After an entirely convincing and well-rounded win in Thursday’s Olympic men’s hockey tournament opener versus Czechia, Canada will look to remain flawless Friday when it takes on Switzerland.
Online sportsbooks actually considered the Swiss team to be entirely on par with Czechia entering the tournament, as the two had identical odds to medal (+400) and identical odds to win group A (+900). Switzerland had a solid showing in its tournament opener on Friday, winning 4-0, though it was versus France, which is expected to be the second-worst team in the tournament.
Canada vs. Switzerland Best Bet: Connor McDavid to Score -112
McDavid to score
At -112, McDavid is considered the most likely skater to score in this matchup, but even -112 appears to be a very playable number.
McDavid poured six shots on target and recorded three assists while leading all Canadian forwards with 18:04 of time-on-ice Thursday. His otherworldly speed off the rush was exceptional, and he appeared to have a clear mentality not to pass up open looks, despite the fact that he finished with three assists.
With so much talent on the team, usage can be a concern even for a player such as McDavid, but head coach Jon Cooper made sure to give McDavid the bulk he deserves.
McDavid and Macklin Celebrini seemed to be a good fit as expected, while Tom Wilson did a good job of facilitating pucks to McDavid as much as possible, and helping to keep pucks alive by winning plays down low in the offensive zone.
McDavid will generally be more of a passer than a shooter on Canada’s top power-play unit, but we still don’t mind that the unit looked like an absolute cheat code and will presumably click at an extremely high rate in this tournament.
Canada has a fairly high projected team total in this matchup, and out of the four goals they are likely to score, I’m happy to back one of those coming from McDavid at close to even money.
Canada vs. Switzerland Odds
| Canada moneyline odds | -667 |
| Switzerland moneyline odds | +475 |
| Puck Line odds | Canada -2.5 (-118), Czechia +2.5 (-106) |
| Game total | Over 5.5 goals (-143), Under 5.5 (+120) |
Betting Team Canada
For the main part, Canada checked all the boxes in its convincing 5-0 win, and you can’t ask for much more from a Canadian perspective. Czechia had some reasonable sequences where it managed to create a little havoc in the offensive zone en route to a total of 26 shots, but certainly did not really break Canada down at any point off the rush or create many true scoring chances.
Jordan Binnington was flawless en route to a shutout and was also a factor in handling the puck effectively and looked quiet and calm in the net. It would be fair to say that a long list of goaltenders would have allowed zero or, at most, one goal from the quality of chances faced.
Defenders of Binnington will note that playing behind Team Canada is simply not the same as playing behind a bad St. Louis Blues side, and that is certainly true. Still, Joel Hofer has greatly outperformed Binnington at the NHL level this season, and it seems more fair to stick with the assessment that Binnington simply finds a different level of focus when the games mean more.
It’s unclear whether Canada will go back to Binnington or go with Logan Thompson in this matchup at the time of writing, but it seems slightly more likely that Thompson will get the nod in this back-to-back spot. Thompson holds a .912 save percentage and +18.4 GSAx rating across 39 games played at the NHL level this season.
Wednesday’s game was not entirely perfect for Canada, as Josh Morrissey left with injury after skating just 7:10. His status for Friday’s matchup and the rest of the tournament is currently unclear.
Many defenders have admitted that they hate having seven defenders in the lineup historically, as it leads to a lot of shuffling and a lack of continuity. Thursday’s game was an instance where having seven defenders in the lineup worked out well, as Morrissey’s absence became manageable.
Thomas Harley played a team-high 20:35, while Shea Theodore, who was the seventh defender, received a regular shift following Morrissey’s departure. If Canada wants to stick with seven defenders on Friday and Morrissey is unable to play, it can stick Travis Sanheim into the lineup.
At times, Canada’s defensive core potentially could have done more with the puck to help drive possession and offence, but the unit did excel at preventing full-fledged breakdowns, which was seemingly always the goal of management when they assembled the unit.
McDavid’s line had strong rhythm throughout the opener, and the unit of Sidney Crosby, Mark Stone, and Mitch Marner also showed strong chemistry. The other two units had some strong moments, but it wouldn’t be surprising if those are the ones that are adjusted and, in particular, it seems as though the correct fit for Nathan MacKinnon has not yet been found.
Betting Switzerland
Switzerland’s program has been steadily trending in the right direction in recent years, including a pair of silver medals in the 2024 and 2025 World Championships. Unsurprisingly, longtime head coach Patrick Fischer remains at the helm for this tournament, which makes sense because the team has looked quite fundamentally strong in recent years.
Switzerland’s roster suggests they are now a little more than simply a scrappy underdog that plays a well-organized team game. They have some high-end talent up front in skaters such as Kevin Fiala, Nico Hischier, and Timo Meier, and two excellent defenders in Roman Josi and the highly underrated J.J. Moser on the back end.
Fischier has spread his top talents out evenly to start the tournament, likely with the plan being to break from that mold at times in trailing game scripts. Fiala and Hischier skated on the top line with Calvin Thurkauf Thursday, while Timo Meier skated with Philipp Kurashev and Pius Suter on the second unit.
Josi and Andrea Glauser skated together as top pairing, while Moser and Michael Fora formed the second pairing, while Dean Kukan and Jonas Siegenthaler offer a competent third unit.
Defender Michal Kempny led all skaters in Canada’s opener on Thursday. Coming from a Washington Capitals fan who knows they would not have won the Stanley Cup in 2018 without acquiring Kempny, the fact that he led all Czechia skaters in ice time suggests somewhat clearly that Switzerland’s blue line may offer a tougher test for Canada.
While it may seem surprising that NHLer Akira Schmid served as Switzerland’s backup goalie Thursday, 38-year-old Leonardo Genoni played to a 0.99 GAA and .953 save percentage at the World Championship last year and holds a .915 save percentage and 2.38 GAA with EV Zug this season.
Genoni became the oldest goaltender in history to record a shutout at the Olympics with his 27-save performance Thursday.
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