What we learned about Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off ahead of Milano-Cortina Olympics

It took Connor McDavid alone in the slot, a pass from Mitch Marner, and a puck past one of the best goaltenders in the world for an entire nation to exhale.

No. 97 with the A on his sweater ended it in overtime for Canada on Thursday night, securing the 4 Nations Face-Off championship title with a 3-2 win over the Americans in Boston's TD Garden.

The Canadians might be the only people to ever lift the trophy from this one-off tournament. But it certainly wasn't meaningless.

Beyond what the win meant to the country, there's lots to take away for the group building Canada's men's hockey team at the Olympics. Less than a year remains before the Games open in Milano Cortina, where NHL players will return to the Olympic stage for the first time in more than a decade.

Here are four things we learned at the 4 Nations Face-Off as we look ahead to the 2026 Olympics:

Back in December, when this roster was announced, head coach Jon Cooper said leadership was a factor when deciding who would be on this team.

"You can never underestimate how much that matters, when the game's on the line, when there's 20,000 people at the edge of their seat, who's under control in those situations?" he said. "When maybe a game is sliding, the ebbs and flows and ups and downs of a hockey game, who are the players that you know have proven to be able to excel in those situations and calm the waters?"

It was reigning Stanley Cup champion Sam Bennett who tied Thursday's final in the second period, when Canada could have started to panic, and 2019 Cup champion Jordan Binnington shined in net, even as people questioned if he should be Canada's starter.

And it was three-time Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Sidney Crosby who led this team