WJC: 2019 Team USA Roster Talk

[Mehar]

Really even game. Feels like if those two teams played 10 times, they'd each win 5. Team USA started slow in this tournament, struggling to find an identity and they've finally found one. Not going to light up the scoresheet, but they're a dogged 200 foot team.

• Cockerill was great and when a pure role player can step up like that, it's a huge boost. The best forward for Team USA today.
• Samberg, Anderson, and Kemp were rock solid. Kemp really struggled early in this tournament but he's found his footing and stepped up big time. He's earned his role on this team.
• Primeau had that shaky one that Kemp cleared off the goal line on the PP early in the 3rd, but other than that he was much more composed in net that period than he was in the 2nd. Calmly pushed rebounds into the corners as the Russians were firing from long range hoping for rebounds.
• Team is in the gold medal game and that's where they should have been based on the available talent. It wasn't always a smooth ride, but they have one game to seal it.
• Last year they won their third straight medal in this tournament for the first time ever. Now they've made it 4. USAH should be competing for a medal every year and they're finally doing it.

You do a great job with your analysis Bonney. Keep up the great work. Good luck to Team USA in the Gold Medal Game. USAH will have a medal in 4 straight tournaments. No other country can claim that right now, and next year's team should
be even better. Well done USAH.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Not shocking news this morning.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I thought the Russia game was pretty even. We got better goaltending. Primeau has been good since that early bad game against Kazakhstan.

The defense has been very good in recent games. Kemp has been excellent for his role. Aside for his antics and giving too much space to Denisenko on the goal, Samberg had another good game. Anderson, as well. I also liked the Miller-Samuelsson pairing in this game. They seem to do much better with Miller on his strong side. Hughes has had a disappointing tournament and I thought he had a bad game, but I guess if you can get to the final without your biggest talent on defense having a good tournament, its not all too bad.

The forward group has started to let up of late. Not much going offensively. Poehling has brought it all tournament, as has Madden. Wahlstrom, Robertson and Farabee have also been pretty good in this tournament. Not a whole lot else, except for those players and Jack Hughes has contributed in the games he's played. Hughes minutes are way too low right now. He should play around 20 minutes in the final. He's our best forward. He should not be playing low third line minutes,

 

[Joe Zanussi]

Terrified. So many chances. Feels like a game where we might end saying “ what if...”

 

[Xokkeu]

Sad face

 

[NewHampshire]

The team came back against Russia in the pre-tournament schedule. They came back against Slovakia. They came back against Sweden. Can they do it one more time...

 

[Xokkeu]

Shoot more

 

[Jaykay]

Sucks it was decided on that terrible waved off goal call, karma for the Russia game I guess.

 

[Xokkeu]

Didn’t see enough fight to be honest.

This game reminded me of all the times we lose to Finland in the world’s.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Sucks it was decided on that terrible waved off goal call, karma for the Russia game I guess.

Except the Russia one was legit.

 

[Jaykay]

Silver is a pretty good result for this group of players to be honest.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Four years in a row with a medal. You want that Gold but this US team played well.

 

[DownGoesMcDavid]

Too many lumberjacks on Defence imo. Not enough skill and skating.

 

[kabidjan18]

Too many lumberjacks on Defence imo. Not enough skill and skating.

I don't think defense was the problem. In an NHL game this season average goals per game is over 3 goals a game. The US scored 3, 2 and then 2. They gave up 1, 1 and then 3. So they consistently scored under the average goals per game and the kept their opponents to under the average goals per game. Defense was fine, but in the last 3 games team shot 7%. That to me is the killer, lack of quality finishing.

 

[William H Bonney]

Congrats to Team Finland!

Pretty disappointing result. The disallowed Wahlstrom goal and the god awful PP drained the life from the team for a 30 minute stretch. Going down by two finally woke them up, but a lucky bounce cost them in the end. It's hard to beat a good team twice in the same tournament. Even though they had the shorter turnaround time, Finland looked fresher than Team USA. Certainly helps to play a lackluster semi-final opponent rather than Russia.

