Canada poised for another run at Olympic hockey gold with NHL's return

Connor McDavid remembers feeling the intensity.

A minor hockey player growing up just north of Toronto, the future NHL superstar and his teammates gathered to watch Canada and the United States battle it out in the 2010 men's Olympic hockey final.

They were on the edge of the couch as events unfolded thousands of kilometres away in Vancouver.

"The nervous energy in the building was coming through the TV," McDavid recalled.

And then, just like much of the country, they all leapt to their feet in an instant when Sidney Crosby took a quick pass from Jarome Iginla and snapped a shot through Ryan Miller's pads for a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory.

"Canada wins gold on home ice," McDavid added. "It doesn't get any better than that."

The hockey powerhouse then ground out a relentless repeat four years later — again with Crosby, this time as captain, leading the charge — but those Games in Sochi, Russia, would be the last involving NHL players for more than a decade.

After skipping 2018 for financial reasons and backing out in 2022 because of COVID-19, the game's best are back for the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Nothing short of another podium-topping performance will do for Canada.

The NHL is set for an Italian return to the Games in February on the heels the last season's spine-tingling 4 Nations Face-Off that saw Canada again top the U.S. in OT on McDavid's dramatic winner.

"You can feel the energy of coming off 4 Nations," Crosby, the 38-year-old captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, said at Canada's summer orientation camp in Calgary. "That was huge, and I think everyone got a taste of international hockey and what the Olympics is going to look like.

McDavid scores OT winner as Canada edges U.S. in 4 Nations Face-Off