United States of America

[Ola]

Just saw USA's last pre-tournament game against Sweden. Some thoughts about the team:

The lines in the game was;
Clarke-Stastny-Cole
Bochenecki-Arnason-Stempniak
Backes-Kessel-Hall
Larose-Peterson-Davis

J Johnson-E Johnson
Ballard-Pothier
Greene-R. Sutter
Hutchinson-Alberts

Grahame

Right away it was obvious that this is the starting of a new era for US International Hockey.

All these guys, except two, are comming from playing in the NHL without a redline-offside rule.

Gone are the days of having a mix of two lines with slow vets and two trapping lines. I haven't seen a US team play as smart as US did today since around 96', that is smart for "international hockey". A highflying dynamic offensive style, with allot of creativity in the transition game, compared to before when they lived on counter attacks only, which gave them a hard time against poor teams when they tried to run the show. Thoose days are defenitly over.

Will be interesting following the adventures of United States in International Hockey in the future!

They have always had that "fighting spirit", but with so little creativity in the NHL it was a tough translation to international hockey.

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[CDeeps]

Thanks for the info, Ola. I was anxious to know what happened, since this game couldn't be found anywhere here in the US. I hope this exihibition play carries over to the actual tournament.

 

[Jazz]

It was only a matter of time with their current youth development program that they will start to play better at the senior IHWC level.

This is good for for international hockey!

 

[svetovy poharu]

According to the game stats, the USA had the advantage in the faceoff circles, winning 43 of the 73 total draws. Chris Clark was 9-for-9 (100%), while Paul Stastny, who was given USA player of the game honours, was 10-of-14 (71%).
For Sweden, best on the draws was Rickard Wallin (8-of-11, 73%).

Power play goals accounted for 5 of the 8 scores.
The USA powerplay was 2-for-6 in 7:28 of PP time (33.33%), while Sweden scored all 3 of its goals on the PP (3-for-10 in 14:10 PP time).

For SWE, Johan Backlund played the full 60 mins in net, allowing 5 goals on 22 shots for a save pctg of 89.3%.

For the USA, John Grahame started and played the first 2 periods, giving up 1 goal on 13 shots (92.31 sv%). Cory Schneider played the final 20, allowing 2 goals on 15 shots (86.67 sv%).

Player of the Game award to Sweden went to Jorgen Jonsson, with 1 G and 1 A, 4 shots on goal, 5-of-12 on FO's, and a - 1.

As mentioned, USA Player of Game went to Paul Stastny, 1 G and 1 A.
Phil Kessel, with honourable mention, 1 G + 2 A, 8-of-13 in FO's, and a + 3 rating.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Thanks for the report Ola. Hopefully the U.S. can gel and use it's youth and speed to it's advantage. I think this will be Phil Kessel's coming out party.

 

[CDeeps]

Yeah, this exhibition game has me all excited. There just seems to be a sense of purpose to the edition of Team USA. They're young, speedy, and genuinely excited to represent their country. Brian Burke even stated that he only extended invitations to players 100% committed to playing.

Of course, one has to be realistic, and chances are this team will not medal. However, I believe the effort will be there and USA will not be an easy out. This team is certainly different from teams of the past, which were slow and top heavy with European based players like Kelly Miller and the Ferraro twins.

 

[Ola]

There just seems to be a sense of purpose to the edition of Team USA. They're young, speedy, and genuinely excited to represent their country.

Yeah. Though I don't think US necessary have lacked that in the past. I think that the problem have been that the game was so diffrent here in Europe, that only really really talented USA/Canada could challenge European teams.

US teams have come in and given it there all, but pretty fast felt that they wheren't gooing anywhere, instead often ending up in fights to make the QF.

Its one thing to fight extremely hard if you got a shot at winning something, it another when you in reality don't.

Now US stepped on the ice after like a couple of practises together and played a by Euro standards a really smart game. The NHL game have become allot more simular to the European game after the redline offside was removed. More skating. More controlled transition game. Less destructive ship it off the boards hockey and much more creativity.

Maybe not this season, but I am willing to bet that over a 10 year period US will take the WCH.

 

[CDeeps]

I'm definitely happy with USA's performance today, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's still a lot of hockey to be played, and the Czechs and Russians demonstrated enormous fire power. Should be an excellent between the US and the Czechs on Monday.

Kessel was definitely the best player on the ice today. He was a threat every time he touched the puck and generated numerous scoring chances. I thought Hall looked good on his line and his grit will add a quality dimension.

I'm so glad I finally get to watch these games! This wcsn.com is a great deal. And I was suprised to see some Americans in the crowd. I never thought American fans made the trip to Europe each spring, but I guess I was wrong. Next year I plan to buy some tickets and drive up to Quebec.