Team USA got the win over Denmark, but it left a lot to be desired
Team USA defeated Team Denmark by a 6-3 final score in their men’s hockey game at the 2026 Winter Olympics on Saturday, but it wasn’t always pretty.
The Danes led by 1-0 and 2-1 scores in the first period of Saturday’s game. American goaltender Jeremy Swayman had a game to forget, allowing three goals on 21 shots (including one from extremely long range).
Ultimately, Team USA was just too much for Denmark to handle, with six different goal-scorers beating the Danish tandem of Mads Sogaard and Frederik Dichow on 47 shots in total. But they haven’t looked particularly convincing despite being the top dogs on paper in Group C.
What will happen once the Americans start to face the real contenders for gold in the knockout rounds? On Saturday’s Daily Faceoff post-game show, Shawn DePaz and Steve Peters delved into Team USA’s outlook two games into their tournament.
Shawn DePaz: Team USA beats Denmark, survives Denmark, 6-3 the final score, moves to 2-0 to start their tournament. Petey, just your first thoughts from what was, I’d say, a tougher outing for the Americans than expected.
Steve Peters: You know what, it’s interesting. When you go into these games like this, you go in and you want the three points. You want to get the win. Team USA gets the win, and they’re plus-7, they have a commanding lead on Group C. Everything is fine when you look at the overall, once the game is done. But you want to look at how these teams are getting through these games, and I think it’s important to see how the Americans have started off in the first period of both of their contests, and it’s not the dominating push that I think the USA hockey fans want to see. You want to see the top players in the world get a little bit of a push off the start, and I think this is the second game in a row where the Americans started off a little slow. You get a little bit of that, ‘uh-oh.’ After the first period, you’re down 2-1! So, overall, you’re happy with the points, but you still have to go through the process and you still have to find a way to make sure they’re playing their best later on in the week.
DePaz: How concerned should U.S. fans be with the starts? What do you attribute it to? I think it’s easy for you to attribute it to, ‘oh, it’s one of the dominant teams playing opponents that they should be able to handle easily.’ Maybe they just weren’t fully engaged to start the game. But what do you think is the reason behind these slow starts and how worried should they be when it comes to them playing a Canada, or even teams like Sweden and Finland, should they run into one of those teams?
Peters: It’s interesting, because I know you can say that: ‘Oh, we’re playing Denmark and we’re gonna kinda take the foot off the gas.’ I don’t think that’s it, I really don’t. I think that the players on this team realize how important these games are. So, I think they’re ready to play, but I think they get ahead of themselves. I think they’re trying to do too much, I think they’re trying to be the offensive powerhouse that they really want to become, and I think it’s affecting their little details.
Watch the full episode here: