Kessel comments on Team USA being eliminated

[Coach]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Clearly, a team like the US has to try to build a team that can beat Canada. The trouble is, whatever aspect you emphasize when putting together your team, Canada's players are still better than you in that aspect.

Every line of Canada's is great at offense, defense, possession, has some grit, size, and are proven high pressure players.

It's tough to beat a team that, even if they didn't take the "best" players, simply doesn't have any weaknesses.

The US lost their first game, it happens. Anything can happen in one game. Then, they were beaten by a better Canadian team.

It's a very short tournament, so it isn't surprising that a good team is eliminated earlier than expected. It's very likely that at least one will. Either Russia or the pretty good looking NA team (or perhaps Sweden) will be another good team to not qualify for the semis.

No they don't. You build the best team you possibly can, and then teach them how to beat Canada. You beat Canada with proper game plans and talented players buying into the common cause. THAT'S what Canada has. It has Toews playing in a third line shut down role and killing penalties and not giving a crap who gets PP time or whatever.

And not only do you teach them how to beat Canada, you teach them how to beat the other teams too, because guess what, their f***ing good teams. In a one game scenario, even Canada could falter and lose to any other team. Sweden looks just as dominant IMO. They went to Sochi thinking a 2010 rematch would just happen because it should, they came into this the same way. It's not Canada vs USA vs everyone else. It's never really been that. They don't have the luxury of not taking their best players.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Not sure you can teach or build a team to beat Canada when Canada is on our game. Either you have the talent to do so or you don't. You can't manufacture the talent or teach the talent except by starting with youth. It's all about grassroots hockey and the USA is headed in the right direction with lots of new emerging hockey states. Players are coming out of places like Florida, California and Arizona.

If the USA keeps developing talent like Austin Matthews they'll close the gap. At this point they just can't stack up to Canada. Doesn't matter if they take Kessel or not, doesn't matter if Torts is the coach or not. Canada has a much bigger wealth of talent at the moment to pick from. But that's changing and there's a lot of young American talent being drafted every year. It should be a worthwhile rivalry at best on best in 5-10 years IMO

[doctajones428]

Why not one of the following was on team USA is beyond me:

Kessel
Okposo
Kreider
Stastny
Ryan
Tyler Johnson
Fowler
Yandle
Goligoski
Faulk

Jack Johnson, Abdelkader, Dubinsky and to a lesser extent, Backes, had no business being on that team

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by doctajones428

Why not one of the following was on team USA is beyond me:

Kessel
Okposo
Kreider
Stastny
Ryan
Tyler Johnson
Fowler
Yandle
Goligoski
Faulk

Eric Johnson, Abdelkader, Dubinsky and to a lesser extent, Backes, had no business being on that team

Your team has a better chance than the one they brought, though I think you mean Jack Johnson not Erik? Erik is a #1D. I don't know what Jack Johnson is, or why he was here.

[Flashpoint]

Twitter is largely useless and does nothing but destroy people's lives as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't care less who tweeted something "first".

But every now and again it proves to be with its weight in gold.

This is one of those times.

Well done Phil.

Whoever picked this team was a moron who could have been outdone by 95% of the posters on this site. INCLUDING the "Oilers are No Good" threads - which have F-ing OILER fans in it.

US could have been a contender if they had just gone with talent.

Also - I'm drunk and this was a fun game to watch in LA.

Fights aside.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Not sure you can teach or build a team to beat Canada when Canada is on our game. Either you have the talent to do so or you don't. You can't manufacture the talent or teach the talent except by starting with youth. It's all about grassroots hockey and the USA is headed in the right direction with lots of new emerging hockey states. Players are coming out of places like Florida, California and Arizona.

If the USA keeps developing talent like Austin Matthews they'll close the gap. At this point they just can't stack up to Canada. Doesn't matter if they take Kessel or not, doesn't matter if Torts is the coach or not. Canada has a much bigger wealth of talent at the moment to pick from. But that's changing and there's a lot of young American talent being drafted every year. It should be a worthwhile rivalry at best on best in 5-10 years IMO

In a short tournament, it can matter. Kessel is one of the best scorers in the game from the blueline in. He's done it against every defenseman on team Canada in the NHL. Is it harder when you see them every damn shift? Absolutely. But do you really think playing against Abdelkader or Palmieri is wearing any of Canada's defense down? Defense gets worn down by being forced to defend. And yes, coaching can matter from the point of the need to bring everyone together to work to win. That's why Babcock is great. These guys know how to play hockey, he doesn't need to tell them. But he does need to tell him what roles they're doing and how they should do it in the team system, and they have to listen. No one is listening to Torts anymore. The entire NHL tuned out his kind of coach years ago.

