The roster the US placed on the ice for the 4 Nations Face-Off was arguably probably the greatest collections of expertise it has ever had for a global, best-on-best event. The expertise pool for USA Hockey is deeper than it has ever been, with each high-end, superstar-level gamers (Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Quinn Hughes, Connor Hellebuyck) and really succesful depth gamers that may construct out a deep lineup.
Their 3-2 additional time loss to Canada within the championship recreation on Thursday night time was a valiant effort that simply might have gone both manner.
However the result’s all that issues, and it’s the identical one which Workforce USA retains experiencing in a lot of these tournaments.
When the video games matter essentially the most, when the chips are down, and when they’re dealing with the actually elite groups and hockey superpowers, they merely can’t rating sufficient objectives. They by no means do.
It occurred once more on Thursday. It has occurred at each current Olympics with NHL gamers. It occurred on the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
It isn’t a fluke, and it’ll doubtless proceed till they make a significant change in how they construct their groups.
They must ditch the position gamers and spend extra time focussing on taking their finest, most expert gamers that may put the puck within the internet.
Simply contemplate some numbers. Over the previous 5 best-on-best tournaments to characteristic NHL gamers (2006, 2010, 2014 Olympics, the 2016 World Cup and this 12 months’s 4 Nations Face-Off) the U.S. has performed in eight medal spherical/championship video games. They’ve solely scored 20 objectives in these video games, which comes out to a mean of two.5 objectives per recreation.
Evaluate that to the opposite six world hockey powers in related video games. Bear in mind, that is solely medal spherical/elimination video games the place it’s actually probably the greatest groups with the very best stakes. Groups are ranked so as of objectives per recreation:
- Sweden: 28 objectives in eight video games (3.5 objectives per recreation)
- Canada: 40 objectives in 12 video games (3.3 objectives per recreation)
- Finland: 27 objectives in 9 video games (3.0 objectives per recreation)
- Slovakia: 17 objectives in 6 video games (2.8 objectives per recreation)
- Czech Republic: 19 objectives in 7 video games (2.7 objectives per recreation)
- United States: 20 objectives in 8 video games (2.5 objectives per recreation)
- Russia: six objectives in 5 video games (1.2 objectives per recreation)
The U.S. persistently fails in these video games offensively.
It isn’t essentially an absence of expertise. It’s all concerning the mindset of constructing the roster. The U.S. obsesses about taking position gamers that may match particular roles and doesn’t at all times take its finest goal-scoring expertise.
Of the highest 5 American-born goal-scorers within the NHL this season, solely two of them had been on this roster (Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor and Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel). Solely certainly one of them (Guentzel) was within the lineup for Thursday’s championship as Connor was wholesome scratched, regardless of being the highest American-born goal-scorer within the NHL this season.
Taking gamers like Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and Brock Nelson over goal-scorers like Tage Thompson, Clayton Keller and Alex DeBrincat is simply placing you at a drawback and never providing you with your finest likelihood.
These best-on-best groups don’t want checkers. They don’t want grinders or position gamers. The U.S. is simply too usually caught within the “Miracle on Ice” mindset the place they’ve to seek out the “proper gamers” as a substitute of simply merely taking the “finest” gamers. After so many occasions arising quick in these huge video games towards the most effective groups, the message wants to begin getting by.
