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WJC: 2020 Team USA Roster Talk

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Dodospice said:
Throw the lines in a blender... I’m keeping the Robertson/Pinto/Wahlstrom line together and Samuelsson/Harris but the rest needs to change.

Robertson-Pinto-Wahlstrom
Zegras- Turcotte- Caufield
Kaliyev- Drury- Brink
Beecher- Pivonka- Ford
Hall

Samuelsson- Harris
Miller-Emberson
York- Jones
Stastney

Knight
Wolf
Saville
Click to expand...
Can we please just promote you to head coach now
 
Dodospice said:
Throw the lines in a blender... I’m keeping the Robertson/Pinto/Wahlstrom line together and Samuelsson/Harris but the rest needs to change.

Robertson-Pinto-Wahlstrom
Zegras- Turcotte- Caufield
Kaliyev- Drury- Brink
Beecher- Pivonka- Ford
Hall

Samuelsson- Harris
Miller-Emberson
York- Jones
Stastney

Knight
Wolf
Saville
Click to expand...

This is only my opinion, but I'd play both Turcotte and Zegras at center. I don't think you can have Pinto as a top-line center. Aside from a few turns of his stick to score goals, he played very poorly. I'd regard the shift to shift more than two goals. If we only go on the scoreboard, we didn't play that bad, but the problem was bigger than a late Canada goal being why we lost. I also would keep Jones and Emberson together. That should be the second pair. Miller should be on the third pair.

Robertson-Turcotte-Wahlstrom
Kaliyev-Zegras-Caufield
Drury-Pinto-Brink
Beecher-Pivonka-Hall
Ford

Samuelsson-Harris
Jones-Emberson
Miller-York
Stastney

Knight
Wolf
Saville
 
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Pavel Buchnevich said:
This is only my opinion, but I'd play both Turcotte and Zegras at center. I don't think you can have Pinto as a top-line center. Aside from a few turns of his stick to score goals, he played very poorly. I'd regard the shift to shift more than two goals. If we only go on the scoreboard, we didn't play that bad, but the problem was bigger than a late Canada goal being why we lost. I also would keep Jones and Emberson together. That should be the second pair. Miller should be on the third pair.

Robertson-Turcotte-Wahlstrom
Kaliyev-Zegras-Caufield
Drury-Pinto-Brink
Beecher-Pivonka-Hall
Ford

Samuelsson-Harris
Jones-Emberson
Miller-York
Stastney

Knight
Wolf
Saville
Click to expand...

I’m fine with Jones/Emberson staying a pair, I just thought maybe Miller would be a little more comfortable with Emberson.. gotta find a way to get more out of him and maybe it’s as simple as just moving down to the 3rd pairing.

I thought Pinto was great that game, that line to me was the best and most effective line they had.. no reason to split it up. I also don’t know that Drury/Pinto/Brink is going to generate much.. I feel like Kaliyev/Brink can generate offence and make Drury useful there.

I think if you keep the Robertson/Pinto/Wahlstrom line together, then have Zegras/Turcotte/Caufield together (who despite me having listed 2nd, I think would be your top line), and Kaliyev/Brink flanking Drury and you’re looking at 3 lines that can generate offence.

Maybe they don’t work again and you try something else but for at least, next game I’d want to try it and see if it makes things better.
 
Dodospice said:
I thought Pinto was great that game, that line to me was the best and most effective line they had.. no reason to split it up. I also don’t know that Drury/Pinto/Brink is going to generate much.. I feel like Kaliyev/Brink can generate offence and make Drury useful there.

I think if you keep the Robertson/Pinto/Wahlstrom line together, then have Zegras/Turcotte/Caufield together (who despite me having listed 2nd, I think would be your top line), and Kaliyev/Brink flanking Drury and you’re looking at 3 lines that can generate offence.

Maybe they don’t work again and you try something else but for at least, next game I’d want to try it and see if it makes things better.
Click to expand...

Pinto was at fault for the first goal against. Didn't cover the net. He had a number of other poor defensive sequences. I believe he also took a penalty. I'm just saying that aside from the goals, he wasn't great, and I don't know if he's a top six center kind of player for a gold medalist. I don't think that line needs to remain together. It's not as if they are some super line. They've looked better than the other lines in the last two games, but I don't know if the fact that we are talking about them as being good is more a product of how bad the other lines have been at ES.

