Who was the unsung hero of USA’s win over Latvia?

Team USA opened its slate of games at the 2026 Winter Olympics men’s ice hockey tournament with a strong 5-1 victory over Team Latvia on Thursday.

Brock Nelson scored twice, not including one of two disallowed goals in the first period, as the Americans overcame a frustrating start to beat their undermanned opponents in convincing fashion.

Brady Tkachuk, Tage Thompson, and Auston Matthews also scored for Team USA, while Renars Krastenbergs netted the lone goal for Latvia. Connor Hellebuyck made 17 saves for the Americans in the victory.

Playing in the first Olympics with NHL player participation since Sochi 2014, the Americans showed exactly how much they stand to benefit from having the best in the world at their disposal. They increasingly took control of the game, outshooting Latvia 38-18 and creating a strong template to follow for the rest of their Group C games.

On the Daily Faceoff USA vs. Latvia post-game show, Jonny Lazarus and Tim Kalinowski recapped all the action and went beyond the scoresheet to name an unsung hero of the win for Team USA.

Jonny Lazarus: Who stood out to you, maybe, as someone who isn’t getting the storylines? Like, Brock Nelson and Jack Hughes are two guys who, I feel, are the stars from that game, but is there anyone who caught your eye that you were really impressed with?

Tim Kalinowski: Well, I do think it is worth mentioning how impressive Jack Hughes was. Like, I’m pretty sure I was looking at the Daily Faceoff [line combinations] and he was slotted on the fourth line, if I’m not mistaken — if I was reading backwards here in Italy. But, you know, a guy like that … I was at that 4 Nations final game and monitoring that throughout, and he was a guy who, certainly, you were saying, ‘God, can he play in this tight kind of checking,’ whatever. And sure, Latvia, they’re not the Soviets from 1980, but look, the ice is small and that’s a guy you’re going to need to come through. I keep looking back at the so-called snubs, and it’s like, if the reason the United States falls short is because of goal-scoring, then yeah, you can blame the roster. That would be the smoking gun for them, the construction of the roster. But I look at Jack Hughes, I thought he was super impressive tonight. Their D, his brother Quinn, was phenomenal.

Watch the full episode here: