Grades, questions from Canada's Olympic hockey win vs. Czechia - ESPN

Canada entered the 2026 Olympics men's ice hockey tournament as the odds-on favorites for the gold medal.

After one game, the team did little to dissuade that notion.

The team full of NHL superstars took until the final seconds of the first period to score its first goal, but added four thereafter to cruise to a 5-0 win over Czechia in Group A action.

Here are the top lessons learned from the opener, along with the player of the game, an overall team grade and a key question to ponder before Friday's contest against Switzerland.

Welcome to the Olympics, Macklin Celebrini. The 19-year-old San Jose Sharks phenom — he has 81 points in 55 games, 42 points more than his closest teammate — played his way onto Team Canada but also had earned praise from players like captain Sidney Crosby, who played with him at the 2025 IIHF world championships. In his Olympic debut, he scored one of the game's most critical goals to give Canada a lead after the first period.

The play started with Mark Stone trying to find Connor McDavid behind the Czech defensemen who were trailing him. McDavid's speed caused goalie Lukas Dostal — who was frequently brilliant in this game — to dump the puck the boards with the seconds ticking away. McDavid recovered the puck and sent a backhand pass to the high slot where it was collected by defenseman Cale Makar.

The Czechs gave Celebrini about a square mile to himself in front of the net, giving Makar an easy target for a pass that the Sharks star tipped home, his stick barely under the crossbar's height. Celebrini's goal was scored with 5.7 seconds left in the first period.

Would a scoreless first period have changed the trajectory of the game? Probably not, given the scoring depth Canada would eventually