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,........

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