The rubber meets the road during the qualifying playoffs of the men's hockey tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on Tuesday. It's the start of three rounds of elimination games in four days that will determine which teams advance to the semifinals and have a shot to medal.

Team USA and Team Canada punched their tickets to the knockout round of the ice hockey tournament in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Now, fans across the globe wonder when the two powerhouses could meet.

Here's what to know heading into the final day of the preliminary round of the men's ice hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The Canadians clinched the No. 1 seed in the knockout stages, meaning the road to gold runs through the team up north.

The 2024-25 NHL regular season began with 32 teams chasing Lord Stanley. Now, the number of potential Stanley Cup champions is down to 16. The field and bracket for the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs were finalized on the penultimate night of the regular season ...

The Atlantic Division is arguably the most competitive in the NHL this season. Every single team in the division has a winning record, with the difference between second place and fifth place separated by just three points.

With the Penguins sitting second in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division as the Olympics break approaches, the presumptuous among you ask if they’re capable of a playoff run. But it’s far from certain that they’re capable of making the playoffs.

The time between periods will be slightly shorter at the Olympics, with a break of only 15 minutes compared to 18 minutes in the NHL. For viewers, this difference will hardly be noticeable, but it could be a slight inconvenience for players with deeply-engrained intermission routines.