The Matchup: Team USA (1-0-0) vs. Team Denmark (0-1-0)
The Time: 3:10 PM EST (local time 21:10)
The Broadcasts: TV — Peacock, USA Network
The Olympic Overview: Click here for an overview on the teams.
Latvia Beats Germany, Giving USA an Easier Path to Group Victory
After USA beat Latvia 5-1 on Thursday and Germany beat Denmark 3-1, it looked like the battle for Group C was squarely between the Americans and Germans. However, this morning, Latvia put up a 4-3 win over Germany, putting USA in position to run away with the group if they get the win over Denmark today.
Team Canada already has Group A wrapped up with a 10-1 goal differential and two wins, while Slovakia may have stunned Sweden for Group B this morning thanks to a late weak power play point shot goal past Jacob Markstrom. The ultimate result there depends on Italy vs. Finland today.
For USA, though, they just have to beat Denmark today, which should not be difficult with the level of disparity between these rosters. Get it done, and the playoff stage of the Olympics can be very fun.
Andersen to Sit
Yesterday, the Danes already announced that Frederik Andersen would sit today against Team USA. Given that his backups, Frederik Dichow and Mads Sogaard, are not NHL goaltenders, this tells me that the Danes are hedging on beating Latvia with him in net tomorrow. For what? I am not sure. If Denmark loses the game today, they lose Group C.
Maybe, Mads Sogaard has a surprising performance in him. He is 6’7” and has at least faced NHL teams before with the Ottawa Senators (.877 SV% in 31 games), but he is truly an AHL/ECHL goaltender at best at his current level of ability. We’ll see. Frederik Dichow would be my preferred goaltender if I were rooting for Team Denmark, as he has a .912 SV% with HV71 of the Swedish Hockey League in 10 games this season. In his SHL career (61 games), Dichow has an .897 SV%.
More Jack Hughes, Less J.T. Miller
Team USA is expected to roll with the same lines they had in their first match against Latvia. This means that two players who should not be playing — J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck — will continue getting ice time. Against Latvia, they combined for over 20 minutes.
When I was watching, I did not think that the top line could have done more. I expect more than fluttery shots from the Tkachuk brothers, but at times it just did not look to me like they were as aggressive as they could have been. Hopefully they wake up a bit more today. One rush shot goal by Brady isn’t enough for me for them to agree with them getting that kind of usage. As for Miller and Trocheck, these guys are just taking ice time away from better players (especially Jack Hughes, who created multiple goals), while keeping another better player in Clayton Keller off the ice entirely. For now, it might not matter against Denmark. But when this team is playing teams like Sweden or Canada, you want the best possible lineup, and that is not it. We’ll see if J.T. Miller forgets that you can’t stand in the middle of the crease in Olympic hockey today, but I guess it largely doesn’t matter as long as it’s a Jack Hughes — Brock Nelson show on that line.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of today’s game? Are you looking forward to it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
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