• Chmelevski was this team's best player overall and it wasn't that close. He was all over the place. If more 19 year olds played like him they would have won. The fact that it took the staff that long to realize it is unforgivable. Even then, he only had the 8th most time-on-ice tonight amongst our forwards, which is pitiful coaching when you consider he also plays the PP and PK. How does this happen?
• Quinn had his best game of the tournament today.
• The defense as a whole was pretty good today, including Kemp, Samberg, and Anderson. Tough to fault the group on any goals as the first was a lost face-off, second was a lucky point shot, and the third was multiple lucky bounces in a row off another point shot.
• Cockerill was very good again. He's basically got one move (putting the puck behind him and going wide) but no one was stopping it. I was very hard on him in the start, but he really showed up these last 3 games and definitely earned his place on the team.
• Primeau was very good today. There were about 3 unlucky bounces on that game winning goal. He was outplayed by UPL but this loss isn't on him at all.
  
• Poehling was invisible in this tournament since the Sweden game. He lost a ton of huge face-offs today and 2 of those went in the net. He deserves a ton of credit for that furious comeback against Sweden, but he was a disappointment overall as he was not the big time player he should have been when it mattered most. I know he won the best forward of the tournament, but someone had to win that award and there were no dominant players in this tournament like most years.
• Madden and Robertson also mostly disappeared down the stretch. Tough to win when 3 of your top forwards are MIA.
• Barratt was invisible again. Might be the biggest disappointment of the tournament for the team.
• The team made it too easy on UPL for the first 40 minutes. Granted, he made some huge saves, but how many times did the team miss the net in the first two periods? I seriously lost count. That game winning goal shows the importance of just getting it on net and this team struggled a lot in the tournament with trying to pick corners on low percentage plays.
• I'll be happy if Hastings never touches this tournament again. His decisions were really, really poor. Says a lot about him that when the team needed a late goal, and with 6 skaters on the ice, he doesn't have Chmelevski out there. Instead, the line he went with played the whole time and he never got his best player out there. Are you kidding me?

 

[DownGoesMcDavid]

Going 0-4 on the PP in the beginning of the game was the killer.

Why didnt Hastings make changes on that PP and adjust mid game.

For instance, the most dynamic Dman on the team and maybe even in the tournament in Q Hughes was playing w the PP2. I would have let him go on PP1 and show some magic w his bro.

 

[William H Bonney]

I don't think defense was the problem. In an NHL game this season average goals per game is over 3 goals a game. The US scored 3, 2 and then 2. They gave up 1, 1 and then 3. So they consistently scored under the average goals per game and the kept their opponents to under the average goals per game. Defense was fine, but in the last 3 games team shot 7%. That to me is the killer, lack of quality finishing.

It's hard to say for certain. I agree there was certainly a need for more skill on the backend. A guy like Walsh would have definitely provided more offense from the backend. I think the staff hoped Miller would provide some of it, but he wasn't ready for a big role here. The question is would the team defense have dipped by more, if any, than the offense would have increased by adding more skill?

 

[kroypuck]

Barratt looked incredible at the beginning of the tournament and then disappeared completely in the playoffs. Weird.

 

[Joe Zanussi]

Congrats to Team Finland!

Pretty disappointing result. The disallowed Wahlstrom goal and the god awful PP drained the life from the team for a 30 minute stretch. Going down by two finally woke them up, but a lucky bounce cost them in the end. It's hard to beat a good team twice in the same tournament. Even though they had the shorter turnaround time, Finland looked fresher than Team USA. Certainly helps to play a lackluster semi-final opponent rather than Russia.

• Chmelevski was this team's best player overall and it wasn't that close. He was all over the place. If more 19 year olds played like him they would have won. The fact that it took the staff that long to realize it is unforgivable.
• Quinn had his best game of the tournament today.
• The defense as a whole was pretty good today, including Kemp, Samberg, and Anderson. Tough to fault the group on any goals as the first was a lost face-off, second was a lucky point shot, and the third was multiple lucky bounces in a row off another point shot.
• Cockerill was very good again. He's basically got one move (putting the puck behind him and going wide) but no one was stopping it. I was very hard on him in the start, but he really showed up these last 3 games and definitely earned his place on the team.
• Primeau was very good today. There were about 3 unlucky bounces on that game winning goal. He was outplayed by UPL but this loss isn't on him at all.
  
