The Canadian national team roster competing in Switzerland will feature players such as Sidney Crosby, Macklin Celebrini, Evan Bouchard, Ryan O’Reilly, and John Tavares.
TASS, May 14. The Ice Hockey World Championship is set to commence in Switzerland on Friday. The tournament will attract stars like American Matthew Tkachuk, and Canadians Macklin Celebrini and Sidney Crosby, even following a recent Olympics where all the top players participated.
When National Hockey League (NHL) players attend the Olympic Games, it’s generally not expected that the subsequent World Championship that same year will boast an abundance of superstars. An exception might arise if a specific national team is determined to avenge a poor Olympic performance. This occurred in 2010: after being soundly defeated (3:7) by the Canadians in the Olympic quarterfinals in Vancouver, the Russian team arrived in Cologne, Germany, with its strongest lineup, including Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, and many others. Nevertheless, this wasn’t enough to secure the title, which went instead to the Czechs, who won without such a concentration of star power, featuring Jaromir Jagr.
Four years later, Ovechkin also traveled to Minsk, and Malkin joined the national squad during the playoffs. They ultimately achieved revenge against the Finns (5:2) in the World Championship final, avenging their loss in the Olympic quarterfinal in Sochi (1:3). Few observers recalled that the Finnish team was nowhere near the strength of its Olympic roster. In 2018 and 2022, spectators eagerly anticipated the arrival of NHL players in Denmark, and later in Riga and Tampere, following Olympics where players from across the ocean were absent; notably, Canadian Connor McDavid participated in Copenhagen.
For the upcoming World Championship, the Canadian team, clearly driven by a desire for retribution after losing the Olympic final, stands out, having assembled a roster rich in established names. Sidney Crosby will feature in his second consecutive World Championship, which, given his age (38), could very well be his final appearance at this global event. The Penguins forward will surely be motivated to redeem himself for being unable to assist the Canadians in the Olympic final due to an injury sustained during the quarterfinal match against the Czechs. Crosby’s participation seems facilitated by the presence of Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas in the management structure of Team Canada for this World Championship, as Dubas was involved in assembling the squad.
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