{"id":483532,"date":"2026-02-12T12:38:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=483532"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:51:27","slug":"despite-hot-start-canada-loses-defenceman-for-remainder-czechia-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/02\/12\/despite-hot-start-canada-loses-defenceman-for-remainder-czechia-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Hot Start, Canada Loses Defenceman for Remainder of Czechia Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/02\/11\/men-ice-hockey-team-canada-first-game-predictions-2026-milano-cortina-winter-olympics-team-czechia\/\" target=\"_self\">Canada has jumped out to a good start<\/a> for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. As of the second intermission, they held a 3-0 edge on Team Czechia. However, they had some tough news to break, as defenceman <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/morrijo04.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Morrissey<\/a> wouldn&#8217;t return to the game. Let&#8217;s get some details.<\/p>\n<h2>Canada Has an Injury to Defenceman Josh Morrissey<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Josh Morrissey will not return&#8230;hopefully not serious.<\/p>\n<p>Now that Canada has played, no injury replacement can be added to the roster<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/2021998109837140383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Luckily, for Canada, they have had a great start to the Olympic hockey tournament. The unfortunate part is losing a strong defender like Morrissey. He did start the game playing with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/parayco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colton Parayko<\/a>, but the lines were swapped around for the second period. <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/theodsh01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shea Theodore<\/a> had found his way playing with Parayko to start the second. Morrissey has played 7:10 of ice time in this opening game. Furthermore, we will have to await further updates on Morrissey&#8217;s status going forward in the tournament. Again, after the game, head coach Jon Cooper didn&#8217;t give confirmation on his go forward status. They don&#8217;t think it is serious and why he did try to return after it had happened.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the tournament has its own set of rules regarding injury replacements. Perhaps part of it is the very stringent drug testing protocol the players have to adhere to. Since the tournament has begun, Canada will be unable to replace Morrissey. That is, if he ends up being out for the tournament. We want to emphasize, at this time, that is very much unknown.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Postgame, Jon Cooper told <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sportsnetkyle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@sportsnetkyle<\/a> that Josh Morrissey tried to come back, but couldn\u2019t. <\/p>\n<p>They are hopeful it\u2019s not serious<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/2022018337509978366?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What Does this Mean for the Canada Defence Going Forward<\/h3>\n<p>This was part of the reasoning for the slightly expanded size of the Olympic hockey rosters. Typically a roster is 23-man is sent to international hockey tournaments, but for this tournament it is a 25-man roster.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, this allows for 14 forwards, eight defenceman, and three goalies. Those counts being up from the usual 13 forwards and seven d-man.<\/p>\n<p>For now, this injury to Morrissey would likely mean <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sanhetr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Travis Sanheim<\/a> draws into the Canadian lineup. Now, it is a surety that Morrissey can&#8217;t play next game, but if he is injured, Sanheim will draw in to replace him.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"248qA1KuCQ\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/02\/11\/winter-olympics-ice-hockey-international-rivals-team-canada-the-usa\/\" target=\"_self\">The Best of Olympic Hockey Rivals, Canada and the USA<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Best of Olympic Hockey Rivals, Canada and the USA&#8221; &#8212; Last Word On Hockey\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/02\/11\/winter-olympics-ice-hockey-international-rivals-team-canada-the-usa\/embed\/#?secret=y7WDTWjLpg#?secret=248qA1KuCQ\" data-secret=\"248qA1KuCQ\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Reuters via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canada has jumped out to a good start for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. As of the second intermission, they held a 3-0 edge on Team Czechia. However, they had some tough news to break, as defenceman Josh Morrissey wouldn&#8217;t return to the game. Let&#8217;s get some details. Canada Has an Injury to Defenceman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":483484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2963,4547,6671,304,34,4548],"tags":[8208,2921,591,7091,1167],"class_list":["post-483532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-international-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-josh-morrissey","tag-team-canada","tag-team-czechia","tag-travis-sanheim"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483532"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483545,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483532\/revisions\/483545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}