Yes that definitely would have been a possibility.
After the games yesterday, it has become a moot point.
It is a bit upsetting to me, at least, as an American, that people are so down on our Olympic team. My honest best hope was 3rd in the group and for whomever the starting goaltender was to get hot for Tuesday and Wednesday and see if they can get a medal.
I just wish the casual fan had hopes coming in that were a little more realistic. There is way more attention being paid to this team than usual where I live since Erik Cole is on the team and everyone is expecting a repeat of 2002. People who I work with think that we're going to be having the Erik Cole gold medal parade this summer.
I've tried to tell people to temper their pie-in-the-sky thinking and use an analogy of the NHL Playoffs. It's one and out when you get to the quarters so you need your team to get hot at the right time. I'm not counting them out yet.
As I said before, I didn't watch the Sweden/US broadcast so I don't know if the context was made known for the "must win" comment. If it was then people shouldn't have gotten upset. But if it wasn't put into proper context then it's a bit regrettable.
But it doesn't seem as if much is taken into context with all of this now, does it.