The roster america placed on the ice for the 4 Nations Face-Off was arguably among the finest collections of expertise it has ever had for a world, best-on-best match. 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 time beyond regulation loss to Canada within the championship recreation 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 similar one which Staff USA retains experiencing in a lot of these tournaments.
When the video games matter probably the most, when the chips are down, and when they’re going through the really elite groups and hockey superpowers, they merely cannot 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 probably proceed till they make a significant change in how they construct their groups.
They should ditch the function gamers and spend extra time focussing on taking their greatest, 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 mean of two.5 targets per recreation.
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 really among the finest groups with the best stakes. Groups are ranked so as of targets per recreation:
- Sweden: 28 targets in eight video games (3.5 targets per recreation)
- Canada: 40 targets in 12 video games (3.3 targets per recreation)
- Finland: 27 targets in 9 video games (3.0 targets per recreation)
- Slovakia: 17 targets in 6 video games (2.8 targets per recreation)
- Czech Republic: 19 targets in 7 video games (2.7 targets per recreation)
- United States: 20 targets in 8 video games (2.5 targets per recreation)
- Russia: six targets in 5 video games (1.2 targets per recreation)
The U.S. persistently fails in these video games offensively.
It’s not essentially a scarcity of expertise. It’s all concerning the mindset of constructing the roster. The U.S. obsesses about taking function gamers that may match particular roles and doesn’t all the time take its greatest goal-scoring expertise.
Of the highest 5 American-born goal-scorers within the NHL this season, solely two of them have been on this roster (Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor and Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel). Solely one in all 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 supplying you with your greatest probability.
These best-on-best groups don’t want checkers. They don’t want grinders or function 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 “greatest” gamers. After so many occasions arising quick in these huge video games in opposition to the perfect groups, the message wants to begin getting via.
