William H Bonney
Registered User
Good exhibition game to ramp up the team/players in preparation for the tournament. It's always nice to beat Canada even in an exhibition game.
Some thoughts:
It was only two periods, but Quick looked to be in playoff form. I think he was already in line for the #1 role barring an underperformance in the exhibitions and one of the other guys dominating, but I think that's probably off the table at this point. Quick's scheduled to sit tomorrow against Canada, and then I'd imagine he'll play again against Finland on Tuesday in preparation for the tournament to start. The fact that Bishop looked shaky in the third certainly helps Quick's case.
Jack Johnson looked good. He was physical, tossing Canadians around in the scrums, and played a solid overall game. He did have one noticeable gaffe on the first Canadian goal though as he stepped up all the way to the blue line after the turnover (which wasn't his fault), and that was a mistake as he left Crosby all alone behind him. Overall though I hope he can keep it up.
The team overall played a pretty physical and chippy game, which was nice to see. Obviously they were picked with that identity in mind, but they still had to deliver and they did so against one of the other two most phsyical and chippy teams (Canada and Finland). They'll probably be toeing the line a lot during the tournament, and they crossed it a few times, but hopefully they can keep the designed aggression in check.
Canada had a decided edge in shots, but to me that wasn't a real concern as a lot of those shots weren't very dangerous despite Bucci's play-by-play squeals for every shot by both team. That's not to say Canada didn't have a lot of dangerous opportunities because they did, but Team USA did as well with fewer needed shots. Compare this game to their semifinal matchup in Sochi where the shots were 37 - 31 Canada and it was night and day because most of those Team USA shots weren't dangerous at all in Sochi.
The bigger issue with the shot discrepancy was the reason for it and that's because for long stretches (first 10 or so minutes of both the first and second periods, and a lot of the third) Team USA couldn't string together successful passes. You're going to lose the shot battle when you're dispossessed so often by your own doing. That's not surprising as it's early, but so many times they just lost possession because their passes were off the mark and that turned into more zone time, possession, and shots for Team Canada. Hopefully we'll see some improvement in this regard tomorrow, because it won't be every game (especially when playing Team Canada) that they'll be able to generate that amount of scoring chances and goals in essentially 25 minutes of sustained offensive pressure.
Byfuglien was picked with games against Team Canada in mind and he definitely didn't positively deliver in his first test. Outside of his one nice cycle in the first that led to a scoring chance, he was caught wandering out of position a lot, and his slap to Marchand's face (while hilarious because Marchand is a rat of player) was stupid.
Pacioretty and Wheeler were noticeably quiet. Hopefully they get their legs in the next two exhibitions because we'll need them to deliver.
Will Torts make Stepan spend the next practice just shooting at an empty net? He missed two wide open nets which should have been surefire goals. After Abdelkader did the same after Price was pulled, I expected Stepan to miss his third empty net for the game.
Overall, a positive first step in the tournament process. It was great to watch Team USA hockey again. I'm excited to watch round two against Team Canada tomorrow, and I hope the team puts together more consistent passing and possession.
Some thoughts:
It was only two periods, but Quick looked to be in playoff form. I think he was already in line for the #1 role barring an underperformance in the exhibitions and one of the other guys dominating, but I think that's probably off the table at this point. Quick's scheduled to sit tomorrow against Canada, and then I'd imagine he'll play again against Finland on Tuesday in preparation for the tournament to start. The fact that Bishop looked shaky in the third certainly helps Quick's case.
Jack Johnson looked good. He was physical, tossing Canadians around in the scrums, and played a solid overall game. He did have one noticeable gaffe on the first Canadian goal though as he stepped up all the way to the blue line after the turnover (which wasn't his fault), and that was a mistake as he left Crosby all alone behind him. Overall though I hope he can keep it up.
The team overall played a pretty physical and chippy game, which was nice to see. Obviously they were picked with that identity in mind, but they still had to deliver and they did so against one of the other two most phsyical and chippy teams (Canada and Finland). They'll probably be toeing the line a lot during the tournament, and they crossed it a few times, but hopefully they can keep the designed aggression in check.
Canada had a decided edge in shots, but to me that wasn't a real concern as a lot of those shots weren't very dangerous despite Bucci's play-by-play squeals for every shot by both team. That's not to say Canada didn't have a lot of dangerous opportunities because they did, but Team USA did as well with fewer needed shots. Compare this game to their semifinal matchup in Sochi where the shots were 37 - 31 Canada and it was night and day because most of those Team USA shots weren't dangerous at all in Sochi.
The bigger issue with the shot discrepancy was the reason for it and that's because for long stretches (first 10 or so minutes of both the first and second periods, and a lot of the third) Team USA couldn't string together successful passes. You're going to lose the shot battle when you're dispossessed so often by your own doing. That's not surprising as it's early, but so many times they just lost possession because their passes were off the mark and that turned into more zone time, possession, and shots for Team Canada. Hopefully we'll see some improvement in this regard tomorrow, because it won't be every game (especially when playing Team Canada) that they'll be able to generate that amount of scoring chances and goals in essentially 25 minutes of sustained offensive pressure.
Byfuglien was picked with games against Team Canada in mind and he definitely didn't positively deliver in his first test. Outside of his one nice cycle in the first that led to a scoring chance, he was caught wandering out of position a lot, and his slap to Marchand's face (while hilarious because Marchand is a rat of player) was stupid.
Pacioretty and Wheeler were noticeably quiet. Hopefully they get their legs in the next two exhibitions because we'll need them to deliver.
Will Torts make Stepan spend the next practice just shooting at an empty net? He missed two wide open nets which should have been surefire goals. After Abdelkader did the same after Price was pulled, I expected Stepan to miss his third empty net for the game.
Overall, a positive first step in the tournament process. It was great to watch Team USA hockey again. I'm excited to watch round two against Team Canada tomorrow, and I hope the team puts together more consistent passing and possession.
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