The Group C top spot – and a bye through to the quarterfinal – is Team USA’s to lose, but it will be interesting to see how Denmark, Germany, and Latvia match up against the tournament favourites.  After all, both Latvia and Denmark played their way to Milan via qualification tournaments. But, as they say, “that’s why we play the games.”

Denmark

Denmark had to take the long way to Milan, so when Nicklas Jensen scored twice in the final game (against Norway) in the final qualification tournament on home ice, the celebrations were massive.

It feels like the Milan tournament is the last hurrah for what may be the greatest Danish hockey generation, so it may not be any wonder that Denmark is the oldest team in Group C, with an average age of almost 31. Fifteen of the 25 players have already passed the thirty-year mark.

On a positive note, it may also mean that they’re exceptional players, as in the case of goaltender Frederik Andersen, who now becomes the Andersen family’s second hockey Olympian, after Frederik’s sister Amelie represented Denmark in 2022. At 36, Andersen is past his prime, but in a short tournament, he can still make a difference, as was obvious in the Olympic qualification.

“Without him, we wouldn’t be here and smiling right now,” Jensen said of Andersen after the Danes had punched their Olympic ticket.

Offensively, Denmark lean on another 36-year-old in Lars Eller, who won’t have to carry the load by himself, though. Nik Ehlers, 29, is on his way to breaking the 20-goal barrier in the NHL for the eighth time in his career, and Joachim Blichfeld has come into his own in Finland, where he’s second in league scoring and goal scoring with Tappara, Tampere. Patrick Russell—who scored twice against Norway in the final qualification game—has done the same in Cologne.

Germany 

If the old axiom of a good team having to have a good goalie, a number one defender, and a number one center is anything to go by, Germany is in good shape coming into the tournament. In fact, if they want to split their NHL stars, Tim Stützle and Leon Draisaitl, into two lines, they’ll have two great centers.

Leon Draisaitl was two years old when his father, Peter, played in his third and final Olympic tournament, and now, at 30, the 2020 Hart Trophy winner as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player and the 2025 finalist will be able to make his first Olympic appearance. Since entering the NHL in 2014, only three players have scored more points than him, and only two have scored more goals than his 426 goals in 843 games.

The German giant won’t have to do everything by himself, though. Stützle is second in scoring for German-born players since he entered the league in 2020 and has scored at almost a point-a-game rate since 2021.

Third in NHL scoring among Germans in the same period is Moritz Seider, who you will see a lot of in Milan. The 24-year-old was the rookie of the year in 2022 and was on the German team that went all the way to an IIHF Ice Hockey Championship final in 2023. He’s big, strong, and a true leader who averages almost 25 minutes of ice time in the NHL.

In goal, Germany has Philip Grubauer, whose save percentage, 91.9, is second in the NHL among goalies who have at least ten starts this season. That gives a solid foundation to start the chase for second place—and a more favourable route to the quarterfinal and beyond—in the group.

Latvia

Latvia has earned its place among the top hockey nations in the world, as they have missed the Olympic tournament just once—the 2018 Pyeongchang tournament—since they made it to the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Granted, their best finish is a quarterfinal berth in Sochi, but for a nation with few NHLers, Latvia has done well.

This time around, they arrive at the tournament with ten NHLers, a leap forward from Sochi, when they had just one NHLer (even though Kaspars Daugaviņs had played almost 100 games in the league prior to the tournament).

As so many times before, Latvia has goaltenders they build their defense on. Artūrs Silovs, Elvis Merzlikins, and Kristers Gudļevskis form a trio any coach would be happy to have. Gudļevskis, 33, who has been the DEL’s Goalie of the Year two seasons running, brings two games’ worth of Olympic experience to the team, while Merzļikins, 31, and the 24-year-old Silovs will make their Olympic debuts in Milan. Latvian goalies are used to being busy in the net, and the Milan tournament won’t be an exception.

There are no big stars on the team, and they will have to score by committee, but that, too, is just fine with the Latvians. Don’t be surprised if the team’s leading scorers are the same as in the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship: Eduards Tralmaks and Dans Locmelis, both from the American Hockey League.

Once again, it’s a tight-knit group in which everyone plays for one another, and the players’ familiarity with one another is another thing that speaks for Latvia in a short tournament like the Olympics.

USA

Team USA has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, and they believe their time is right now. A disappointing overtime loss to Canada in the final in Vancouver 2010 was followed by an even more disappointing semifinal loss, also against Canada, in Sochi 2014. A new generation of Americans is ready to take on the world.

On defense, they have two of the National Hockey League’s top five leading scorers and two 2025 Norris Trophy finalists in Quinn Hughes and Zach Werenski, who was also named Best Defenseman at the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Stockholm. Those two will also quarterback the Americans’ power play from the blue line. The defense is an interesting mix of size and skill, designed to be able to take on any opponent.

It’s hard to find weak links in Team USA, but one may possibly—and surprisingly—be their offense, where several of the stars, such as Jack Hughes, Auston Matthews, and Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, have had difficult seasons due to injuries. The same goes for goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, the Most Valuable Player in the NHL in 2025, whose statistics have dipped this season.

If all American stars bounce back to their former glory, Team USA will be difficult to stop. The Americans have won Olympic gold twice before, in 1960 and 1980. Will they have to wait until 2030?