotion. Kyle Connor and Jackson LaCombe are on the outside.

The Canadians have been more in flux, however. 

Cooper has two nuclear options. He bumps MacKinnon up with McDavid and Celebrini to form one of the greatest scoring trios in history. And he’s now flexing the ‘Chaos Line / Rat Line / Fine Line / Border Line‘ of agitators Wilson, Sam Bennett, and Brad Marchand.

“Pretty fun to see them all three together,” McDavid said. “Like, how much money, millions in NHL fines, they contributed all together as a line. Yeah, pretty funny line. But provided a massive goal. Ultimately, I think it was them that shifted the (semifinal) game. Truthfully.”

Here are the gold medal game’s projected lineups.

Team Canada:

Celebrini – McDavid – Wilson
Horvat – MacKinnon – Jarvis
Marner – Suzuki – Stone
Hagel – Bennett – Marchand
Reinhart

Toews – Makar
Harley – Parayko
Sanheim – Doughty
Theodore

Binnington starts
Thompson

Team USA:

B. Tkachuk – Eichel – M. Tkachuk 
Guentzel – Matthews – Boldy
J. Hughes – Larkin – Thompson 
Miller – Trocheck – Nelson
Keller

Hughes – McAvoy
Sanderson – Werenski
Slavin – Faber
Hanifin

Hellebuyck starts
Oettinger