Mitch Marner Says Sidney Crosby Speech After Injury Inspired Canada in OT Win in Olympics

Canada winger Mitch Marner says captain Sidney Crosby helped inspire his team's comeback 4-3 overtime win against Czechia in the men's hockey quarterfinals at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

Marner said that Crosby, who suffered a game-ending lower-body injury in the second period, spoke to his teammates at the period break.

"He had just great things to say about our team and confidence in us going into that third," Marner said (h/t TSN's Mark Masters).

When asked what Crosby's message had been, head coach Jon Cooper said, per the Boston Globe's Matt Porter: "Go get it, boys. There was a lot more than that."

"A big thing walking out of the room was, 'There is no way this is going to be Sid's last game,'" Cooper told reporters. "That was the talk coming out. We just had to do it the right way."

Any additional confidence wasn't immediately obvious in the third period as Canada allowed a go-ahead goal from Czechia's Ondrej Palat with less than eight minutes left in regulation.

Things started clicking in the final five minutes. Nick Suzuki deflected in the tying goal before Jordan Binnington stopped a Czech breakaway to send the overtime.

Marner then scored 1:22 into the extra period to send Canada on to the semifinals.

Canada will now take on either Finland, Switzerland or Sweden for a shot at the gold medal game.

The team will expect an injury update on Crosby, who had taken several hard hits on Wednesday before he was helped down the tunnel while visibly favoring one leg, before the semifinals kick off on Friday.

Cooper said he had no updates on Crosby's status as of shortly after Wednesday's game.