USA vs. Canada and three other reasons to be excited for the men’s Olympic hockey tournament

We made it, folks. After 12 years, 4,371 days, a global pandemic-enforced false start, and a little late drama about whether the rink in Milan would actually be ready in time, best-on-best men’s Olympic hockey is officially back.

The puck drops Wednesday at Santagiulia Arena with Slovakia playing Rasmus Ristolainen and Finland (10:40 a.m., USA and Peacock), and host Italy facing off with Sweden (3:10 p.m., USA and Peacock) to begin the highly anticipated Milan Cortina Olympic tournament. On Thursday, the other eight nations are in action, including the United States and Canada.

» READ MORE: Czechia goalie Dan Vladař will face Flyers teammate Travis Sanheim at Olympics: ‘That’s going to be a fun one’

With NHL players back in the Olympics, there are storylines aplenty as the tournament commences. Here are four things we are watching for in Milan.

The Flyers weren’t exactly flying high entering the Olympics, having lost 12 of 15 games, but they will still be well represented in Milan.

Defenseman Travis Sanheim will play for gold medal favorite Canada, while Dan Vladař (Czechia), Rasmus Ristolainen (Finland), and Rodrigo Ābols (Latvia) were named to the rosters for their respective nations. Unfortunately for Ābols, who represented Latvia at the Beijing Games in 2022, he won’t be able to play in Milan after suffering a severe ankle injury in mid-January. Flyers coach Rick Tocchet will also be busy in the homeland of his parents, as he will serve as a jack-of-all-trades assistant on Jon Cooper’s Canada staff.

The Flyers connections don’t end there, as some old friends will be participating, some more well-remembered than others. Radko Gudas and Lukáš Sedlák will play alongside Vladař with Czechia, while ex-coach John Tortorella, who was fired in March, will be an assistant with the Americans under Mike Sullivan.

Last but not least, Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (yes, you read that correctly) will be captaining France. Now 40, Bellemare, who made his NHL debut at 29 and played three seasons with the Flyers (2014-17), will be the oldest men’s player at the tournament as France makes its return to hockey after a 24-year wait. France’s most decorated NHL player, Bellemare, told NHL.com the “Olympics are the highlight of a lifetime ...by far.”

While Macklin Celebrini, 19, will be making his Olympic debut, and Sidney Crosby, 38, has famously done this before given his Vancouver heroics in 2010, there are so many players in their mid- to late 20s who will be participating in their first Olympics because of the NHL’s lack of recent participation.

That includes stars like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, David Pastrňák, Jack Eichel, and so many others. Wow.

Seeing a mostly full best-on-best tournament for the first time since the 2016 World Cup should provide some exhilarating hockey and drama, especially given how much the players have pushed for this over the past decade. The overall speed and skill the players possess has grown by leaps and bounds since the league last participated in 2014, and that should only enhance one of the top events of any Olympic Games, even with Russia and its star-studded roster led by Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, and Alex Ovechkin notably absent due to the country’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.

Last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off was designed to serve as a tasty hors d’oeuvre to the Olympics’ main course, and it left the dinner guests more than satisfied.

The NHL probably felt the tournament could be a modest success and help conjure up interest in the sport a year out from the Olympics. It exploded into something well beyond Gary Bettman’s wildest dreams, thanks in large part to three spirited bouts in nine seconds to begin a preliminary game between Team USA and Canada.

Fight Night at the Bell Centre, however premeditated it was on the U.S. side, and bolstered by the already tense political backdrop between the countries, went viral and put hockey in front of a whole world of eyes that it doesn’t usually reach. Canada would enact revenge in the final in overtime five days later, but a rivalry was renewed and the bad blood was boiled.

» READ MORE: Flyers blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen embraces his chance with Finland at the Olympics

That rivalry, and the battle for hockey supremacy, will resume over the next few weeks in Milan as the United States and Canada seem to be on a collision course for the gold medal game. They have always been geographical rivals but never truly equals on the ice. Team USA has closed the gap on its northern neighbor, though, even to the point where a U.S. win could signal a changing of the guard to some. For the last 10 years, everyone has wanted to see the U.S. vs. Canada for all the marbles on the biggest stage. After last year’s two thrilling matchups in the 4 Nations, here’s hoping they get their wish.

Winners of two of the last three World Juniors and last year’s senior World Championship, and a few Jordan Binnington highway robberies away from 4 Nations glory, USA Hockey is sending its best-ever team to an Olympics and the message is clear: gold or bust.

On the surface, that goal might seem lofty for a U.S. team that hasn’t won gold since 1980’s Miracle at Lake Placid and that hasn’t won gold in the previous five tournaments when NHL players participated. But the Americans have been coming on for some time now and have long wanted a chance to prove they are not only Canada’s equals but have surpassed them at their own game.

Last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off did nothing to quell those ambitions, as the U.S. beat — and beat up — Canada on Canadian soil in the preliminary round before going toe-to-toe with the star-studded Canadiens in a nail-biter of a final. That one ended with a McDavid overtime winner that was probably a bit harsh given the quality of the Americans’ chances and Binnington’s heroics in goal. Add that Team USA’s best defenseman, Quinn Hughes, was unavailable for the tournament, and that one half of the Bash Bros., Matthew Tkachuk, was severely hobbled and mostly relegated to a cheerleader from the bench, and the U.S. has reasons to be confident. Add Canada’s uncertainty in goal and the case for the U.S. gets even stronger.

Canada is still a slight betting favorite thanks to names like McDavid, MacKinnon, Makar, and Crosby, but many think this could go either way, and with the Russians not involved and Finland and Sweden decimated by injuries in the lead-up to the tournament, this seems like the likeliest final.

Can the U.S. team get over the line this time against its archrival and claim hockey’s heavyweight title belt? If it does, there won’t be any underdog movie that begins with an “M” this time around.