What you need to know before Canada begins play in Olympic men's hockey

After 12 years of waiting, best-on-best men's hockey has returned to the Olympic stage.

The NHL is back, and it means Canadians can finally see generational players like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon pull on the same jersey.

The Olympic men's hockey tournament began on Wednesday. Canada will play its first game against Czechia on Thursday at 10:40 a.m. ET. You can watch all the action on CBC and CBC Gem.

"It’s our first game together, but that being said, there’s not a lot of time so we’ve got to make sure that our game is where it needs to be and continue to get better with every period," Crosby, this team's captain, said on Wednesday.

Canada will also play Switzerland on Friday (3:10 p.m. ET) and France on Sunday (10:40 a.m. ET).

Here are a few things you should know before the Canadians get started:

Canada will be led by a deep and dangerous forward group. It's an embarrassment of riches to be able to deploy McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby down the middle on three separate lines.

On the blue line, the Canadians will be led by the best pairing in the NHL, Colorado's Makar and Devon Toews.

Many see goaltending as the Canadians' weakness, but two-time Olympic gold medallist and Hockey Fall of Famer, Martin Brodeur, sees things differently.

All three of Canada's goaltenders — Jordan Binnington, Logan Thompson and Darcy Kuemper — are Stanley Cup champions.

"I don’t see it as a weakness," Brodeur told CBC Sports. "There’s winning pedigree. They’re goalies with experience. They’re big factors in each of the teams that they’re playing in."

There's plenty of familiarity up and down the team from the roster which won the 4 Nations Face-Off last year. The entire blue line is back.

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