USA set the tone with a goal, not physicality
Coming into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the United States’ men’s hockey team could boast about quite a bit. They appeared to have the deepest and most mobile blueline in the tournament, and they were set to start the reigning Hart Trophy winner in goal. Perhaps most inarguably, though, they looked to have the most physical team coming into Milan. A team with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, Brock Nelson, and Charlie McAvoy on the back end is sure to intimidate a team or two.
But the U.S. is an extremely skilled team, too, and in their tournament-opening 5-1 win over Latvia on Thursday, they let their offensive ability shine early and often. Brady Tkachuk opened the scoring five and a half minutes into the game, and Nelson lit the lamp twice in the second period. Tage Thompson and Auston Matthews each had a power-play goal to complete the American scoring.
On Daily Faceoff’s USA vs Latvia post-game show, hosts Jonny Lazerus and Colby Cohen discussed how the United States asserted themselves in Thursday’s win.
Jonny Lazerus: I just didn’t think they really set a tone. Brady Tkachuk, it felt like to me in the first five to ten minutes, obviously he scores the goal, but he was really the only guy who was going hard as an F1 on the forecheck. I thought I would see more guys finishing hits early on, and it felt like Brady was really the only one playing overly physical, at least up front. Throughout the game it felt like Latvia was the more physical team, and obviously you can say that because Team U.S.A. had the puck more, but as far as that tone-setting first five minutes, I didn’t feel like the U.S. did that.
Colby Cohen: I think what would I say would be their tone-setting moment was an early goal. You get that first goal. I think there’s all positives to take away from that game. I really do. Latvia’s a tough team, they’re never initimidated. They always have confidence because they always play Canada so tight, and that goes back years and years. But ultimately, you just kind of look at the individual performances and what guys brought to the table today. You got your Tage Thompson power-play goal, not the kind of goal you would necessarily expect, but for a guy that size to have hands like that, he makes it look easy but you and I know how difficult that is.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…