Nick Suzuki scores in Canada’s 5-0 win over the Czech Republic

Marc-Olivier Cook
Nick Suzuki scores in Canada’s 5-0 win over the Czech Republic
Credit: Screenshot / X

Canada played its first game of the Olympic tournament in Milan today.

And for the occasion, the Czech Republic was on the menu.

Reminder: Tomas Plekanec is one of the Czech Republic's coaches for this year's competition. He was seen behind his club's bench for today's game:

We expected Canada to have little trouble in the opening game against a team like the Czech Republic.

But in the first period… things were more complicated than expected for Jon Cooper's men.

They can thank Jordan Binnington, who was outstanding in the first period (and throughout the game): 

Canada played well, but had to wait until the very end of the first period to see the first goal scored in the game. Canada's first goal of the tournament belongs to… Macklin Celebrini!

In the second period, we saw why there are such high expectations for Canada in the tournament.

It looked easy at times.

And this magnificent play, created by Mitch Marner, explains it quite easily:

What a pass! That's probably one of the easiest goals of Mark Stone's career… Hehe.

But Canada wasn't done yet in the second period.

Bo Horvat, who isn't the fastest skater, surprised everyone a little when he used his skating skills to find himself completely alone in front of Lukas Dostal.

And again, it looked easy for the Canadian player:

The third period was also largely dominated by the Canadiens.

From Crosby to McDavid to MacKinnon… Canada easily scored its fourth goal of the game. That was another spectacular play:

You know what the best part is?

With just over six minutes left in the game, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki joined the party. Suz deflected a pass from Connor McDavid to score his team's fifth goal of the game… and that was the final nail in the Czech coffin.

A goal by Suzuki, assisted by McDavid, is… insane! 

It should be noted that Canada lost Josh Morrissey during the game.

The Jets defenseman had to leave for the locker room at the end of the second period and was unable to return to his team's bench to finish the game. Hopefully it's not too serious… because remember that Canada cannot call up an emergency defenseman once it has already played its first game of the tournament.

All in all, Canada got off to a good start at the Olympics with a 5-0 win over the Czech Republic. Tomorrow, the Canadiens will face the Swiss… and that should also be easy, considering today's result.


Overtime

– Not bad.

– That's a good one.

– Yes!

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