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WJC: 2020 Team USA Roster Talk

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HaveKnifeWillButcher said:
This is reminiscent of the hate Housley was getting early in 2013 U-20. Maybe Sandelin will prove to be correct also.
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I thought of that team too, but they are different situations.

The 2013 team was also a very skilled, but the frustration with Housley wasn't that his lines were nonsensical (although most were upset that Kuraly was centering the 2nd line and Trocheck the 3rd line), it's that he was sticking with his lines even though they were struggling offensively (lost 1-2 to Canada and Russia back-to-back) in a short tournament where every game matters.

Housley wasn't burying his super skilled 18 year olds (i.e. Galchenyuk) on the 4th line. When he was playing a center (i.e. Grimaldi) at wing, it was to stack the first line, not to play him out of position and down the lineup. For the most part, he had top players in top roles and had guys paired that had history together. For example, he had Gaudreau - Miller - Grimaldi as the top line. Those were top players in top roles. Housley's lines just weren't producing and he wasn't changing things up, which is where a lot of the frustration was coming from. But a lot of folks were also very hard on the top players (Miller, Gaudreau, Grimaldi, etc.) for not producing because they were all playing in prime roles to produce.

People were just begging Housley to mix things up to find chemistry before it was too late. And to his credit he eventually did, i.e. he benched Grimaldi, moved Vesey to the top line, among some other small tweaks, and the scoring took off, which is why he got, and deserved, a ton of praise.

Sandelin and co. are doing things very differently. They're playing players out of position in favor of low skill guys in prime roles. They're burying super skilled guys on the 4th line with little ice time no matter how they perform. And while they're getting more scoring thus far than Housley's team was early, Sandelin also doesn't have the defense to fall back on that Housley did as the 2013 team was dominant defensively.

I sure hope Sandelin makes the obvious changes and puts his team in the best position to succeed. He'll take heat regardless if they don't succeed, but at least he'd be losing with his best players playing. There'd be nothing worse than losing while Drury leads the forwards in ice time and guys like Zegras can't even get a regular shift. But the situations aren't all that similar.
 
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OKOptimistic said:
Miller had a good game, made some good passes into the o-zone and even skated up a few times
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He was definitely better today, although they need him to be better. When he has massive brain farts, which are often, he usually simplifies the crap out of his game (often during the game) after them. Since his massive brain fart against Canada was to give away the game at the end, I'm not surprised he played simpler today as I'm sure he was stewing on it all night. The issue is he unfortunately forgets the lessons he learns pretty quickly.
 
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William H Bonney said:
While your point is true, Wahlstrom has been awful and honestly should be demoted to the 3rd line with his performance in these first 2 games. He's been the weak link by far on his line with Robertson and Pinto.
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I thought I just had an unnatural hate on for Wahlstrom, but if others see that he isn't playing well for USA, then I guess I'm not hating.
 
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TheDogCerby said:
I thought I just had an unnatural hate on for Wahlstrom, but if others see that he isn't playing well for USA, then I guess I'm not hating.
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I think he's a player trying struggling to find his true style, which leads to a lot of frustrating performances, but also flashes of dominance. I think he's also put too much pressure on himself to singularly lead them to success on offense. They just need him to play hard and smart; if he does that, he'll get results because of his skill.

His effort is inconsistent and so is his style of play. He's a primarily a shooter, but he's often fairly selfish with the puck, trying to dangle his way around the offensive zone like he's Patrick Kane. But unlike Kane, Wahlstrom usually dangles his way into turning it over or passing it far too late, thus killing the play. He's at his best when he's just getting the puck on net with his heavy shot or driving to the net like you saw with his goal today. But too often in these first two games he's opted to over-handle it. Hopefully the goal will help calm the nerves and he can find his groove.
 
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William H Bonney said:
I think he's a player trying struggling to find his true style, which leads to a lot of frustrating performances, but also flashes of dominance. I think he's also put too much pressure on himself to singularly lead them to success on offense. They just need him to play hard and smart; if he does that, he'll get results because of his skill.

His effort is inconsistent and so is his style of play. He's a primarily a shooter, but he's often fairly selfish with the puck, trying to dangle his way around the offensive zone like he's Patrick Kane. But unlike Kane, Wahlstrom usually dangles his way into turning it over or passing it far too late, thus killing the play. He's at his best when he's just getting the puck on net with his heavy shot or driving to the net like you saw with his goal today. But too often in these first two games he's opted to over-handle it. Hopefully the goal will help calm the nerves and he can find his groove.
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Agree on wahlstrom, his game should be all about quick touches. Either shoot it or pass it, he's not a great puck carrier and lacks the poise to wait for things to develop.
 
