Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
They didn't take their best roster, but the one they did take is good enough to be competing for gold under a different coach.
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Can’t disagree with you completely, very poorly coached. But do think they lacked puck moving and offensive creativity from the back end and just didn’t have enough finish. I think that was highlighted by pretty poor performances by Cowan and Yager (and Ritchie wasn’t great either). Certainly not to drag the roster construction back up, but having a few more offensive weapons available allows the coach (if we had a competent one) to play with line combos to generate offence.
I think type of defenseman picked for the team play, in general, a brand of the game successful for the North American style of the game but doesn’t transfer well to IIHF style. Think that got displayed a little with some of the penalty calls, agree with them or not.
I feel bad for the players, these kids are competitors and not a one showed up with intention to put forth a poor performance. Don’t think they were prepared properly, by the coaching staff, and it showed.