It didn\u2019t look like the United States men\u2019s hockey team missed a beat.<\/p>\n
Team USA\u2019s 5-1 victory Thursday vs. Latvia in its opening contest at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 was the continuation of a wave American hockey has been riding for the past calendar year.<\/p>\n
The return of best-on-best hockey with NHL players at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February captivated the sports world and showed the strength of the American team, which downed Canada in a memorable preliminary game and then took the Canadians to overtime of the finals rematch. Then in May, Team USA notched a historic victory at the IIHF World Championship, earning its first gold medal at the event since 1933.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a run that shows a variety of things \u2013 the talent the United States has produced over the last few years, the camaraderie built among the American players, the investment into resources and development from USA Hockey, and the alignment between the governing body and the players chasing greatness in their country\u2019s colors.<\/p>\n
For Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski \u2013 who led the 4 Nations in scoring and was named the best defenseman at the Worlds \u2013 that feeling of familiarity hit him as soon as he arrived in Milan, as much of the roster and a coaching staff led by Mike Sullivan returned from the 4 Nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ll speak individually,\u201d Werenski told reporters in Italy. \u201cI feel like for me, I understand the systems a lot quicker. It felt like I\u2019m just jumping right back into it. I feel like last year, it was so different than what we were doing in Columbus, it took me a second. I was thinking a lot out there, where I feel like now it\u2019s more similar to our style this year and I\u2019m just familiar with how he wants me to play. All the terms he\u2019s using, I\u2019m familiar with, which I think helps a lot individually.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot less thinking out there. It\u2019s just playing hockey and not thinking about where you have to be. I think that\u2019s great for us. I know for me, it\u2019s individually feeling that way, but I\u2019m sure other guys feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The carryover from the 4 Nations \u2013 the U.S. braintrust made very few changes from a group that quickly became close last year in Montreal and Boston \u2013 seemed evident in the way the Americans played against a dogged Latvian squad, which tied the game at 1 in the first period and had CBJ goalie Elvis Merzlikins turning in the type of effort in the early going that could steal a game.<\/p>\n
But as the second period stretched on, Team USA found a level the Latvians couldn\u2019t match, outshooting the opponent by a 17-2 margin in the second and scoring twice in the final three minutes of the frame to take a 4-1 lead against a gassed Merzlikins.<\/p>\n
As the country chases its first Olympic gold since 1980, the Americans showed they’ll be a tough out against anyone, with group play continuing this weekend vs. Denmark (Saturday) and Germany (Sunday) before the knockout round begins.<\/p>\n
And while much of this squad resembles the 4 Nations roster, Werenski said from there, the Americans who were in Europe last spring for the Worlds can help lead the way. There was no easy road to gold in that tournament, with the U.S. having to beat Finland in the quarterfinals, Sweden in the semifinals and outlast Switzerland in the final. The Swiss matched the U.S. blow for blow, taking the gold medal game to overtime, before Tage Thompson\u2019s goal broke the 92-year winless streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the guys that were there, (there\u2019s an) understanding how hard it is to win the whole thing,\u201d Werenski said. \u201cYou get down to the quarters, semis, finals, they\u2019re all Game 7s. It\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s a challenge. There\u2019s a certain type of, I don\u2019t want to say pressure in that, but every play matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Werenski, his game showed no signs of missing a beat Thursday, as it took him just 5:29 to earn his first point with an assist on Brady Tkachuk\u2019s opening goal. The defenseman looked in charge the entire night at both 5-on-5 and while quarterbacking the No. 2 USA power play, skating 17:15 and posting three shots on goal and a plus-1 rating while drawing a penalty.<\/p>\n
He did much of it on his off hand, playing the right side with Ottawa youngster Jake Sanderson. That pairing came together at the 4 Nations after an injury to Charlie McAvoy, and keeping with the theme, the U.S. coaching staff put the two back together to start the Olympic tournament.<\/p>\n
Considering the U.S. dressed five left-shot defensemen and just two righthanders against Latvia, Werenski had to move to the right side, but don\u2019t expect him to complain with a gold medal on the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m familiar with it,\u201d Werenski said. \u201cI played it last year with Sandy at the end of the 4 Nations. I don\u2019t play it too much during the year, so it\u2019ll be a little bit of an adjustment, but it\u2019s just hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t look like the United States men\u2019s hockey team missed a beat. Team USA\u2019s 5-1 victory Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-466426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}