There are some nations competing in these Winter Olympics that are shaking off the rust of international play and others that are just happy to be there.
The United States is certainly neither, seeking revenge for its overtime loss to Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off final and validation for their IIHF World Championship last year.
The Americans begin that expedition against Latvia on Thursday afternoon in the first of three preliminary games.
The Latvians had the worst pre-tournament gold medal odds of the four teams in Group C at 500/1, which are the third-longest in the 12-team field.
Latvia’s roster has 13 players competing with Olympic experience to the Americans’ two, but that doesn’t mean much now that the NHL has returned to the Games; in contrast to the United States’ armada of world-class stars, Latvia rosters six NHLers.
If there’s one intangible that will benefit the Americans in these Games, it’s the pugnacious roster DNA fueled by Brady and Matthew Tkachuk flanking Jack Eichel on the top line. That physicality is present all the way down the forward depth where Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, and J.T. Miller can also produce offense for a group that drives possession-based, two-way play.
Then, you have plenty of mobility and strong transitional play on the backend with Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy leading on the top pairing.
Latvia was smacked around by the international pantheon in the World Championships, losing to Canada, 7-1, and also to Sweden, 6-0.
The United States are 3.5-goal favorites and reflect an implied probability of 96 percent to win.
With three-time Vezina-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck back in net for the Americans, it’s hard to imagine the Latvians finding any rhythm on the scoresheet.
Betting on the NHL?
The margin between these two teams is a heck of a lot closer than it was between Sweden and Italy, where we saw the Italians hang on into the third period for a valiant 5-2 loss. That was without any NHL experience on the roster.
Where the Latvians are fortified is in goal with Elvis Merzlikins and Arturs Silovs bringing 310 combined games in the NHL.
The Latvians may not have the pedigree to win this game, but they should be able to turn aside enough shots to keep this from becoming an utter embarrassment.
THE PLAY: Under 6.5 (-105, DraftKings)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.
