Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews and Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck starred in Team USA's first win. They'll need to keep it up when they play to build a large enough goal differential to clinch the No. 1 overall seed over Canada.
Team USA came into this men's hockey tournament at the Olympics looking likely to clinch the No. 1 seed heading into the knockout stages.
With the Americans landing in a group with Germany, Latvia and Denmark, there's a large enough gap between them and the others on paper that they could have a larger goal differential than the other group winners.
But Team Canada, which clinched Group A, beat dark horses Czechia and Switzerland 5-0 and 5-1, respectively. They now have a plus-9 goal differential heading into their final preliminary round game against France on Sunday, while the Americans are at plus-4 heading into their game Saturday.
So the Canadians did not make it easy for the Americans to clinch the top seed, and therefore, a more favorable quarterfinal matchup. And two American stars from Canadian NHL teams – Toronto Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews, and Winnipeg Jets star goalie Connor Hellebuyck – must stay hot when they play to ensure Team USA gets that top seed.
And given the real possibility that the No. 2 seed could face Sweden in the quarters, that top seed is even more important now.
In their first game against Latvia on Thursday, the U.S. steamrolled their way to a 5-1 victory. Matthews netted the fifth and final goal, while Hellebuyck turned aside 17 of 18 Latvia shots. But the good news for the Americans did not end there.
The United States got significant contributions from up and down the lineup. The Tkachuk Brothers (Matthew of the Florida Panthers and Brady of the Ottawa Senators) combined for two assists and three points. The Hughes Brothers (Jack of the New Jersey Devils and Quinn of the Minnesota Wild) combined for four assists.
The Americans also got multi-point games from center Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights, who had a pair of assists, and from Brock Nelson of the Colorado Avalanche, who had a pair of goals.
Really, you couldn't have asked for a better start for the United States.
But yes, in a perfect world, Hellebuyck would've posted a shutout against Latvia to give the U.S. a plus-5 goal differential heading into Saturday.
The States' strong start against the Latvians must carry over to their games against Denmark on Saturday and Germany on Sunday. They have an excellent chance of running up the score against them and showing the Canadians that, even though they posted some impressive scores against arguably the top teams outside the gold-medal front-runners, the U.S. might still get the top spot in the overall standings after the round-robin ends on Sunday.
Boston Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman is expected to start for Team USA against Denmark, so he'll need to build on Hellebuyck's solid game against Latvia. And if Hellebuyck returns to the crease on Sunday, he can lead the way with Matthews. Any goal allowed may not matter in the game itself if the Americans score a ton of goals, but it will matter in the standings.
And Matthews, the captain of Team USA, must build on his performance in Game 1 and pile up those goals.
He's built a reputation as one of the NHL's top goal-scorers, if not the top goal-scorer, over the past few years with three 'Rocket' Richard Trophies. There's no reason he shouldn't be up there with Slovakia's Juraj Slafkovsky and Germany's Tim Stutzle (three goals each) for most goals when the preliminary round ends. And considering he's tied for 21st in NHL goal-scoring this season, a strong showing at the Olympics would be good for him to carry back to the Maple Leafs.
As we've seen in other group action, Sweden and Finland have experienced victory and defeat already, so winning is far from a given for any team. In fact, if Finland beat Italy in regulation on Saturday, Slovakia would clinch their group, and Sweden will likely end up playing in the qualifying round and potentially face whoever isn't the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals.
But from what we've seen from the American squad, all the pre-Olympics prognostications that pegged the States to be co-favorites for gold are looking accurate. If they want to make life potentially a tad easier for themselves in the knockout stages, they need to make the most of their final group stage games.
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