I'd rather just load up the top two lines than try to balance it out. Look what Canada did. Loaded up their lines. Hayton and Lafreniere were the difference makers. We need our best players playing 20 minutes per game. Thats how I'd like to try to play. All the smart teams nowadays play their best players big minutes, and give minimal minutes to the grinders. While I wouldn't say Pinto is a grinder to the same degree as some of the other players, he's not the same level of player as our top forwards, and I don't think we should act like he is just because he deflected a few pucks into the net or he's on the lineup card as the 1C.
 
Last edited:
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The commentator unintentionally made a point that wasn't about this coach, but applies to him. This coach coaches in a league with a lot of bigger, older players who play a grinding style. There aren't many high picks that play in the NCHC. This guy wants to coach our team like he coaches in his own conference.

Thats the mark of a bad coach, in my opinion. He doesn't try to adapt to the players at his disposal, and wants to make our team into his college hockey team. It didn't work in the first game, and I'm afraid some of his roster decisions are already going to handicap the team. Hall and Ford, who are both 4th line players on this team or 13F caliber of players, are both right-handed. However, Pivonka is the best center for the 4th line, so if you are going to play Hall and Ford, you either have to play them together on the 4th line as two right-shot wingers or you have to play one of them on a higher line than they belong.

Little things like this add up. This coach clearly thought he could structure the team to play a style where there are grinders on each line, but now he can't adjust because he makes decisions like taking Hall and Ford over left-handed Boldy.
 
William H Bonney said:
It's clear Sandelin thinks he needs to prioritize the 19 year olds, which to some extent is true, but it's unnecessary to force so many 19 year olds into roles they don't deserve. Drury and Ford are 4th liners and may actually be successful in that role. He tried them in roles they didn't deserve and it didn't work. Ford was okay but Drury was an abomination. The only forward line that should possibly remain the same is Robertson - Pinto - Wahlstrom.

Hopefully Sandelin adjusts because it's necessary to win regardless of the lines he started with, but if he's stubborn, he'll join a long line of failed USAH coaches that didn't know how to adapt.

The odd thing about his obsession with the 19 year olds is Sandelin just won a NCAA Championship 2 years ago where 5 of his 6 defensemen were freshmen. It's much harder to win the NCAA tournament with a young group than it is to win the WJC and yet here we are.
Click to expand...

I think we've seen at this tournament that it makes sense when you have the players to do so. On defense, I see no reason why the 19 year olds shouldn't be prioritized. I thought York and Johnson should've both made the team, but York in a 6D role and Johnson as the 7D. Give them both some special teams, but low minutes aside from that. You bring them along for the experience, not to play big roles, if its not needed. The top 5 defensemen should've been Samuelsson, Miller, Emberson, Jones, Wilde, in my opinion. 5 19 year olds. And I wouldn't even complain about Harris or Regula playing big roles either, two other 19 year old defensemen.

But with the forwards, we see that we don't just have the talent for it. The 2000 born forwards are really weak, while our 2001 born forwards are very strong. I don't think it's going to kill the team to let the 2001 born forwards be our top forwards. And maybe we don't win gold because another team has a good crop of 2000 born forwards that outplays our 2001 born forwards at the top-end of these rosters, but I think its even dumber to persist with playing the 2000 born forwards in bigger roles for the sake of it.
 
William H Bonney said:
Not sure the 2nd period stats are accurate. For example, right now the IIHF says Brink also played 0 minutes in the 2nd, which definitely isn't true as he was the one that created the play at the end of the period that Pinto buried after the buzzer. That's not to defend the TOI distribution at all, but these tweets are likely wrong.

Box score says Kaliyev played 10:05 total, which would almost be 8 minutes in the 3rd if he didn't play in the 2nd, which definitely isn't right, so he must have played some in the 2nd.

Edit: yep, I was right. Kaliyev played 4:14 in the 2nd. You'd think a Kings writer watching for 2 players would have noticed.
Click to expand...

Not sure if it was directed at me or John (I'm a contributor for his site), but we both thought we saw Kaliyev in the second. He's reporting the numbers provided though.

I should have known better, as it turns out we both saw him but the numbers were wrong. My apologies for that.

