Olympic Hockey Preview: Canada wraps up preliminaries against France, Auston Matthews and USA play Germany

After wins against the Czech Republic and Switzerland on Thursday and Friday, Canada will face the weakest competition of the preliminaries on Sunday morning with a lead against France. Canada defeated the Czech Republic in a convincing 5-0 win on Thursday morning before beating Switzerland 5-1 on Friday afternoon. While Canada and the US have easily been the two teams to beat so far, Canada has emerged as the most dominant force to be reckoned with, with a healthy mix of superstars in Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, veteran stars in Sidney Crosby and future stars in Macklin Celebrini.

Meanwhile, Team USA faces a tougher challenge against Germany on Sunday afternoon. While the States are and should be heavily favored in this game, they are up against one of the top players in the NHL: Leon Draisitl. They have other NHL stars in their lineup, such as Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider and Utah Mammoth forward JJ Peterka, but they also proved to be vulnerable after a 4-3 loss to Latvia on Saturday morning.

Sunday’s action starts with Switzerland and the Czech Republic meeting at 6:10 a.m., before Canada faces France at 10:40 a.m., followed by Denmark and Latvia at 1:10 p.m., capped off by the US and Germany at 3:40 p.m. All games mentioned are in eastern time.

PRESENTED BY DAILY FACEOFF OLYMPIC COVERAGE