Team USA Has No One to Blame But Themselves

After last night’s loss to Team Canada, Team USA was eliminated from championship contention in the World Cup of Hockey. You can certainly blame the organizational bosses of Team USA, but in the end this group of NHL professionals was good enough to win.

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Team USA was built to beat Canada. Let me repeat myself, Team USA was built to beat Canada. After last night’s embarrassment and second group play loss, Team USA has been effectively elimination from championship contention. But weren’t they supposed to beat Canada, wasn’t that what the players brought in supposed to be able to do?

Sure they beat Team Canada in a very physical opening pre-tournament game, but it was all downhill from there. The idea that this roster was specifically built to match up to win against the tournament favorite seems to make sense on the surface. Team USA leadership was looking to shut down the high powered offensive talent of Team Canada, so they selected players they though could do that. The issue with that methodology is probably best explained in the old phrase that the best defense is a good offense.

ESPN guest commentator for the World Cup and the NHL’s fourth leading goal scorer of all time Brett Hull explained it best during Team USA’s loss to Team Europe. Hull explained how all the checking in the world wasn’t going to put the puck in the net, seeming to suggest that the US did not have sufficient scoring punch and he was 100% spot on.

Sep 20, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Team USA goaltender Jonathan Quick (32) reacts after a goal by Team Canada forward Patrice Bergeron (37) during the second period of preliminary round play in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /

Sure bouncing guys off the puck and making them change their game not to get hit is a key to a successful game anytime, but it needs to be backed up with the credible threat of scoring. You can talk all day about roster construction and how big name scorers like Phil Kessel were left off, and I would agree that they were missed on this team. But the lineup as assembled had some pretty big finishers who just didn’t show up, and that might be the biggest issue of all.

Team USA was kidding themselves at all points during these last two games by saying it was bad puck luck, or that they ran into a hot goaltender. The fact is those are just excuses that they rode to their demise. The fever pitch was in last night’s game when Wild winger Zach Parise between periods that he felt Team USA was playing better than they had against Team Europe. The fact was that was they were not generating as many shots, and they really weren’t playing better which prompted Hull to say right afterword in the studio that “I don’t know who he’s trying to kid.”

Brett Hull on Parise's ESPN intermission interview: "I don't know who he's trying to kid."
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) September 21, 2016

And I think that’s what hurts the most about the Team USA effort in these first two games. The US fans wanted to see them take on the world and do well. The problem is that when they didn’t give enough effort it just made the fans feel like they had wasted their time watching.