Sam Bennett Was the Wrong Choice--and Canada Paid for It

Sam Bennett wasn’t the only reason Canada lost, of course, but he was one of the most preventable ones. And in a tournament where margins are razor-thin, that matters;

Tom Harris ——Bio and Archives--March 19, 2026

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Over three weeks have passed since Team Canada’s men’s hockey team lost in overtime in the gold medal game at the Olympics. So now that the pain has subsided somewhat, we must take a clear-eyed, unsentimental look at the reasons we lost so we don’t see a repeat in the 2030 Olympics in France.

While our failure at the 2026 Olympics didn’t come down to a single moment or individual, there is little question that Sam Bennett’s performance made the hill steeper than it ever needed to be. His late-game double minor, his lack of offensive impact, and his longstanding reliance on a gritty, borderline style of play all converged into a predictable problem: he was a poor fit for a tournament where the rulebook is enforced far more tightly than in the National Hockey League.

Bennett’s reputation for rough play is well documented. Even the CBC described him as “a player with a history of getting close to, and sometimes stepping over, the NHL’s disciplinary line.” That edge, unfortunately, appears to work in the NHL, where crease-crashing and borderline contact are part of the ecosystem.

Who can forget when, in Game 2 of the 2023 first round Stanley Cup playoffs, Bennett wrapped up Leafs’ rookie Matthew Knies against the boards and then drove him to the ice in a clearly illegal wrestling-style move. Knies left the game with a concussion and missed the rest of the series. No penalty was assessed and the Department of Player Safety did not even issue supplemental discipline.

Or how about when Leaf’s goaltender Anthony Stolarz suffered a concussion in Game 1 of the 2025 second round playoff series between the Leafs and the Panthers, when Bennett rammed into Stolarz’s head (see lead image in this article), putting the goaltender out for nearly the entire series. Again, permissive NHL referees let it go without a penalty.

In fact, there are so many injuries Bennett’s play has caused over the years that it has been assembled into a YouTube video, “Oops he did it again … | Sam Bennett Dirty Hit Highlight Reel,” to which one commenter responded:

But Olympic officiating is different. It’s stricter, cleaner, and far less tolerant of the kind of chaos Bennett thrives on. Selecting him for a tournament governed by international rules was always a gamble--and it backfired.

The warning signs were apparent immediately. In the semifinal against Finland, Bennett took a costly goalie interference penalty after colliding with Juuse Saros, who openly accused him of doing it on purpose. Finland scored seconds later. Fans were blunt about it: “Sam Bennett taking a dumb and costly penalty is exactly the reason you don’t bring a player like him to Milan,” one wrote on X. Another called the hit “egregious even by Sam Bennett’s standards”.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. It was the natural outcome of choosing a player whose instincts have been shaped by years of lax NHL officiating--instincts that don’t translate cleanly to Olympic ice.

And then came the moment that sealed the narrative. In this year’s Olympic gold medal game, Bennett took a highsticking penalty on Jack Hughes that drew blood (right), automatically upgrading it to a four-minute double minor with less than seven minutes left in a 1–1 game. It was the exact scenario Canada needed to avoid. Even though Hughes later took a penalty of his own, the damage was done: Bennett’s actions had once again put his team in a vulnerable position at a critical time.

Compounding all of this was his near total lack of offensive contribution. Despite being last year’s cup finals MVP, Bennett never found a rhythm in the Olympics, accounting for zero goals and one assist through the entire tournament. When a player contributes so little offensively and becomes a liability defensively, the equation is simple: the team is playing shorthanded even at five-on-five.

Bennett’s selection to Team Canada was apparently based on hope--hope that his playoff reputation would outweigh his disciplinary history and hope that he could adapt to a cleaner game. But hope isn’t a strategy. The evidence was already there: Bennett’s style is built for the NHL games, not the Olympics. And when the pressure peaked, his instincts obviously took over.

Canada needed discipline. Bennett delivered the opposite.

Sam Bennett wasn’t the only reason Canada lost, of course, but he was one of the most preventable ones. And in a tournament where margins are razor-thin, that matters.

Tom Harris is a long-time hockey fan, who grew up playing left wing in Montreal city hockey leagues. He is the proud holder of an authentic Gordie Howe autograph, acquired at Dorval airport when the Red Wings were in town in 1965.

Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition at http://www.icsc-climate.com.

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