WC: USA has not appeared in WHC final in 57 years

[Uncle Scrooge]

This year was one bad game. In a seven game series this team probably beats Finland 4-1. But that's part of these games is one bad game at the wrong time and you're out

It's not just about having a bad game, their effort and preparation was inexcusable. Without arrogant approach to that game they don't lose.

And that 1 game thing is just excuses anyway, it's the same for everyone and that's what you play the round robin for, to build your game for the ones that matter. It's one thing to lose by playing well and not getting any breaks, then i can understand the 1 game argument, but their performance was just pathetic.

Spending the past week(s) before those games having fun out in town and enjoying yourself probably isn't the best way to prepare for the big push.

 

[Urbanskog]

This is definitely an awful record, no matter what some of the people here say. To be so unsuccessful for so long is a complete failure, not like there are even that many top teams to compete against.

 

[BL92]

That's just sad.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

There's been plenty of teams making the finals with hardly any NHL players. Half decent is good enough if you have a lot of heart, play well as a team and get a bit lucky with some of the match-ups down the line.

I agree their recent years have been a step in the right direction, but this year's QF was a big step back again.

It's a single elimination tournament. Anybody can beat anybody at this level.

I think the real struggle for the USA over the last few years has been goaltending. They've failed to get great goaltending when really needed, and we typically don't bring very good goaltenders to this event.

I think a lot of people expected more from this year's team (some thought we were a legit gold medal contender), but I maintained that just playing for a medal would be great - this was a pretty flawed team with only a few true offensive threats and mediocre defense/goaltending. It certainly doesn't help when your top line superstar center plays the tournament like it's a summer pick up. When we drew Finland I knew we were in tough - they always play us tight regardless of rosters - not a great reward for winning a pool that had Russia and Sweden.

At the end of the day, this team just wasn't that good. I feel like we were lucky to beat Sweden and caught Russia on a bad day.

Canada
Russia/Sweden
Czechs/USA
Swiss/Finland
Germans

Is how I would tier out the final 8 in terms of roster strength. A medal in this tournament for the US would have been a slight over-performance.

 

[CanuckCity]

In regards to the "they treat it like a vacation", is that realistic? Is it an all-expenses-paid trip? How much free time do they get? Are there curfews? Not sure how the logistics of these tourneys work.

Just seems odd, why bother attending if youre not going to give it your all? Its purelyv voluntary. I guess they just feel overconfident and there's really no pressure back home to perform.

I imagine some media attention regarding this drought would spark some improved performances. Americans tend to be extremely nationalistic so its weird they would be okay with failing so often. But i guess if noone notices then it doesnt matter?

Does hockey USA (or whatever equivalent there is) manage these teams?

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

In regards to the "they treat it like a vacation", is that realistic? Is it an all-expenses-paid trip? How much free time do they get? Are there curfews? Not sure how the logistics of these tourneys work.

Just seems odd, why bother attending if youre not going to give it your all? Its purelyv voluntary. I guess they just feel overconfident and there's really no pressure back home to perform.

I imagine some media attention regarding this drought would spark some improved performances. Americans tend to be extremely nationalistic so its weird they would be okay with failing so often. But i guess if noone notices then it doesnt matter?

Does hockey USA (or whatever equivalent there is) manage these teams?

I think there's definitely an aspect of treating it as an opportunity to experience Europe with family/girlfriend. Remember how young this team tends to be - you're talking about a bunch of college age kids for the most part.

But that doesn't mean that they all aren't there to compete.

USA hockey posted some videos of a bunch of the players enjoying a river tour of Cologne with their families and girlfriends. I didn't see Gaudreau or Larkin there, and those were our two best, most competitive players throughout the tournament, so maybe there is something to that? Maybe the team has to sell it as a vacation to get guys to give up 30% of their summer to play in a non-premium international tournament?

Either way it is embarrassing to have so many top Americans refuse to represent the country.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

There's been plenty of teams making the finals with hardly any NHL players. Half decent is good enough if you have a lot of heart, play well as a team and get a bit lucky with some of the match-ups down the line.

I agree their recent years have been a step in the right direction, but this year's QF was a big step back again.