And again, they shouldn't be building with Canada in mind, they should be building the best possible hockey team USA can make. And then game planning with Canada in mind, when they play Canada.

[doctajones428]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Your team has a better chance than the one they brought, though I think you mean Jack Johnson not Erik? Erik is a #1D. I don't know what Jack Johnson is, or why he was here.

I always remember Eric being the bad Johnson and Jack being the good one. Guess that changed over the years

[1qqaaz]

Originally Posted by doctajones428

Why not one of the following was on team USA is beyond me:

Kessel
Okposo
Kreider
Stastny
Ryan
Tyler Johnson
Fowler
Yandle
Goligoski
Faulk

Eric Johnson, Abdelkader, Dubinsky and to a lesser extent, Backes, had no business being on that team

I almost think that list would be more effective than most of their current team.

Here's how I see it. If they assemble a gritty/hardworking checking team, they have a 20% chance of beating Canada. If they just use all of their best skilled players, they have a 40% chance of beating Canada. Either way they're worse, but if they actually bring their best players, their chances of winning are higher. Anything can happen in a few games of hockey.

I also think they should've played Cory Schneider rather than Quick. Over the past few years, it's pretty clear who the better goalie has been.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Yeah, but they lost to Europe too. Canada is the favorite, but you have to get to the finals first.

That loss is on the players IMO. They didn't show up.

[Blaster86]

Team USA suffered from the same thing that ####ed Canada in 98 and 06.

They're trying to build a team that would win out an 82 game season and a play-offs and throwing that at a super-team.

[Dion]

Paralympic gold medalist rips Team USA on Twitter after Canada loss

Josh Pauls, a forward for U.S. National Sled Hockey Team went after Team USA hard in a tweet shortly before Team Canada beat the Americans 4-2. The loss prevented Team USA from getting into the semifinal round. The U.S. National Sled Hockey Team has won three gold medals and one bronze in the event. Pauls is a two-time gold medalist.

Josh Pauls
@spudsusa27 Really glad I was born without legs. The US sled team has a much better track record of success than the US stand up men's team....

7:28 PM - 20 Sep 2016

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/par...045729681.html

[djsFlames]

Schneider in net, Faulk and Yandle on defence, and Kessel up front. Different coach and they might've put up a decent fight in this tourney.

Problem with USA is the limited elite centres they have at their disposal. Canada's centre depth is insanely good in comparison. Their wings are fine, but they need enough quality Cs to bump Kesler down to the 3rd line. Kesler is past his prime imo.

New time around they'll have Gaudreau and Eichel at their disposal, which will help

[Roast Beef]

Whoops, double post.

[Roast Beef]

Paralympic gold medalist rips Team USA on Twitter after Canada loss

Does that count as a half burn, or a double burn?

[Locke]

USA made the tried and true error of prioritizing philosophy over reality.

[FireGilbert]

Agreed, the USA should have picked the best team possible and not a bunch of grinders to match up against Canada.

Their only hope of winning the tournament was to beat the likes of Europe, the Czechs, Sweden and Russia, then get a Mike Richter like performance in the finals.

[topfiverecords]

If you can't beat em, join em. Which is why the next WC will be a 7 game series of NA vs Eur.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

If you can't beat em, join em. Which is why the next WC will be a 7 game series of NA vs Eur.

I think Canada vs world would be way more interesting

[djsFlames]

2017 Canada vs team World

2018 Canada takes on the solar system (teams Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus (with strikingly Oileresque jerseys), and Pluto)

2019 Canada vs. team Milky Way Galaxy

2020 Canada vs. team Pandora (which will also be the premise of Avatar 4)

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by Locke

USA made the tried and true error of prioritizing philosophy over reality.

Essentially Canada in Torino 06.