I know it's way early yet, but I didn't like what I saw in the defensive and neutral zones against the Finns: unorganized, hesitant around loose pucks, not terribly physical, sloppy passes. Nobody close to a Fowler or Carlson. A better offensive team would have feasted.
Plenty of posters here know way more than me about these players. Any cause for concern?
(No offense to Finland. Your kids played a superb, tight-checking game. Hard to tell sometimes if one team played poorly or the other team just made it look that way.)
Well, I wouldn’t want to jump of the deep-end yet. Team USA had only one game since their squad selection process was completed. Canada, by way of comparison had 3, and still need work on the back end to be ready for the playoffs. All of Team USA, not just the back end, didn’t look like a team or play well together. There was a particular disconnect between the forwards and the “D†compared to Team Finland which operated as one unit for the most part.
A few more games are needed to get the team together. Luckily, Pool A not does not look as strong as Pool B (Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland to come) so Team USA still has a chance to get their act together for when it matters. Justin Faulk, in particular, looks like he will be a force in the offensive zone. Nick Leddy also looked decent. Patrick Wey despite his size doesn’t look like a force either on “D†or offense. Merrill, I think will be OK once the coaches work on making the team more cohesive - he looked like a good set-up man for Faulk. Forbort can really skate but neither he nor any of the rest of the “D†put up much in the way of nastiness that one identifies with a North American team - he (as the Mr. Nasty leader on the team) will have to add some if the Team USA is to be successful in the medal round. And Dumoulin was like the other others, a smooth skating D man - but will need to add more cohesion and grit to make the team successful.
Canada, by way of comparison, is closer to getting their act together but still face issues.
The forwards, for the most part have performed as planned, 5 on 5, PP and PK. The defense, particularly 5 on 5, still have issues. The top pairing (Olsen-Ellis) have an issue with being too offensive. Olsen, in particular needs to pay more attention to “D†and let Ellis concentrate on the offense. The second pairing (Cowan and Barrie or de Haan) needs to have the issue of who will be Cowan’s partner resolved so the pair can concentrate on the D job - my vote goes to Barrie. The third pairing (Despres-Gudbranson), while huge, can be beaten by speed and their own poor judgements if they don’t keep it simple. Keep its simple and this pairing works.
In summary, I don’t think the real Team USA, forward or defense, has yet emerged. There is skill, there is size, there is speed, there is experience - the trick for the coaches is to harness all these good qualities and make them work together for the team. A little more nasty also may be required from the Team when the medal round commences to again come out on top of the heap.