• Poehling was invisible in this tournament since the Sweden game. He lost a ton of huge face-offs today and 2 of those went in the net. He deserves a ton of credit for that furious comeback against Sweden, but he was a disappointment overall as he was not the big time player he should have been when it mattered most. I know he won the best forward of the tournament, but someone had to win that award and there were no dominant players in this tournament like most years.
• Madden and Robertson also mostly disappeared down the stretch. Tough to win when 3 of your top forwards are MIA.
• Barratt was invisible again. Might be the biggest disappointment of the tournament for the team.
• The team made it too easy on UPL for the first 40 minutes. Granted, he made some huge saves, but how many times did the team miss the net in the first two periods? I seriously lost count. That game winning goal shows the importance of just getting it on net and this team struggled a lot in the tournament with trying to pick corners on low percentage plays.
• I'll be happy if Hastings never touches this tournament again. His decisions were really, really poor. Says a lot about him that when the team needed a late goal, and with 6 skaters on the ice, he doesn't have Chmelevski out there. Instead, the line he went with played the whole time and he never got his best player out there. Are you kidding me?

Another great write up. Thank you.

I’ll have other thoughts tomorrow, but one piggy-back is that not only did we miss the net constantly, but we missed it wide-side so it cleared the zone. Every....single....time

 

[Joe Zanussi]

Barratt looked incredible at the beginning of the tournament and then disappeared completely in the playoffs. Weird.

Yup. He and Norris were not what I’d hoped they’d be.

 

[JiggsNY]

Yup, there were a number of guys who really shined in the group stage, and then sort of dissapeared.

 

[kabidjan18]

It's hard to say for certain. I agree there was certainly a need for more skill on the backend. A guy like Walsh would have definitely provided more offense from the backend. I think the staff hoped Miller would provide some of it, but he wasn't ready for a big role here. The question is would the team defense have dipped by more, if any, than the offense would have increased by adding more skill?

Skill in what aspect? I only watched live and when you watch live you miss a lot, especially when you're watching for entertainment, so I admit I could be missing quite a bit.

But we never could even hold it in the offensive zone long enough to get the offense set up, I'm not sure what skill on the back end would have helped with that for. It wasn't that we couldn't break out or we couldn't get in but that every time we got in, they took the puck away behind the net and then played it back out. Miller did try some more complicated breakouts and he struggled when he tried that, but typically we just had the center come back to start low or got it out to a speedy winger and basically never had any real problems moving it through the zones. Maybe more creative passers on the back end? That probably could have helped actually, because when we got set in the zone we had a lot of low quality shots instead of quality passing. I'll think more about that.

 

[Joe Zanussi]

I have a new found respect for Logan Cockerill. He wasn’t in my team early...then was invisible...

then was our best forward.

 

[SabresSharks]

Certainly a winnable game. Missed open nets and squandered PP opportunities made the difference.

The last few minutes both teams looked tired, and ready to get the game into OT. One goal mouth scramble later and ... that's hockey.

 

[NewHampshire]

I don't think defense was the problem. In an NHL game this season average goals per game is over 3 goals a game. The US scored 3, 2 and then 2. They gave up 1, 1 and then 3. So they consistently scored under the average goals per game and the kept their opponents to under the average goals per game. Defense was fine, but in the last 3 games team shot 7%. That to me is the killer, lack of quality finishing.

I think you're agreeing with him - the US defense did the job as far as goals against, but struggled to move pucks out of the zone, up ice (their breakouts were adequate and a lot of goals against came on failed clears and extended zone time) or contribute to the offense in any real way.

The US left two PPG college sophomores and a near PPG OHL defenseman - all strong puck movers - home. For a team who's forward group was more hard-work and grit than pure skill and needed more offense much of the tournament it was a questionable choice from the start. They had an opportunity to build a D that might have given them a lot more offense (skill effects zone holds certainly)...

It is a valid question by Bonney whether all those puck movers would have struggled in coverage allowing more goals against in addition to more goals for. I would have liked to have seen it, but they went another way...

And they deserve credit for going that way and advancing so far. This team came back all tournament, before digging one final hole it didn't have the time to scramble out of. Counting the pre-tournament schedule, they beat Russia twice, the Czechs twice, took Sweden to OT and split with the Fins. All told, they lost one game in regulation in nine tries..!

For an imperfect birth year, an imperfect forward group (with most of the best pure skill underage and the top skill guy battling injury), imperfect defensive roster building and performance, imperfect goaltending, imperfect (debateable) coaching decisions and imperfect (inconsistent) overall team performance levels they still came within 1:30 of a perfect result. It says a lot about where USA Hockey is today and how far they've come...

I enjoyed this group - when they turned it on they were really hard to play against. Congrats on a great run. Should be a real good group next year...