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It's a do-or-die scenario on Tuesday as teams — including powerhouse Sweden — face off in the Qualifying Playoffs at the Olympics. Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
The Athletic has live coverage of Canada vs. Switzerland in the 2026 Olympic women’s hockey semifinals.
MILAN – The field finally gets cut down at the 2026 men’s Olympic hockey tournament Tuesday with four Qualifying Playoff games, two of them foregone conclusions.
Because of one late third-period goal given up to Slovakia, powerhouse Sweden somehow finds itself having to play this extra game ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinals. The Swedes should absolutely have no issues with Latvia, but it’s the idea of having to play back-to-back days in a do-or-die scenario that’s the piece of adversity the Swedes didn’t need. Not to mention what lies on the other side of it if they make it to the quarterfinals as expected. More on that in a moment.
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As a reminder, the overtime format changes slightly for playoff games. It remains three-on-three overtime but goes from five minutes to 10 minutes through the bronze medal game. In the gold medal game, it’s three-on-three forever until a goal is scored, using 20-minute periods. Imagine that scenario.
From the Qualifying Playoff games starting Tuesday through the bronze medal game Saturday night, if no goal is scored in the 10-minute overtime period, the game goes to a shootout. Five shooters from each team go, until there’s a winner. If the game is still tied after five rounds of the shootout, it goes into sudden death shootout attempts. Where it also differs from the NHL is that the same player can continue taking the shootout attempt at this stage, as we saw with T.J. Oshie at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Let’s dive into the four games Tuesday:
Winner plays Finland in quarterfinals
LeBrun: The Italians got waxed 11-0 by Finland in the preliminary round and they have zero chance here against a much superior Swiss side. About 25 years ago, when I was covering men’s world championships every year, this was a close rivalry with intense games. It shows you how dramatically the Swiss program has risen since then. This won’t be close. Especially if Italy goes to the box. The Swiss have the third-ranked power play in the tournament so far (27 percent).
Timo Meier has gone beast mode in these Olympics after struggling most of the season in New Jersey. Here in Milan, he’s the power forward the Devils traded for.
“Yeah, he’s playing at his full potential,” said Swiss star Nico Hischier, his Devils teammate. “You can it out there. He can hit, he can score, he can make plays, he’s a very effective player when he’s on his game. It’s fun to play with him.
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“He gives you room out there. If the puck goes deep and you have Timo on your neck, it’s not a nice feeling. He’s a very impactful player and great to see him being rewarded for his work.”
Basu: The big question for Switzerland, not so much in this game but in the quarterfinals, is the health of Andrea Glauser, a top-pair defenseman who has been Roman Josi’s partner at the last two world championships, where the Swiss won silver both times. Glauser took a big hit from Canada’s Connor McDavid in the second game of the preliminary round, and Swiss coach Patrick Fischer said after the game he was suspected to have sustained a concussion. Though Glauser has never played in the NHL — he plays for Fribourg-Gottéron in the Swiss NL — he has 79 games of international experience for Switzerland and is a crucial player for them.
Winner plays Slovakia in quarterfinals
LeBrun: The Germans have disappointed so far in this tournament, with only one regulation win in the preliminary round. Not that anyone was picking them to medal but with Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle and J.J. Peterka up front, stud Moritz Seider on defense and Philipp Grubauer in net, there was a sense they could make life more difficult for some of the big teams. Instead, they lost to Latvia in the Group Stage. They should obviously beat France, but what we really need to see here is Germany flex a bit to gain some momentum ahead of a matchup with Slovakia that could have upset potential. But that’s only if we see the best version of Germany in the playoffs. It would help if the Germans woke up on the power play; they’re just 1-for-9 with the man advantage, tied with France with the worst ranking at 11 percent.
“We’ve just got to hunt a little bit more,” Seider said Sunday night about the power play after a 5-1 loss to Team USA. “We try to be very cute, breaking in the puck. And obviously they got great sticks and they’re there in the right spots all the time. So I think sometimes we just got to get it deep, put the boots on and go to work.”
