You want to know why I picked an image of Italian speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida, who won gold in the women's 3000 metre speed skating event while setting a new Olympic record for the event, for the cover of this article?
For one, she's representative of Italy's start to the Winter Olympics. In just the first two days of the Winter Olympics, Italy has accumulated nine medals.
Outside of Lollobrigida's skate, some of Italy's notable performances include Riccardo Lorello winning bronze in the men's 5000 metre speed skating event on Sunday and Matteo Rizzo securing Italy's first team medal in the figure skating event to the tune of the Imperial Orchestra's soundtrack for the movie Interstellar.
But of those events, Francesca Lollobrigida's gold arguably stands out as Italy's biggest medal triumph thus far.
That said, all of those triumphs together should serve as fuel for an Italian men's hockey team that might be significantly outnumbered on paper, as all of the players named to the roster have European playing experience. Italy does have the advantage of a home crowd, which could help to alleviate some of the concerns associated with their roster.
And we do see runs happen by outmatched-on-paper teams both on the international stage and at the domestic level. The 2021 Montreal Canadiens are an example of this happening at the NHL level and we did see the Columbus Blue Jackets sweep a dominant Tampa Bay Lightning side out of the playoffs in 2019. Internationally, Czechia's junior men's hockey team has owned an often-superior Canadian team in recent years, while Finland took advantage of an NHL-less Beijing Olympics to secure gold.
Does this mean Italy is going on a deep run in the men's hockey event? Not necessarily.
But strong team chemistry, capitalizing on the moments provided, and knowledge of Italy's big triumphs over the weekend should help to get Italy's confidence going quickly. Together, that's the recipe for a deep run at this tournament for Italy.
While they will have to deal with Sweden and Finland in group play, they will get a fairly-beatable Slovakia on the second matchday. It's also worth noting that all twelve nations in the men's hockey tournament will receive places in the knockout round regardless of rank; a top-two finish could put Italy on course for a quarterfinal appearance, while a bottom-two finish would still see them into the playoff round.
It would be preferable if Italy avoided the playoff round as they would only need to win one game to be in contention for a medal; all they really need is four points to have a shot at a quarterfinal berth. I just don't know where the last one or two points will come from, and that's what's keeping me from putting Italy into the top-two.
That said, I do think we will see a motivated Italian side and a strong home crowd. Not only should those factors help Italy to perform well in the group stage but they also give me enough confidence to put the Italian men's hockey team into third place in my Group B projections.