MILAN — The Red, White and Blue train left the station about 30 minutes late.
Then it got rolling along like it hadn’t missed a beat.
The Americans beat Latvia 5-1 on Thursday night in their first match of the Olympic Games, the highest of expectations having been placed on Team USA’s shoulders. It wasn’t as clean as Canada’s 5-0 blowout of Czechia on the same ice a few hours prior, but by the time 60 minutes were up, all was right for the Yanks.
“It’s the Olympics. I don’t think you’re gonna blow the doors off anybody,” defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “This is tight. Italy and Sweden were tied for 40 minutes yesterday. We know better than to underestimate our opponents.”
If you only tuned in at the end of the night, you could have been forgiven for thinking the Americans had blown the doors off.
That was thanks in no small part to the combination of Brock Nelson and Jack Hughes, who made the fourth line the Americans’ best all night.
After Nelson had a goal and an assist wiped off the board on successful Latvia challenges in the first period, accounting in part for a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes that had the Americans visibly shaken, he stayed calm, cool and collected.
He broke the tie off a slick feed from the younger Hughes brother and a slicker move in front for a backhand finish past Elvis Merzlikins at 10:38 of the second. Team USA’s relaxation from there was visible, and badly needed.
“Every guy in the NHL knows what he’s about,” Jack Hughes said of the former Islander. “… You know when you’re playing him you’re getting a hard night because he’s a really good skater, he’s a big, rangy, 200-foot [player] and then obviously he’s got 30 goals this year already.”
By the end of the second period, Team USA looked every bit as dominant as you would have expected. Tage Thompson roofed a backhand on the power play to make it 3-1 and Jack Hughes fed Nelson a second time to make it 4-1, making the third period a fait accompli.
For good measure, the Latvians replaced Merzlikins with Arturs Silovs to start the third, which Merzlikins later said was because Latvia coach Harijs Vitolins “wanted to change some energy.”
On the whole, it was not quite the opening game Team USA would have wanted, and with every team in the tournament having played once, the Canadians look much better than their American counterparts who will be a point of comparison throughout.
The Jaccob Slavin-Brock Faber pair was the biggest culprit on a defense corps that had a mess of a first period. Both players lost battles leading to Renars Krastenbergs’ goal that tied the game at one for Latvia.
At least initially, the Americans looked caught out by Latvia’s intensity and physicality. They were disconnected. They were tense. And it didn’t help that Latvian video coach Peteris Groms caught Nelson offside and J.T. Miller interfering with Merzlikins to wipe off a pair of goals.
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“There’s never any panic,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “Second period, we just wanted to make sure someone was at the net at all times.”
The affliction was, gladly, temporary. The Tkachuk brothers never seemed to have it at all, with Brady scoring 5:29 into the contest while Matthew and Jack Eichel, who completed the top line with the siblings, were solid all night. Seventh defenseman Noah Hanifin was more involved after the first, meaning the pairs were less consistent, but the setup seemed to better suit the U.S.
Quinn Hughes and Thompson were both effective in their best-on-best debuts; the former seemed to have the puck on his stick constantly, whizzing around the offensive zone and creating space, while the latter was a wrecking ball around the crease.
Dylan Larkin and Kyle Connor seemed to have chemistry on the third line. Auston Matthews broke his best-on-best duck with a power-play goal that made it 5-1, and this version of Jack Hughes was night and day from what we saw a year ago at 4 Nations.
“We’re so lucky to have [Jack],” said Matthew Tkachuk, this team’s spiritual leader. “He’s embraced [the fourth line]. Just continues to impress each and every practice. Obviously today, the game, he’s been incredible. His brother’s a huge addition for us.
“It’s unbelievable to see some of the best players in the world come to this and buy into their role the second they’re told what it is. That’s what it’s gonna take.”
