A truly satisfying tournament to watch. I feel pretty silly after all this considering I doubted some of the most integral pieces of the team - specifically Housley, Gaudreau and McCabe - but as is always the case with anything US hockey related, I'm happy to be wrong. I'm very proud of them and all the others on the team who contributed to this success.
I think Gibson may have set a bar that no US goalie will match for years to come in this tournament. The US defense, as good as it was, still allowed some pretty great chances at important moments and Gibson flat out robbed a number of players, including a legit NHL star in Nugent-Hopkins. It's always hard to tell exactly how a goalie will develop but I have a huge amount of faith in this guy and I hope to see him play for us in the Olympics some day.
The team defense that was played throughout the tournament is another thing that might not be matched again soon. After the two tough losses in the preliminary stage that was the one thing that kept my hopes very high. I knew if the offense could find itself at all that the team could still be successful. I felt so good about it all after the Canada game that I really believed the US would win the gold medal, which might be the first time I can wholeheartedly say that in quite a while about such a game.
I'm also happy for the few guys who were a part of last year's team as they all managed to come up very big in this tournament and were a big part of why the team went from a 7th place finish to a Gold medal. Players don't always get that kind of shot at redemption and even fewer make good on it if they do so those guys have a lot to feel good about.
The coaching staff also deserves a ton of credit as despite the fact that most of us seemed to be turning on them when panic set in about the lack of offense, they stuck to a game plan and made the right choices rather than drastic ones. I'd be very happy to see Phil Housley come back next year and give it another go provided he doesn't move on from the high school scene to bigger and better things. He was presented with an opportunity in this and he clearly stepped up and made the most of it.
It might seem a bit odd to some but I'm also very happy for Alex Galchenyuk. He might not have dominated in the way that some of us had hoped but I always like to see a player who makes a choice like he did in favor of our program get rewarded. Sure, he might not have been developed within this country's system, but he's certainly wholly a part of it now and it made me smile to see him with that gold medal around his neck and think of the future.
Overall a great accomplishment and one that I wasn't really prepared for. I do hope we can continue to have success in this tournament more regularly and it seems we may be on our way to doing so. The next step from there would be to carry it on to the senior level. I need to see a US team win an Olympic Gold medal before I die.
On a final note, I'd hope that some people who may not have paid much attention to this tournament if the NHL were up and running have seen how entertaining it can be and plan to follow in the future. I completely acknowledge the fact that the NHL rules the hockey consciousness in this country but there's other stuff that can be very entertaining and that one can take pride in in the larger hockey world. I hope the NHL is back soon and I hope the American fans still take the time to support their national team going forward.
Your team was great in all games what I saw from it. Gaudreau was great to watch. Even thought it looked like the Final wasn't even best game to you when compared to others, completely deserved Championship.
