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Well that was a flop of epic proportions. Team USA completely defecated the sheets last night with an uninspired 4-2 loss to their biggest rival, Team Canada, officially eliminating them from advancing in the World Cup of Hockey.
Rival… yeah right… in order to be rivals don’t you have to be slightly competitive? Team USA has only beaten Team Canada once in their last seven games in best on best tournaments. Their only win came in round robin play in the 2010 Olympics, and they proceeded to drop the gold medal game to Canada that same tournament.
This was supposed to be a team specifically built to beat Canada… and to be fair… I sure drank that Kool Aid. I expected the US to be one of the teams to come out of Group A, showing that as a prognosticator, I’m one helluva blogger. So where did it all go sideways?
Coaching? Well… John Tortorella was a controversial choice from the get go and the selections for the team seemed to fit a typical Torts team… lots of grit, grind and physicality, and after spanking the Canadians in the first pre-tournament game, you had to wonder if they didn’t find the formula… ummm, nope. Hindsight being 20/20 … I wonder why someone like Peter Laviolette wasn’t hired to coach this team… and if the NHL participates in 2018, he needs to be a leading candidate.
Team Construction? Oh yeah… big problem… one that gets laid at the feet of GM Dean Lombardi. From hiring Torts to leaving some of the US’s best players on the sideline, a huge bucket of blame goes here. How do you leave players like Bobby Ryan, Phil Kessel and Kevin Shattenkirk off the roster? Oh and BTW, Kessel won Twitter last night with this tweet…
Zing!!!! And a well deserved one at that.
How about the players? Yup... them too… they deserve a healthy portion of blame… frankly, they just did not seem to care as a team. They played tepid, uninspired hockey and deserved their fate. It wasn’t a hot goaltender, a bad draw or any other excuse.
Look… the future for USA Hockey is bright. Just look at Team North America… Seth Jones, Johnny Gaudreau, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews will add the firepower this version of Team USA sorely needed, but for now… USA Hockey needs to let this one burn in, feel the sting of this disaster… then learn from it.
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Random Notes
- Countdown to hockey… 10 days to Preds first home preseason game… 23 days to Predators season opener.
- The Baby Preds managed to salvage a win in the finale of the South Florida Tournament, spanking the Caps rookies 7-0. Kevin Fiala shone, scoring two and drawing rave reviews from Milwaukee head coach Dean Evason.
- The main training camp opens tomorrow with physicals and off-ice testing. There is an on-ice testing session at Centennial Sportsplex on Friday at 9:45am. First on ice practices are Saturday with two sessions… 9:45am and 1145am. There will be a scrimmage on Sunday at Ford Ice Center… come on out and get your hockey Jones covered! I will be announcing the scrimmage.
- Major update to the Predators website was released today, matching the style of the NHL’s site.
- The Annual Petey’s Preds Party was held last night at Bridgestone Arena… a great time for a great cause!
- Today’s World Cup of Hockey schedule – 2pm faceoff – TNA vs. Sweden, coverage on ESPN. 7pm faceoff – Europe vs. Canada, coverage on ESPN2.
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