Name all those "plenty of teams". Losing to a really good team like Finland is not a step backwards. That is a ridiculous statement. Losing a hockey game does not mean you have no heart. Finland won with a great game plan.

And you have zero proof that US players, that come to play, don't take the world championship seriously. Don't try to pass it off as fact. Your statements are speculation made for twitter.

 

[Xokkeu]

In regards to the "they treat it like a vacation", is that realistic? Is it an all-expenses-paid trip? How much free time do they get? Are there curfews? Not sure how the logistics of these tourneys work.

Just seems odd, why bother attending if youre not going to give it your all? Its purelyv voluntary. I guess they just feel overconfident and there's really no pressure back home to perform.

I imagine some media attention regarding this drought would spark some improved performances. Americans tend to be extremely nationalistic so its weird they would be okay with failing so often. But i guess if noone notices then it doesnt matter?

Does hockey USA (or whatever equivalent there is) manage these teams?

Americans may be nationalistic but we tend not to really care about sports. Even when our basketball team lost in the olympics most people shrugged and were happy for the Argentine guys. Hell my step dad used to root for Japan and Cuba in baseball because he liked their fans.

 

[vippe]

Pretty crazy stat right there

 

[Xokkeu]

It's not just about having a bad game, their effort and preparation was inexcusable. Without arrogant approach to that game they don't lose.

And that 1 game thing is just excuses anyway, it's the same for everyone and that's what you play the round robin for, to build your game for the ones that matter. It's one thing to lose by playing well and not getting any breaks, then i can understand the 1 game argument, but their performance was just pathetic.

Spending the past week(s) before those games having fun out in town and enjoying yourself probably isn't the best way to prepare for the big push.

The team played great throughout the tournament. They had a bad at the wrong time. It's just a fact. There's a big difference in losing to Finland in a down effort and going to the relegation round.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Losing to a really good team like Finland is not a step backwards. That is a ridiculous statement. Losing a hockey game does not mean you have no heart. Finland won with a great game plan.

USA has a habit of losing to Finland but don't fool yourself thinking that this years Finland was anything good because it wasn't. One of the worst version of Finland in quite some time, they just had one good game in the tournament that surprise surprise came against the US.

 

[TheBigThree]

I can almost guarantee the story would be different if matthews played this year.

 

[Xokkeu]

USA has a habit of losing to Finland but don't fool yourself thinking that this years Finland was anything good because it wasn't. One of the worst version of Finland in quite some time, they just had one good game in the tournament that surprise surprise came against the US.

Yeah this version of Finland was almost lucky to even make the quarterfinals

 

[Babula]

what was the last time, they care about wch ? only olympic...?

 

[Voight]

IMO the teams are never built as good as they could be, but the fact that "lesser" hockey nations like Switzerland and Slovakia have been in the finals and they haven't is just embarrassing.

 

[Babula]

I can almost guarantee the story would be different if matthews played this year.

p.kane, a.matthews. media reported, there is a chance, they will come to Paris. but they didnt.

 

[Zuluss]

I don't know about this "they don't care enough" explanation. Team USA lost all three games in the most recent World Cup (say what you may about the World Cup). They did not medal in Sochi.
Probably they are just not that good as a team (though, as everyone here says, lots of talent).
I do wish though USA took the Worlds more seriously and started building its hockey reputation from there. It is a good place to start, and fans would also benefit.

 

[Xokkeu]

I don't know about this "they don't care enough" explanation. Team USA lost all three games in the most recent World Cup (say what you may about the World Cup). They did not medal in Sochi.
Probably they are just not that good as a team (though, as everyone here says, lots of talent).
I do wish though USA took the Worlds more seriously and started building its hockey reputation from there. It is a good place to start, and fans would also benefit.

They are a top 5 team. Hence making the semifinals is about par for the course for the program. People keep trying to spin the Sochi olympics as some kind of disaster which doesn't make much sense. 2006 was a disaster. 2014 was about bare expectations.


I think we are seeing an uptick in US interest in the worlds, but it's a slow process. They've made the semifinals 3 out of the last 5 years, won two bronze medals since 2013. In contrast from 1963 to 2012 they won two bronze medals. In the entire 2000-2010 decade they made the semis 3 times.

