00:00Hey everybody, this is Ethan Sears coming to you live from Milan. It's about 2 a.m. here and we
00:05just got back from covering Team USA's first game of the Olympics. 5-1 win over Latvia. Here are
00:11three things that you need to know. Number one, the fourth line had a huge night. Two goals for
00:16Brock Nelson, two assists for Jack Hughes. They were up ice all night. Another Nelson goal got
00:21wiped off for offside. So did a JT Miller goal for interference, but just an all-around terrific
00:27night for everybody on this line. I had my doubts about how Jack Hughes would sort of fit in this
00:32role. He answered all of them tonight. Brock Nelson has all the family connections with Team USA. His
00:38uncle, Dave Christian, was on the 1980 team. His grandfather, Bill Christian, was on the 1960 team
00:44that also won gold. He did his family proud. JT Miller was actually up on the third line by the
00:50end of the night, but he had a great game as well. And that's kind of how Team USA is
00:56going to need
00:56to win some of these games, get contributions from up and down the lineup, and that's certainly what
01:01they did tonight. Number two, the double IHF rule differences came into play. That Miller goal I
01:07mentioned earlier that got taken off for interference. In the NHL, that's a 50-50 call, and if it's called
01:14a good goal on the ice, it probably stands. Here, no. They're way less lenient about players entering
01:20the crease. Everyone before the tournament, not just Team USA, all the teams, all the players,
01:26sort of downplayed the difference in the rulebook coming in, saying they're not going to change their
01:31games. And we haven't really seen a huge difference so far. The games have been physical,
01:38and it's looked pretty much the same. Lots of Team USA players said tonight they hadn't, you know,
01:44they were aware of the rule changes, but maybe they hadn't looked too hard at it. This was one where
01:48it mattered. And thankfully for them, it wasn't in a game where, you know, where they were really
01:55pushed to the brink, but something to keep in mind for the future. Number three, Team USA's slow start.
02:03For the first 30 minutes or so, there was a real feeling that an upset might be brewing. The game
02:07was tied. Team USA looked a little tight, maybe a little nervous, maybe a little bit surprised at how
02:14physical Latvia was. They sort of figured it out as it went. Nelson made it 2-1, and from there
02:21they
02:21were kind of off to the races. But just an important reminder there that this is not going to be
02:27an easy
02:27tournament. You know, it's not, they're not going to steamroll everybody until they get to Canada or
02:32until they get to Sweden. Charlie McAvoy actually said after the game that, hey, he thought their start
02:38was fine. He was confused why we were asking about it, and he kind of said, you know, look, we're
02:44not
02:44going to roll over teams here. Sweden and Italy were tied at two through two periods last night. This
02:50was what they expected. So maybe just important to keep that in mind expectations-wise before they
02:58go and face Denmark in a couple days here. So that's it for me. You can go read more of
03:03our coverage
03:03on nypost.com slash sports. We've got this whole tournament covered wall-to-wall for Milan.
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