MILAN — The Team USA squad selected by Bill Guerin is 1-for-1.
The controversial decisions made by Guerin are, too.
The fourth line he was roundly criticized for even including as a concept was terrific in the Americans’ 5-1 win over Latvia on Thursday night.
Noah Hanifin, selected over Adam Fox, helped stabilize the defense after a rocky first period.
Tage Thompson, a first-time best-on-best participant, was terrific.
J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, both here in Milan despite struggling with the Rangers, were excellent.
Notch a point on the board for Guerin against the critics.
The complicated piece of this 12-team tournament, though, is that, unlike the 4 Nations a year ago, one game does not count as proof of concept.
Latvia proved in the first period it was not a pushover when Team USA briefly appeared on the back foot.
Neither are Denmark and Germany, the Americans’ next two opponents in the preliminary rounds.
If any lasting conclusion is drawn from those games, it would almost necessarily be bad news for the Yanks.
They didn’t come here to beat the Latvians but, rather, to beat the Canadians and the Swedes, who they almost certainly won’t see until deep in the medal rounds.
No one will give them plaudits for coming close.
Denmark and Germany have plenty of talent, but just like Thursday, those games will serve less as proof of concept than as building blocks.
Thursday, the U.S. got to feel a twinge of adversity and work through it.
They saw which lines and pairs worked and what didn’t.
Barring something utterly shambolic — and maybe not even that given all 12 teams make the knockout stage — that is what these preliminary rounds will be about.
“I didn’t really feel nervous [during the first period],” Charlie McAvoy said. “Watching those games [Wednesday], Italy and Sweden are tied for 40 minutes. Didn’t come in here expecting anything other than that.
“This is gonna be tight. Goaltenders can keep you in games. We were getting our looks. We were controlling the puck and playing well. You just gotta stay with it, trust that our game’s gonna wear teams down over time.”
We may already be seeing what it looks like when that process doesn’t come together the way it should.
Sweden talked a good game about using its performance against the Italians as something to learn from before Tre Kroner came out and fell flat on its face against Finland on Friday.
Mika Zibanejad spoke afterward about Sweden needing to be “more together” — not in the abstract sense, but in the literal sense of spacing on the ice.
That is a chemistry issue, one that can happen when you jam a bunch of uber-talented players together with little practice time against elite opposition.
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For the briefest of moments Thursday night, there were similar signs for the U.S.
Instead of getting caught in a spiral, they worked through it in real time.
The Americans won’t play anyone as good as the Finns (or, for that matter, the Slovaks, Sweden’s opponent Saturday) until the medal rounds, but that is the exact situation they need to avoid.
That, in so many ways, is why Guerin was so adamant about bringing back much of the same group that jelled so well at 4 Nations.
“The energy on the bench is terrific,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “They never get deflated. The self-talk and just the talk amongst themselves, about just staying with it and keep playing, we’re going to be fine. And, of course, we were.”
There is a confidence about this group, that much is certain.
“We believe in the depth we have,” Jake Guentzel said. “There’s good players on every line. That’s just where American hockey is right now.”
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