MILAN — Neither of the favorites has been tested at these Olympics yet, not truly. But Team Canada spent the preliminary round marking out its territory as the dominant force of the men’s hockey tournament here in Milan.
Through three games, the last of which was an easy 10-2 win over France on Sunday afternoon, the Canadians outscored opponents 20-3. Twelve different players scored goals in the preliminaries; nine different players did so on Sunday. Canada never trailed.
None of its pairs or line combinations — with Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby as the top three centermen — struggled, but for good measure, coach Jon Cooper combined McDavid and Macklin Celebrini with MacKinnon in Canada’s second game, a 5-1 win over Switzerland. What he got was a Death Star-like weapon, though he opted against using it against the French, who were predictably and totally overmatched on Sunday.
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