Jonathan Quick Leads U.S. Men to 7-1 Win Over Slovakia

The U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey team took the ice for the first time this morning, and easily defeated Slovakia in a 7-1 rout that many experts predicted would be a competitive game.

Jonathan Quick, the Los Angeles Kings goalkeeper, was a late addition to the Olympic roster when he found out only recently that he would be starting for the national team. However, he was sensational in the opening round match against Slovakia, stopping 22 of 23 shot attempts on goal.

“There’s a lot of hard work put into it. I think the biggest thing is being able to play with guys back in L.A.,” he said. “The guys that I play with, this says a lot about them. When you play with great players they put you in a position and give you opportunities like this. So you’re thankful for that. And obviously, we’ve got a great group of guys here and you just try to win one game at a time, and that’s the focus.”

“Certain situations you play the same, certain you have to adjust a little bit,” he said. “I’ve practiced the last few games so you get used to it. I’m looking forward to [Thursday’s] game, trying to win a game.”

The American men were -325 moneyline favorites heading into the game. Slovakia were listed as +260 moneyline underdogs. However, despite their convincing win against Slovenia, the American men still have a lot to prove in Group A competition. Russia is still heavily favored to win the group as a -200 favorite, while the American men are +175 underdogs. To give you an idea of how dominant the Russians are, they are 4.5-goal favorites in their game against Slovenia today, and are -10000 moneyline favorites.

However, the United States will stand a chance in any competition if Jonathan Quick turns it on and becomes the dominant goaltender he’s capable of being, like during the L.A. Kings 2012 run to the Stanley Cup.

“I’m happy for him as a teammate. I think he’s played well enough since the last Olympics to earn the spot,” the Kings’ Dustin Brown said. “That’s probably the strong point of our team, if you look at the three goaltenders we have.”

Here are all the odds, courtesy of OddsShark.com, for the gold medal in Men’s Olympic hockey.

2014 Olympic Ice Hockey – Mens Gold Medal

• Russia: 5/2
• Canada: 7/4
• Sweden               : 9/2
• USA: 9/2
• Czech Republic: 16/1
• Finland: 12/1
• Switzerland: 33/1
• Slovakia: 50/1
• Norway                : 200/1
• Latvia: 500/1
• Austria: 1000/1
• Slovenia: 1000/1