Team USA lose tournaments until it makes one major change

The roster america placed on the ice for the 4 Nations Face-Off was arguably top-of-the-line collections of expertise it has ever had for a world, 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 sport on Thursday evening was a valiant effort that simply might have gone both means. 

However the result’s all that issues, and it’s the identical one which Workforce USA retains experiencing in most of these tournaments.

When the video games matter essentially the most, when the chips are down, and when they’re going through the actually elite groups and hockey superpowers, they merely can’t rating sufficient targets. They by no means do. 

It occurred once more on Thursday. It has occurred at each latest Olympics with NHL gamers. It occurred on the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. 

It’s not a fluke, and it’ll doubtless proceed till they make a significant change in how they construct their groups. 

They should ditch the position gamers and spend extra time focussing on taking their finest, most expert gamers that may put the puck within the web. 

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 targets in these video games, which comes out to a median of two.5 targets per sport.

Evaluate that to the opposite six world hockey powers in related video games. Be mindful, that is solely medal spherical/elimination video games the place it’s actually top-of-the-line groups with the very best stakes. Groups are ranked so as of targets per sport:

• Sweden: 28 targets in eight video games (3.5 targets per sport)
• Canada: 40 targets in 12 video games (3.3 targets per sport)
• Finland: 27 targets in 9 video games (3.0 targets per sport)
• Slovakia: 17 targets in 6 video games (2.8 targets per sport)
• Czech Republic: 19 targets in 7 video games (2.7 targets per sport)
• United States: 20 targets in 8 video games (2.5 targets per sport)
• Russia: six targets in 5 video games (1.2 targets per sport)

The U.S. constantly fails in these video games offensively.

It’s not essentially an absence of expertise. It’s all in regards to the mindset of constructing the roster. The U.S. obsesses about taking position gamers that may match particular roles and doesn’t all the time 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 an obstacle and never providing you with your finest probability. 

These best-on-best groups don’t want checkers. They don’t want grinders or position gamers. The U.S. is just too usually caught within the “Miracle on Ice” mindset the place they’ve to search out the “proper gamers” as an alternative of simply merely taking the “finest” gamers. After so many occasions developing quick in these large video games in opposition to the perfect groups, the message wants to begin getting by.