 

[MXD]

Is that supposed to be unexpected or something?
I mean, Surprising? Yeah, a bit. Unexpected? Not at all.

 

[Neutral Hockey Fan]

Well I hope they never ever make the finals. No one in the USA cares about the WC, even the players treat it as some kind of a vacation joke tournament...

This.

Anybody see jack eichel's "effort" level this tournament? Guy was legitimately the worst player in the entire tournament

 

[Babula]

more like combination of vacation and ice rink size. open space. but dont they are married ?

 

[Zuluss]

They are a top 5 team. Hence making the semifinals is about par for the course for the program. People keep trying to spin the Sochi olympics as some kind of disaster which doesn't make much sense. 2006 was a disaster. 2014 was about bare expectations.

I think we are seeing an uptick in US interest in the worlds, but it's a slow process. They've made the semifinals 3 out of the last 5 years, won two bronze medals since 2013. In contrast from 1963 to 2012 they won two bronze medals. In the entire 2000-2010 decade they made the semis 3 times.

I guess the disaster was the 5:0 score in the Bronze medal game.
But if you spin it this way, "they are a top5 team", then that is probably what I was trying to say. The way I see the pecking order in international hockey, it is Canada, then Russia/Sweden, then Finland, then USA. If one views it this way, then yeah, Team USA does not win as many medals as Team Finland, because Team Finland is just better. Probably a bronze here and a semifinal there is exactly what you can reasonably expect of Team USA. They are still better than Czechs in the past 10 years, so here is that.
I do not think many people here would subscribe to this view though.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

It's a single elimination tournament. Anybody can beat anybody at this level.

I think the real struggle for the USA over the last few years has been goaltending. They've failed to get great goaltending when really needed, and we typically don't bring very good goaltenders to this event.

I think a lot of people expected more from this year's team (some thought we were a legit gold medal contender), but I maintained that just playing for a medal would be great - this was a pretty flawed team with only a few true offensive threats and mediocre defense/goaltending. It certainly doesn't help when your top line superstar center plays the tournament like it's a summer pick up. When we drew Finland I knew we were in tough - they always play us tight regardless of rosters - not a great reward for winning a pool that had Russia and Sweden.

At the end of the day, this team just wasn't that good. I feel like we were lucky to beat Sweden and caught Russia on a bad day.

Canada
Russia/Sweden
Czechs/USA
Swiss/Finland
Germans

Is how I would tier out the final 8 in terms of roster strength. A medal in this tournament for the US would have been a slight over-performance.

I don't know about that.. this year's squad was up there with Russia on paper. Your defense was full of middle pairing NHL guys, Gaudreau and Eichel are legitimate stars in the NHL and guys like Lee, Nelson, Larkin, Hayes and Dvorak are pretty good 2-3 liners. Howard is an experienced goalie.

Czechs had 2 guys who would crack an NHL lineup from their back-end, Pastrnak and Voracek up front and rest of their forwards were considerably weaker.

I agree Finns and Swiss were pretty damn even this year. We basically had a great KHL team.

I've seen Americans underrate their teams a lot.. Yeah there's been some underwhelming rosters over the years, but it was basically a decent-to-good NHL team they send to this tournament which should be more than enough to get success with the right attitude and coaching.

This year would've been tough to win anyway, because Sweden and Canada were on another level, so i guess it doesn't really matter, but yeah, i still think it's mostly mental issues that are holding USA back.

Maybe what im trying to say is, i rarely feel like team USA squeezed everything they had before getting eliminated. Last year was probably an exception, and i think Matthews and his high compete level had a lot to do with that.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

The US beat Sweden in this years tournament. So that must mean that team USA was on a pretty good level. Losing a tough elimination game does not necessarily mean a team has mental issues. Where do fans come up with this stuff.

 

[Panthaz89]

This.

Anybody see jack eichel's "effort" level this tournament? Guy was legitimately the worst player in the entire tournament

U.S best chance to score came from a pass Eichel made......maybe he shouldn't bother to show up like Matthews even though Eichel had ankle surgery not too long ago. Seems like the all the Austin Matthews fans like to gang up and bang on a guy like he was practically scoring for the other team even though the 2 oblivious turnovers that gave breakaways were not from him.