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Unfortunately, I missed the game again today due to travel. Hoping that I'll be able to watch the rest.

Based purely on box score scouting, it looks like the only real change was to switch Beecher and Ford. I didn't watch the first game, but from everything I've read, I don't see how you could have thought that was the only change that needed to be made.

I guess as a compliment to Sandelin, I understand what he's trying to do, but I just think it's stupid. Mostly, it shows a lack of understanding for his personnel. I think it was mentioned in this thread previously, but he's trying to pigeonhole this roster into his style of play rather than building something around the players. There's still plenty of time to change things, but the fact that he changed almost nothing from Game 1 to Game 2 has me concerned.

I mean, the fact that almost everyone here had the same top 6 prior to the tournament (which is incredibly unlikely on a forum like this) and half of those players aren't playing there is crazy.
 
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UnfinishedBusiness said:
We need to play our best lines.
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Clearly Canada’s goaltending is pretty weak. It’s painful to think about what could have been in the CAN/USA game had the USA rolled out a more explosive lineup featuring big minutes for elite offensive players instead of 19yo grinders. I really hope they rethink the lines against Russia which is pretty much a must win game (assuming we don’t want SWE or FIN in the QFs) as both Canada and Russia are very unlikely to lose either of their last 2 games (but one can hope).

Not to continue to harp on coaching/GM, but it’s really starting to look like cutting Regula/Krygier in lieu of Stastny and other smaller, offensive D was a mistake. The small US d continues to be bodied in their own zone leading to extended opposition o-zone pressure (and the PK obviously is horrible). Even the bigger, experienced D (Miller, Samuelsson) have made crucial errors leading to back breaking goals for the opposition. I can definitely see how a big, solid, shutdown D-man along the lines of Krygier could really help this team right now if they want to make a serious medal run. Would really be nice if they utilized the elite skill in the forward group for offense and focused on shutdown D for defense as opposed to what they’ve been doing.
 
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It’s also insane to me that Wahlstrom and Brink are playing the half-wall on PP1 when you have Zegras, Caufield and Kaliyev on the team. I love Brink but he is not even in Zegras’ league when it comes to QBing the PP from the half-wall (an example are the subtle shoulder fakes Zegras makes when passing that opens up the net which isn’t even in Brink’s repertoire). In addition, Caufield has a better shot than Wahlstrom from the left circle and the PP is where is he most dangerous. At every level of play, Caufield has proven he is a better goal scorer than Wahlstrom (NTDP, NCAA, U18s) and it’s really not even close. It’s really hard to watch the talent on this team being marginalized and I really have no idea if the coaches are truly playing chess on another level or just trying to be too smart for their own good.
 
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So what is Sandelin's strategy? Spread the offensive firepower around? Put your trust in the 19 year-olds? Playing possum? That last one is a joke, btw (I think).

He's an experienced, successful coach. Just trying to understand lineup decisions that he obviously favors, but appear to be far from optimal.

I'm very curious to see if he adjusts against Russia. A win tomorrow, and the USA is well positioned for a top-2 finish. We need our most productive forward lines against a big, skilled opponent that played about as perfect a game today as one could hope for.
 
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I guess these were the lines from morning skate.



Still not great, but it's an improvement. Maybe Sandelin will get it right by the medal round (assuming they get there)? :dunno:
 
SabresSharks said:
So what is Sandelin's strategy? Spread the offensive firepower around? Put your trust in the 19 year-olds? Playing possum? That last one is a joke, btw (I think).

He's an experienced, successful coach. Just trying to understand lineup decisions that he obviously favors, but appear to be far from optimal.

I'm very curious to see if he adjusts against Russia. A win tomorrow, and the USA is well positioned for a top-2 finish. We need our most productive forward lines against a big, skilled opponent that played about as perfect a game today as one could hope for.
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The good news is there is still some time for him to optimize his line-up, and I don’t think there is much doubt that he has evidence right in front of him that he needs to. At least based on what we’ve seen in previous tournaments. The competition among the top teams is just too tight.

The bad news is he doesn’t have much time, so this is definitely a game where I’d feel a lot more comfortable seeing some steps that show he’s making adjustments to really take advantage of who his best performers are.
 
I'm no expert in fitting these lines together but I trust the board's judgement. Glad Sandelin is willing to change.

I really like the Beecher/Caufield/Turcotte line.
 
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