Point being, though, is it's just another two skilled players (along with Zegras, Caufield, etc) who were misused or not put in a position to succeed.
 
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Pavel Buchnevich said:
Pinto was at fault for the first goal against. Didn't cover the net. He had a number of other poor defensive sequences. I believe he also took a penalty. I'm just saying that aside from the goals, he wasn't great, and I don't know if he's a top six center kind of player for a gold medalist. I don't think that line needs to remain together. It's not as if they are some super line. They've looked better than the other lines in the last two games, but I don't know if the fact that we are talking about them as being good is more a product of how bad the other lines have been at ES.

I'd rather just load up the top two lines than try to balance it out. Look what Canada did. Loaded up their lines. Hayton and Lafreniere were the difference makers. We need our best players playing 20 minutes per game. Thats how I'd like to try to play. All the smart teams nowadays play their best players big minutes, and give minimal minutes to the grinders. While I wouldn't say Pinto is a grinder to the same degree as some of the other players, he's not the same level of player as our top forwards, and I don't think we should act like he is just because he deflected a few pucks into the net or he's on the lineup card as the 1C.
Click to expand...

I get loading up two lines, I’m just not convinced that Kaliyev/Brink at 18 are better than Pinto at 19. He plays a different game then the other 2 and one that I think is a fit on that line with Robertson and Wahlstrom.

Plus if you want to truly load up a line, I think Zegras/Turcotte/Caufield is better then anything else that could be put together. Caufield needs play makers around him, to make himself successful and utilize his skill set. What better way to do that then putting him on a line with Zegras/Turcotte? Kaliyev for me just isn’t a natural playmaker and on this one, I’m just going with my gut but he feels to me like the type of player that really struggles as an 18 year old in this tournament before coming back at 19 and putting in a strong performance.

Sometimes it’s just about gut feeling and my gut is leaning me towards wanting to see those lines together.
 
I can’t believe that this coach actually rolled out those lines today. Does he hate offence? Because those checkers that he likes so much did not deserve those minutes. Seems like he was playing to stop Canada when on paper USA has a better top six (in my opinion). If this goes on the whole tournament maybe next year LA and Anaheim won’t send Turcotte, Kailyev, and Zegras. Can’t imagine 10 minutes a night playing out of position is better for their development than regular league play:
 
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AveryStar4Eva said:
I can’t believe that this coach actually rolled out those lines today. Does he hate offence? Because those checkers that he likes so much did not deserve those minutes. Seems like he was playing to stop Canada when on paper USA has a better top six (in my opinion). If this goes on the whole tournament maybe next year LA and Anaheim won’t send Turcotte, Kailyev, and Zegras. Can’t imagine 10 minutes a night playing out of position is better for their development than regular league play:
Click to expand...

It would be one thing if playing out of position was translating to success, but I feel like they had some solid practice/exhibition lines and then this happened. I don’t get it.
 
kilowatt said:
It would be one thing if playing out of position was translating to success, but I feel like they had some solid practice/exhibition lines and then this happened. I don’t get it.
Click to expand...

Yeah it just feels like the coach is trying to force something that won’t work. Both Zegras and Turcotte are good playmakers so you’d want them in the middle. If the coach likes checkers there is easily enough players to run two checking lines, but right now it feels like 4 checking lines.
 
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Besides the ridiculous line combinations, it’s evident that this is one of our most weakest defensive casts in a long time.
 
AveryStar4Eva said:
I can’t believe that this coach actually rolled out those lines today. Does he hate offence? Because those checkers that he likes so much did not deserve those minutes. Seems like he was playing to stop Canada when on paper USA has a better top six (in my opinion). If this goes on the whole tournament maybe next year LA and Anaheim won’t send Turcotte, Kailyev, and Zegras. Can’t imagine 10 minutes a night playing out of position is better for their development than regular league play:
Click to expand...

Not sure that I agree with your top 6 statement but I do respect your opinion. In my mind the USA has 5 first round forwards Canada has 10 overall.
 
Also how the **** did Curtis Hall make this team?? He was awful.

I felt bad for Caufield. You could tell he was trying to create but with Drury and Beecher he couldn't even get the puck in the offensive zone.

I don't hardly remember any US scoring chances at 5v5. Can we pull a Finland and fire this coaching staff in the middle of the tournament?
 
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