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WJC: 2024 Team USA Roster Talk

SK94 said:
I think USA Hockey overthinks the roles every year. We have only won in age groups that were clearly exceptionally good. I think that you choose the best 23 available players for this tournament and that is enough if it is enough. Especially nowadays when the whole game has changed so much where skill matters much more. It's stupid to leave out players from the team every year whose performances deserve to be included and then watch as Canada lifts the trophy once again.
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Like the year Canada had 20 1st rounders and lost to us in the gold medal game because we had guys like farinacci in our middle/bottom 6 playing simple, heavy and hard hockey that lead to us winning gold? .
 
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The year we beat Canada in the final, which also was our last victory, the Canadian media hyped up their team because they had 100 first rounders, but they always have 90 first rounders, so it's not a huge difference.

That age group for the USA had been very good against international competition. They had only lost a few times over the years, and when they did it was stuff like uncharacteristic bad goaltending from Knight or great goaltending from Askarov. They were winning games regularly scoring 6-10 goals, and not only against the worst teams they faced.

We also had a lot of first rounders. Like our whole top 9 was first rounders, and a number of them high first rounders. We had the best goalie at that tournament. Probably the two best at the tournament. The big question was the defense.

Canada is always going to have the most first rounders, but that doesn't mean they'll go in with the best team every year.
 
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DatDude44 said:
Like the year Canada had 20 1st rounders and lost to us in the gold medal game because we had guys like farinacci in our middle/bottom 6 playing simple, heavy and hard hockey that lead to us winning gold? .
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Like I said, we have only won with our best age groups. 01s were certainly one of them. I think this year is another group who may be able to do that. My point is more that there is too often weaker age groups and they still leave some high caliber names out because they overthink roles and it has never worked out so far.

Addition to that, I don't consider Farinacci to be somebody who was some outfield pick.
 
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That 2021 team had 6 1st rounders at forward (including Beniers who was undrafted at the time). 3 of those were top-10 picks (also including Beniers). 2 5th/6th rounders that played with Leaman at Providence. The rest 2nd and 3rds.

This 2024 team has 10 1st rounders at F. Also 3 top 10. Nobody drafted lower than the 3rd.

The choices at F will be scrutinized, but they won’t be the reason why this team doesn’t win gold. It’s a no-brainer to leave Eiserman off. Hagens was a tough call, but I can see it since he wouldn’t be top-6 or needed for the PP.

That 2021 team had a better blue line. That’ll be the medal determinant for the US. Goaltending was probably better in 2021, but some of that is dependent on the blue line. There will probably be a ton more brain fart defensive breakdowns this year than Knight had to face in 2021.
 
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SK94 said:
Like I said, we have only won with our best age groups. 01s were certainly one of them. I think this year is another group who may be able to do that. My point is more that there is too often weaker age groups and they still leave some high caliber names out because they overthink roles and it has never worked out so far.

Addition to that, I don't consider Farinacci to be somebody who was some outfield pick.
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This stuff is way more high-variance than y'all care to admit. It's like a 6 game tournament with kids that make mistakes and clutch their sticks too tight or whatever sometimes. Not everything needs to be audited backwards to determine "reasons" things happen. The first time USA ever won this thing was because of a really stupid goal, lol, and they've lost other years in equally stupid fashion. Obviously a better age group can significantly alter the percentages in your favor, but all in all, it's a weighted dice roll. They aren't playing best of sevens here.

That core group from the '21 WJC that won Gold also got beat at the Under-18s, which is a way softer tournament, and that included Jack Hughes and a team that had two straight years to build chemistry (and performed super well throughout), because Askarov stood on his head. Things happen.
 
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WarriorofTime said:
This stuff is way more high-variance than y'all care to admit. It's like a 6 game tournament with kids that make mistakes and clutch their sticks too tight or whatever sometimes. Not everything needs to be audited backwards to determine "reasons" things happen. The first time USA ever won this thing was because of a really stupid goal, lol, and they've lost other years in equally stupid fashion. Obviously a better age group can significantly alter the percentages in your favor, but all in all, it's a weighted dice roll. They aren't playing best of sevens here.

That core group from the '21 WJC that won Gold also got beat at the Under-18s, which is a way softer tournament, and that included Jack Hughes and a team that had two straight years to build chemistry (and performed super well throughout), because Askarov stood on his head. Things happen.
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Underrated point, it's single elimination hockey. If you follow college hockey you know how weird that can shake out. The "best team" doesn't always win.
 
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Jaykay said:
Underrated point, it's single elimination hockey. If you follow college hockey you know how weird that can shake out. The "best team" doesn't always win.
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Lot of the time its a hot goalie that ruins team USA, they get frustrated and as the game goes on they grip their sticks too hard. And when you have a soft D core that can't lock it down like last year you lose. I'm worried about the back end because our "horse" is a small guy like Lane Hutson or Seamus Casey. There's no McAvoy or Faber/Sanderson on this team.
 
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SanDogBrewin said:
"Sat., Dec. 23 Canada Pre Tournament NHL Network Tape-Delayed, Dec. 24, 12 noon ET"

And to confirm NHL Networks laimness. The wonderful world of "tape delay".
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It's the only network in the US that will even show any of these tournament games, and they're lame for showing a tape delayed pre-tournament game? Come on.
 
DatDude44 said:
Like the year Canada had 20 1st rounders and lost to us in the gold medal game because we had guys like farinacci in our middle/bottom 6 playing simple, heavy and hard hockey that lead to us winning gold? .
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You think we won that tournament because we played long pants hockey, and not because that team had like 7 of the top 15 and 12 of the top 34 picks in the 2019 draft + 2 guys that went top 5 in other drafts?

The US won that tournament because it was probably the most talented overall crop of US juniors ever assembled. That 2019 age group dominated international hockey for virtually their entire youth career.
 
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SanDogBrewin said:
"Sat., Dec. 23 Canada Pre Tournament NHL Network Tape-Delayed, Dec. 24, 12 noon ET"

And to confirm NHL Networks laimness. The wonderful world of "tape delay".
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ESPN+ looks like it's showing it live at noon on Sat Dec. 23rd. They're also showing a couple round robin games live that could be interfered with if the game before it goes to long, for ex ESPN+ is showing Finland vs Canada live at 8:30 on Dec. 26th

They've done this a couple times and I've said before they need to get this tournament onto the networks of ESPN even if it's ESPN plus to start out. Fewer and fewer people get NHL Network with their streaming packages. Plus would be able to reach so many more people that don't know what this event is, all you need is to stumble across some great medal round games and you're hooked for the casual fan.
 
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NTDP said:
ESPN+ looks like it's showing it live at noon on Sat Dec. 23rd. They're also showing a couple round robin games live that could be interfered with if the game before it goes to long, for ex ESPN+ is showing Finland vs Canada live at 8:30 on Dec. 26th

They've done this a couple times and I've said before they need to get this tournament onto the networks of ESPN even if it's ESPN plus to start out. Fewer and fewer people get NHL Network with their streaming packages. Plus would be able to reach so many more people that don't know what this event is, all you need is to stumble across some great medal round games and you're hooked for the casual fan.
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Nice!

MTU34 said:
That’s gotta mean Mcrgroarty is good to go I’d assume
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Chris Peters agrees.
 
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