- That said, now that I'm watching in the States and on ESPN, the tournament has been billed non-stop as a pulpit for propaganda regarding how amazing this US team is (was), and how they were built to beat Canada. The number of times that was repeated (at least on ESPN and the NHL Network, the latter which I thought would be neutral) was staggering. Best of all was the non-stop harping about 1 friggin win in 1996! They brought in Hull, Chelios (who were actually fun for commentary), Doug Weight with his ring, talked about Amonte all the time, and never made ANY significant mention that there HAS been a WC since 1996, and that the US didn't do that well. To say nothing of the defeats that they have suffered at the Olympics (I'll leave out the World Championships cuz nobody has all their players), directly at the hands of Canada. So, while I get the hype of the matchup, there was just this all too familiar unbalanced bluster. The other "Make America Great Again" thread...it's not completely satirical, given the rhetoric.
Anyway, just sick of having to watch roundtables and documentaries on the 1996 World Cup.
- The blame on the coaching and management is well deserved. There is also blame to go around on the players, and I'll say outright that this version of Pacioretty is very familiar and very alarming. Emelin is having a better tournament. Kane, Pavelski, JVR, Oshie -- they just didn't bring it, no matter what Torts failed to do. I actually don't think that there's a gap in US and Canadian talent, but there definitely is a difference in the system buy in and "110%" effort of every player on Canada, going back to probably 2002, but even more obvious under Babcock. Which brings me to my next point:
- TC is just unbelievably well-oiied and dedicated to executing the game plan. There is a certain pride factor that I'm happy to see exists in our collective consciousness, but that permeates to NHL players as well; I don't even agree with the roster 100%, but whoever is there is playing by Team Canada rules.
So, as much as the US played poorly, they barely had a second to make a decision -- there was already someone (superstar/elite player) with fresh legs bearing down on them. Credit has to be given to Canada for making the US look so helpless. I think that in the Europe game, it was more about not knowing how to regroup, though Europe has certainly bought in to their system.
