After ten years of sharing the ice for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews and William Nylander will face off in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Olympics men’s tournament as Team USA takes on Team Sweden. This will also be the first game in a long time at the Olympics where two teams, made up of only NHL stars, will take the ice.
Team USA booked its spot in the quarterfinals by earning a bye directly after finishing first in its pool. Team Sweden had a shaky start to the tournament, losing a crucial game against Team Finland in their second fixture. In the qualifiers playoff, they got the better of Team Latvia.
Auston Matthews spoke to TSN’s Mark Masters during the team’s practice session on Tuesday, before Sweden’s night game against the Latvians. He was still excited by the proposition of facing his Leafs teammate.
“Yeah, I’m sure it’d be interesting,” he said. “Obviously, he’s a good friend and a teammate of mine for ten years now. We’ll see how it all shakes out tonight, but obviously he’s a special player, a great guy, and a great friend, so we’ll see.”
After Sweden’s win, Nylander also opened up about facing Matthews for the first time in 12 years. The pair last met during the 2014 IIHF World U18 Championships.
“It’ll be a lot of fun. I think 12 years ago, I probably didn’t even know that we were going to be teammates,” Nylander said. “So now after playing, I don’t know, 10 years together, it’s going to be very special and a lot of fun.”
They had faced off in the semi-finals stage back in 2014. Nylander earned an assist for his team while Matthews opened the scoring for Team USA, which went on to win 4-1 and eventually won the gold medal against Team Czechia.
Auston Matthews reveals details of meetup with Leafs teammates at the Olympics village
Auston Matthews stated that there has been little interaction with his Maple Leafs teammates, Nylander and fellow Swede Oliver Ekman-Larsson, in the Olympics village in Milan.
“No, I mean, you run into them in the Village and stuff and say hi, but I feel like everybody’s kind of just pretty much exclusively with their team and their teammates and stuff like that, so I think it’s pretty normal,” Matthews told Masters.
During last year’s Four Nations Face Off, Team Sweden took a 2-1 win over Team USA. The win came in the final fixture of the preliminary round, with the final between the Americans and Team Canada already set at that point. The stakes are a lot higher on Wednesday with a chance to contend for a medal at the Olympics up for grabs.
Edited by R. Nikhil Parshy