I can only speak about the players that I've actually seen play numerous times and then cross-reference against some of the players for other countries...so here goes...
Shane Prince is at least a top 6 player on any team in the WJHC.
If you think he doesn't belong then please submit your resume to USA Hockey, I'm sure they will like your analysis!
Jack Campbell and John Gibson: I have Gibson ahead of Campbell and not by a little.
Don't let one bad game mislead you. I think the error that USA Hockey made was annoiting both players without any competition.
I would've invited Michael Houser and Matt Mahalik to battle them at the December camp.
Jared Tinordi: if he was your best defenceman then IMHO your d-corps was in trouble before the tourney started.
Austin Levi while not a flashing is just a type of player to build a solid d-corps around. Having him paired with Tinordi would be a great 2 or 3 pairing of d-men.
Stefan Noesen: great mucker with offensive upside and very consistent and would have been a great addition.
Brandon Saad: Mr. Super Inconsistency, one good week for every 3 bad weeks.
He needed his buttons pushed the right way. When on, he would be a first team WJHC all-star but......
Jared Knight: If Blais could have lit a fire under his players, what Knight brings could be duplicated.
But Knight is very very self-motivated and driven...he could have infected the other players. He may have been the ideal line-mate for Saad!!
^^ most if not all of those players would've made Team Canada.
How Team USA leave these players off their team is totally baffling.
But the biggest ommission is not involving Mike Vellucci, as a Canadian I hope and pray they never ever involve him!
American Dream....not sure if i ever said this but you're one of my favourite posters on here....you're a darn straight shooter without blinders!!!
For Canadians sake, i hope USA Hockey never reads your posts!
Excellent post again Ward.....I do not really get along with a lot of posters from Canada because we sometimes let our passions get in the way of that, but I honestly enjoy most things you have to say along with Minister and some of the other "nucks" posters out there.
Your list is bang on, but for one thing... you listed Brandon Saad on that list, but he obviously made the team, maybe you meant Vincent Trocheck who clearly should have made this squad?? Just throwing that out there.
Mike Vellucci is the man that needs to run this team next year, hands down. That guy gets the most out of the least at times. Consistent, fair, and an excellent coach, I would love to have him as he would help balance things out with the CHL imo. I am still a Dean Blais fan, but I felt he was coasting here, and really didnt make any changes or much of anything happen which was surprising.
As for your bottom point, damn appreciate it. I know I come off as the loudmouth, or the guy always trying to be different then the herd, but when it comes to USA Hockey I am very passionate about it and I am unwilling to look the other way with something I love so much goes so wrong.
Some of the other USA posters on here (all of which I respect and love to read) just simply refuse to face facts of what has been going on here for years. We do not have a winning tradition that we simply should have over the past 10 years, and bs politics, bad coaches, and horrible selections have been the reasons for it. Look at the talent we develope year in and year out, and your going to tell me that we should be viewed for one nanosecond behind Sweden, Russia, or Finland? We produce more talent per year then all of them combined most years....it is crazy.
I am just calling things like I see it, and I am sorry that some of the other USA posters dont want to admit it, or want to sweep it under the rug, play nice, and pretend its not going on, but I cannot do that. From top to bottom we have issues, and I pray some people get axed because of this. This is a huge embarassment of which I know will take some time to let go of.
I hope USA Hockey reads all our posts tonight and this week from every poster... they need to see that this was a gigantic f*up, and they are the ones to blame as well as some bad performances by some of our players.
I know this will never happen, but I would love for USA Hockey to have a split GM committe for our WJC selection process. One from USA Hockey and the other a person from the CHL... that might be a nightmare when it comes to two people fighting for "their" guys, but at least things would go down much more fair then it does now. We had a 10 man committe for God's sake for the 2010 Olympics, if we cant win consistently, then we need to change our thinking and have multiple minds from both sides of the pond selecting these squads from here on out.
Every time we take a step forward, it seems we take two steps back.