The New Jersey Devils have a handful of players spread throughout the hockey countries participating in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games.

Three of them were active on Wednesday when the men’s tournament began. First, Simon Nemec and Team Slovakia took on Team Finland. As the underdogs, Slovakia found a way to take down Finland, which has earned a medal in seven out of the last eight Olympics.

Nemec played a big role in the win for Slovakia. As one of the seven active NHL players on their roster, he was relied on to defend, help move the puck forward, and always make the right play with some elite players on the other side.

Although Finland had some questionable decision-making as far as their usage, Slovakia kept its star players at bay. Nemec did his part.

New Jersey’s former number two overall pick also made a play offensively that got him on the scoresheet. On Juraj Slafkovsky’s second goal of the game, a power play goal, Nemec earned the primary assist.

These two were the first and second picks in the 2022 NHL Draft. That marked the first time that Slovakia ever had the first two picks in an NHL Draft. Once again, Nemec and Slavkovsky teamed up to make their country proud.

In the second game of two to open up Olympic play on the men’s side, Jesper Bratt, Jacob Markstrom, and Sweden took on Italy. You would have expected Sweden to blow Italy out, but that wasn’t the case, especially at first.

Markstrom did not start for Sweden in favor of Minnesota Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, but he did dress as the backup goalie.

Devils stars came out winners on the first day of men’s hockey at the Olympics

The Swedes did skate away with a 5-2 victory over the host country, but nobody expected Italy to keep it close at all. Italy went up 1-0 and then gave Sweden all they could handle from there.

Italy’s goalies put up an impressive performance, as they were in the game despite being outshot 60-22. Sweden dominated play, but Damian Clara and Davide Fadani kept them in it.

One of Sweden’s goals was a Gustav Forsling rocket that he slapped home off a Jesper Bratt rebound. This was Bratt’s first-ever Olympic point in his first-ever Olympic game.

With the way that these four Group B teams played on Wednesday, the rest of the tournament is unpredictable. Slovakia will play Italy on Friday early in the morning (local time), while the rivals of Sweden and Finland will match up at the same time.

Next up for the New Jersey Devils, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Team Switzerland will take on Team France on Wednesday morning. Later in the day, Jack Hughes and Team USA will play against Latvia.

If these teams can learn anything from the teams that opened the tournament, it is to take nobody lightly. Both the Swiss and Americans have an “easier” opponent to kick things off, but if they treat it like that, it won’t be pretty.