Auston Matthews breakout game a great sign for Team USA

Thanks to its 5-1 win over Germany on Sunday to close out group play at the Winter Olympics, the USA men's hockey team clinched the top spot in Group C and earned itself a bye into the quarterfinal round.

It will now await the winner of Tuesday's Sweden-Latvia game (likely to be Sweden) in the knockout portion of the tournament.

So far, the United States has done what was expected of it.

It had the easiest group draw among gold medal contenders, and took care of business against Latvia, Denmark and Germany, outscoring them by a 16-5 margin on their way to a 3-0 record. The wins are what it needed, but it would not be unfair to say that it has yet to play its A-game in the tournament.

The United States are going to need to bring its A-game the rest of the way if it is going to break its gold medal drought, especially in a potentially tough quarterfinal matchup against Sweden.

The one big positive that came out of Sunday's win that could help get it closer to that level: Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) dominated. 

The United States is going to need more of that over the next week.

Auston Matthews had a breakthrough game

Matthews is not only the captain of Team USA, but he is one of the most skilled, talented and productive players in the world. From the moment he arrived in the NHL, he has been one of the league's top goal-scorers and the type of player who can change any game in the blink of an eye. 

But going back to the start of last season, his production has slowed down a bit (by his standards), and he has not always looked like the player hockey fans have been accustomed to seeing.

Still excellent. Just not quite what we have seen from him. 

Part of that is injury-related. Another part of it is the circumstances around him in Toronto where the quality of the roster has significantly regressed. 

Even in the early parts of this tournament, he had not looked his normal dominant self. At least not on the scoresheet. In the first two games of the tournament, it was the Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights), Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers) and Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa Senators) line that was driving the bus for the American team.

That changed on Sunday when Matthews started to assert his dominance. 

He scored two goals and recorded an assist in the win, helping to jumpstart the Americans late in the first period with a crisp pass to set up Zach Werenski (Columbus Blue Jackets) for the game's first goal. 

This is arguably the best roster the United States has ever sent to an Olympic hockey tournament, and when Matthews is going at his very best, he is the type of elite talent that can raise their ceiling as a team. Especially when complementing the Eichel-Tkachuk-Tkachuk line at the top. 

The biggest thing that has held the Americans back in these best-on-best tournaments is a lack of impact players and a lack of goal-scoring in the later rounds and against the best competition. On paper, they have the talent to hang with — and potentially beat — anybody in 2026, even with some questionable roster decisions.

The key is they need that talent and those players to shine. We have already seen it from Eichel and the Tkachuk brothers.

If Matthews starts delivering as well, that very much changes the ceiling for what this team can do. The outcome of Sunday's game was expected. But seeing who helped deliver it is what should give Team USA hope that gold is within reach.