Preliminary play for men's hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics has finished, and New York Rangers stars now have to sit and wait their Olympic fate as the tournament moves on to the qualifiers. The beginning of the tournament has featured a lot of lopsided games and action, and the upcoming games will only get more exciting as the games become more important with the playoffs looming.
Where things stand for Rangers involved in 2026 Winter Olympics
Mike Sullivan, David Quinn, J.T. Miller. Vincent Trocheck, and the rest of Team USA wrapped up Group C play on Sunday with a 5-1 victory over Germany and the ended with a perfect record of 3-0-0-0 and nine points. They were the second best team in the stage, and finished only behind Canada on goal differential. Canada scored 20 goals and allowed just three, and Team USA scored 16 and allowed five against. Team USA will play in the quarterfinals against the winner of the No. 7 and No. 10 matchup we will get into shortly.
Mika Zibanejad and Sweden ended Group B play on Saturday with a 5-3 win over Slovakia, and they finished with a record of 2-0-0-1 with six points, and were the No. 7 seed following the goal differential tie-breaker. Sweden scored 11 goals and conceded nine, and some shaky goaltending put them in a tough spot. They are set to face off against No. 10 seed Latvia on Tuesday, and the winner of that game will faceoff against the United States with a ticket to the semis on the line.
Rangers stars appear headed for a collison course
Latvia is the No. 10 seed, and they earned three points in Group C play with a win and two losses. They scored just seven goals and allowed 12, and enter the matchup with Sweden as a heavy underdog. If things play out like fans and the oddsmakers think, that would setup a very interesting matchup.
On the side of Team USA would Sullivan and Quinn behind the bench with Miller on the fourth line and Trocheck as the extra skater. On the side of Sweden would be Zibanejad who has looked fine in a top six role. If you expand the scope to the entirety of both rosters, you'd have Bill Guerin, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber of the Minnesota Wild on the side of Team USA, and the Wild contingent on Sweden would include netminders Fillip Gustavsson, Jesper Wallstedt, top line center Joel Eriksson Ek, and third line forward Marcus Johansson.
What happens after quarterfinals?
From the perspective of just caring about the Rangers, Team USA is ranked No. 2, and Sweden is ranked No. 7. After the quarterfinals the remaining teams are re-ranked, and the top teams will face the lowest remaining seeds, In the case of Team USA that would mean any potential matchup against Canada would come only in the gold medal game.
Things will take better shape on Wednesday, as that is when Team USA will play the winner of Tuesday's qualification game.