The 12-team tournament in men’s ice hockey for the 2026 Winter Olympics has been set as Team Slovakia, Team Denmark, and Team Latvia all came away with wins earlier today. Slovakia and Latvia will join the United States and Russia in Group C of the round-robin action while Denmark will slot into Group B with Finland, Germany, and Czechia. France could still qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics if the Olympic Committee decides to bar Russia from the tournament since they finished as the next highest seed in the standings. This would allow France to play in back-to-back Winter Olympics as they will be the host country in 2030.
The Slovakian team is headlined by notable NHL talents such as Simon Nemec, Tomas Tatar, and Martin Pospisil. They have a legitimate shot to make it to the playoff round if Russia is barred from the tournament. Team Slovakia will be looking for their second medal in team history after earning the bronze medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics after defeating Team Sweden.
The Danes brought one of the more experienced rosters to the qualifier tournament with Winnipeg Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers and Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen striking as the most noteworthy NHL talents. Denmark does not have a lengthy history in men’s ice hockey in the Olympics as the team debuted two years ago in Beijing. The team surprised many by knocking off Latvia in their opening game of the knockout round before losing to the ’Olympic Athletes from Russia’ in a tightly fought battle.
Latvia has skated in five Olympic tournaments since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 but has failed to make much headway against larger nations. The only notable NHL player on the roster is Uvis Balinskis for the Florida Panthers who recorded one goal and four points in three qualifying events. Latvia is not expected to finish much higher than in previous attempts even though they are in one of the tournament’s weaker divisions.
I would certainly rather have France in my bracket than Russia (hehe). :)
And you can’t keep Latvia down!
@Gbear — And, speaking of GMBT (we’ll build the bridge for that one later), he did a radio hit on OverDrive 4 days ago. If you don’t already have it bookmarked, you can get to it here: link to player.fm. Just search for Trotz. Not super funny, but he’s an interesting guy to listen to.