Canada shows why it's the Olympic favorite by routing Czechia 5-0 in its tournament opener

MILAN (AP) — Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty were Canada's only players with Olympic experience. Everyone else, from Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon to Jordan Binnington and Macklin Celebrini, was making his debut on sport's biggest stage.

What a first impression they made.

Celebrini scored Canada's first goal in the NHL's return to the Games, Binnington stopped all 26 shots he faced and Canada defeated Czechia 5-0 on Thursday, showing the tournament favorite is already a well-oiled machine.

“Our intentions were really good with the way we played,” said Crosby, who along with Doughty was part of gold-medal wins in 2010 and '14. “I thought we were physical. We were moving our feet. The execution, sometimes that comes with time. But even other times we did some good things and executed well. Just a matter of building off of that.”

Celebrini, his country’s youngest player at 19, deflected a shot by Cale Makar past Lukas Dostal with 5.7 seconds left in the first, putting an exclamation point on a terrific, back-and-forth period. After Mitch Marner’s saucer pass to Mark Stone for his goal and Bo Horvat’s on a breakaway later in the second, Czechia never stood a chance.

“I don’t care who anybody is, whether you’re Sid to Doughty to Celebrini, when you’re playing in the Olympics for the first time, it never gets old, and everybody’s got their jitters,” coach Jon Cooper said. “You know what I liked? I thought we got better as that game went on. ... I thought as that game went on, we got a little bit more controlled."

The handful of times Binnington got tested, he was there to make the save. Before Celebrini scored, Binnington kept it 0-0 by making a left-pad stop on Michal Kempny and reaching out to smother David Kampf’s rebound attempt.

“Felt good," Binnington said. “Every team, every country has some star players, so we know they’re going to come at some point. And I think we did a good job holding them down and letting me see pucks, getting me access to play my game.”

At the other end of the ice, Dostal played well but was helpless to slow down much of the onslaught. There was nothing he could do on the Sidney Crosby to Connor McDavid to Nathan MacKinnon tic-tac-toe power-play goal in the third period.

“Two of the best players ever to play passing it to me is cool,” MacKinnon said. "I didn’t do much for that one. Just blessed to be on the back side. Anyone would have put that in.”

The same trio combined for almost the same goal in opening game of the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago. Canada won that Olympic appetizer by beating the U.S. — which opens Thursday night against Latvia — in overtime.

McDavid had three assists, including one on Nick Suzuki’s goal that made it 5-0. The three-time NHL MVP, who's considered the best hockey player in the world, liked how Canada plays but also thinks this isn't peak performance.

“It was good," McDavid said. "A lot of good things. A lot of things we can improve on as well.”

Timo Meier scores twice as Switzerland shuts out France

Adding NHL talent to a group that made a deep run in an international tournament last spring, Switzerland opened the Olympics with a statement victory against France.

Timo Meier of the New Jersey Devils scored twice in the third period, 39-year-old national team goaltender Leonardo Genoni stopped all 27 shots he faced and Switzerland shut out France 4-0. Damien Riat scored 55 seconds in, J.J. Moser of the Tampa Bay Lightning made it a two-goal lead three minutes in and there wasn't much to worry about the rest of the way.

“It helps you a lot if you score two in the first, whatever it was, five minutes,” Moser said. "It just gives you a little bit more comfort, more confidence also for the rest of the game.”

The goals by Meier put the game out of reach after he and his teammates tilted the ice toward Keller. Meier called it “a mature performance there how we put the game away.”

With a boisterous contingent of fans in attendance, Switzerland outshot France 43-27 and sent them home happy.

A part of that was the play in net of Genoni, the 38-year-old who backstopped his country on an improbable run to the final at the world championships last spring before losing 1-0 to the U.S. in overtime. Genoni, who was tournament MVP with a 0.99 goals-against average and 0.953 save percentage, wasn't sweating getting a shutout and is more worried about the rest of the Olympics.

“It’s a great start,” Genoni said. “We had a really, really good start into the game and could shut the door behind. It’s a perfect start for us.”

Switzerland next plays Canada on Friday.

“Obviously a big team coming up," forward Nino Niederreiter said. "We’re going to try our best to poke the bear a little bit and see if we can go from there.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics