Picks for the 2026 Olympic men's hockey medal round bracket - ESPN

The United States and Canada are on opposite sides of the 2026 Olympic men's hockey tournament bracket, meaning their next battle would have to be for the gold medal.

Will that happen? Now that the qualification round is over, the road there is a lot tougher for one of them than the other.

Here's how I see the Olympic men's medal round shaking out, with one big upset and some great hockey to be witnessed. Stats are courtesy of HockeyStats.com unless otherwise noted.

Let's see if there will be a Canada vs. U.S. party… or if another country will play spoiler.

Martin Necas had a great comment after the Czechs won their qualification round game against Denmark: «We let them win the first one because we knew we were not going to win two in a row against Canada.»

Now that's the spirit!

Necas has been awesome for Czechia. The Colorado Avalanche winger's seven points through four games ties him with Jaromir Jagr (seven in 2006) for the second most by a Czech player in a single Olympic tournament. He's one point behind Martin Straka (eight in 2006) for the record. The question is whether Necas, or any of his teammates, will generate a goal against Canada, because even one would be an improvement over their first meeting.

Canada shut out Czechia 5-0 in the opening game of Group A. The Czechs played them tough for 19 minutes, 54 seconds before Macklin Celebrini scored on that perfect tip of a Cale Makar shot to break their will at the end of the first period. Eventually, it was all Canada, outshooting the Czechs 14-3 in the third period.

It has been interesting to see how the Czechs have evolved since that loss. Coach Radim Rulik loaded up his top line with their three best scorers in the opening game: Necas, center Tomas Hertl