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Basu: Stützle has four goals in three games for Germany. The rest of the team has scored three goals combined. There is an opportunity for Germany against France to get their other big guns going. In fact, it’s a necessity. France has been focusing on this game for the entirety of the tournament, stating from Day 1 that they need to win their fourth game, and perhaps they should not be overlooked. But in the likely event that Germany advances, they have a winnable game in the quarterfinals against upstart Slovakia, especially with Grubauer – owner of the NHL’s third-best save percentage at .916 – between the pipes. If their star power can start to shine in the qualification round, a trip to the semifinals and playing for a medal could be within reach.
Winner plays United States in quarterfinals
LeBrun: One measly goal late in a game with Slovakia on Saturday lost Sweden a three-team tiebreaker and sent the Swedes down a murky path: an extra game plus a date with Team USA if they can get past Latvia, which they should.
One thing Erik Karlsson told me over the weekend is that if they end up winning gold, they might look back at all this adversity and realize it actually brought them together and fortified them. Head coach Sam Hallam himself mentioned Team Canada needing to play in the Qualifying Playoff round at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver en route to gold.
It could all be true. But one thing has to change: The Swedes are tied for the tournament lead with 15 minor penalties; that’s way too many. They’re third in penalty killing so it hasn’t been too impactful but that much time in the box takes your five-on-five game out of rhythm.
“We’ve got to stay out of the box. We took way too many penalties,” Sweden’s star defenseman Victor Hedman said postgame Saturday. “If we stay out of the box and play five-on-five, we’re a tough team to beat.”
Basu: Hallam’s decisions have been widely questioned throughout this tournament, and he has a few big ones entering the elimination rounds. First and foremost will be his decision on the starting goaltender. Filip Gustavsson started Sweden’s first two games and allowed five goals on 45 shots against Italy and Finland. Jacob Markström started the game against Slovakia and allowed three goals on 32 shots, including the Dalibor Dvorský goal with 39 seconds left that cost Sweden a chance at winning Group B and avoiding this game. Hallam would not tip his hand at practice Monday, but this decision will be crucial, especially against a Latvia team that will be a tough out.
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At forward, Hallam began the tournament with Filip Forsberg as his 13th forward before shifting him up the lineup and dropping Jesper Bratt further down. Elias Pettersson scored twice against Slovakia, but otherwise has looked pretty disinterested. On defense, Rasmus Andersson was scratched for Hampus Lindholm against Slovakia, and an argument could be made that both should be in the lineup.
These are not easy decisions, and whichever way Hallam goes will likely be criticized. More so than any single player on Sweden, Hallam has a lot of pressure entering a do-or-die game.
Winner plays Canada in quarterfinals
LeBrun: Veteran Czech defenseman Radko Gudas told me after his team’s Group Stage finale Sunday that the recipe is simple for the Czech Republic to advance deeper in this tournament.
“For us that means playing smart, putting pucks in the right places and make the other team go 200 feet and make them go through all of us at all times. That’s a big key for us,” Gudas said.
Translation: win gritty, defensive, low-scoring games.
The Czechs should handle Denmark; I didn’t mind their game in an OT loss to the Swiss on Sunday. But they need their big dog David Pastrňák to find another gear. He’s been just OK, with one goal and two assists and nine shots on goal in three games, but it’s not been at the lofty Pasta standard so far.
Basu: One of the big advantages the Czechs had entering the tournament was their goaltending. Young Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukáš Dostál arrived in Milan at No. 1 on the depth chart despite having the worst NHL save percentage among the three Czech goalies at .897. In two starts at the Olympics – albeit one against Canada, which kills any goaltender’s save percentage – Dostál has an .862 save percentage. The only goaltender who is worse is France’s Antoine Keller at .857. Either Dostál will need to step up, or perhaps Czech coach Radim Rulík should turn to Dan Vladar or Karel Vejmelka.
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