5 things learned from Day 1 of Olympics

MILAN -- The men's hockey tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 began Wednesday with two games.

In the first game, Team Slovakia topped Team Finland, 4-1, and in the second game, Team Sweden held off host Team Italy, 3-2.

NHL.com is on site in Milan and will provide insights and observations each day.

Here are 5 things learned from Day 1 of the Olympics:

Sweden's goalie situation in question

Before the game against Italy, Sweden coach Sam Hallam said his plan was to have whichever goalie played against Italy to also play against Finland on Friday. He did say, however, depending on what happened in the game it could change. Filip Gustavsson of the Minnesota Wild started on Wednesday, but allowed two goals on the first four shots he faced against an Italy team with not one NHL player on the roster. He didn't allow another goal, but you have to wonder if his shaky performance will cause Hallam to possibly start Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils against Finland.

Italy is here to play

Yes, Team Italy is in the tournament because it's the home team. But Sweden found out they are no joke. Despite not having any players with NHL experience, Italy hung tough with the Swedes, who are one of the favorites to win the gold medal. The issue for Italy, however, is goalie Damian Clara, an Anaheim Ducks prospect who played a big role in keeping Italy in the game, left at 6:08 of the third period with an apparent leg injury. If he can't go, Italy will be at an even bigger disadvantage against its other Group B opponents in Finland and Slovakia. Still, Italy certainly didn't look overmatched by Sweden and that can only help its confidence going forward.

GAMECENTER SUMMARY: Sweden-Italy

Slovaks are dangerous

Just ask Team Finland. Team Slovakia said on Tuesday they knew they were underdogs in Group B, but they wouldn't play like that. They were right. They took it to a Finland team that has all but one NHL player on its roster. But it was an NHL player on Team Slovakia, Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky, who had the biggest impact, scoring twice in a 4-1 win. Minnesota Wild goalie prospect Samuel Hlavaj, who plays in the American Hockey League, was also a star, making 39 saves for the win. With a game against Team Italy on Friday, Slovakia could find itself in a position to win Group B and get a bye into the quarterfinals.

Paint with numbers

Not only did Team Finland lose 4-1 to Team Slovakia in the Group B opener, it only managed one goal against minor league goalie Samual Hlavaj, who plays for Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League. The goal, from Eeli Tolvanen, was a gimme when the puck found him in the right circle while Hlavaj was on his left post. Other than that, Finland fired off 39 other shots and Hlavaj had the answer each time. Finland will need to score more if it wants to get to its goal, which is the medal round. To do that, they need to go to the hard areas. They believe the Slovak goalie had it too easy. "We've got to be better when we have the puck on our stick to score a goal," Finland forward Sebastian Aho said. "Maybe we could do a better job to get around the goalie. We're trying to learn from all these and hopefully we can score more goals out of the chances we got this game moving forward into the tournament."

GAMECENTER SUMMARY: Slovakia-Finland

Coaches playing it close to the vest

Some of the head coaches at the Olympics were playing games before the games even started. Team Canada had a closed practice Monday, meaning media were not allowed to watch, and Team Czechia did the same thing Wednesday. Team Sweden coach Sam Hallam would not reveal his starting goalie until about 90 minutes before gametime, and Canada coach Jon Cooper still won't say who will start in goal against Czechia on Thursday. It's driving the media members crazy, but it's adding even more intrigue to this tournament.