"Auston Matthews and William Nylander are representing their countries over at the 2026 Winter Olympics right now, and thanks to an unlikely series of events they are actually going to be playing against one another very early in the knockout stage. Nylander's Sweden has been slightly underperforming after a big loss against rival Finland and not having enough of a goal differential to rocket up the standings. Now, there's what would've been a potential gold-medal game happening in the quarterfinals."
"As Russo referenced, the last time this happened was during the 2014 IIHF World Under-18 Championship as the two top prospects collided in Finland. It was during the semifinals match and a United States team led by Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk was able to earn a 4-1 win over Nylander and his Team Sweden. But, it was Nylander who finished the tournament as the leading scorer with an insane six goals and 16 points in just seven games."
William Nylander and Auston Matthews will face each other in the 2026 Winter Olympics quarterfinals after Sweden underperformed in group play and failed to secure a favorable goal differential. The matchup is their first competitive meeting since the 2014 IIHF World Under-18 Championship semifinals, when a United States team led by Matthews beat Sweden 4-1. Nylander finished that tournament as the top scorer with six goals and 16 points in seven games. Nylander and Matthews have been Toronto Maple Leafs teammates for about ten years, and Nylander described the upcoming Olympic game as special and a lot of fun.
Read at Editor In Leaf
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]