GDT: Slovakia vs. USA, Feb. 18, 8.00 PM Torino, 2.00 PM EST

[joshjull]

You work with the players that you're given. If Laviolette would have rejected a lot of the slower, but more dedicated, Team USA members he would have been laughed at by Waddell and anybody else on the Team USA committee. You don't just turn your back on players that have given you a lot of good mileage over the years, unless they totally punk themselves out like Jeremy Roenick.

Do you honestly think Chris Chelios still deserves to be on Team USA by merit alone? I'd think not. He has, however, given a great deal to this country through his service and that much could not be overlooked.

Laviolette is simply trying to run the same system he has in Carolina, and he doesn't have the personelle to do it. Is that a coaching mistake? Probably. However, I think it's more of an indication that our talent level is dwindling and we're in a lull right now between a lot of REALLY good american players who are too young to play and the old regime that is on the way out. Canada has the luxary of having a team full of great players in their prime for every olympic year, we don't have that same luxary.

I'm not attacking Lavy just the way team USA was chosen. What was the philosophy when Waddell picked the team? I originally thought they were going young to give guys some experience and get ready for Vancouver. Then they pick many older players. Why? I'm not going to go through every player but there are a few younger players not chosen that will probably be on the 2010 team. Why not get them some experience.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Great game!!! Sucks that the US came in on the short end, but this was a hard fought battle. Wonderful hockey game.

LETS GO USA!!!

 

[braincramp]

. . . I still don't understand the *******s at NBC. Tape delay the AMERICAN game to show a bunch of Norwegians and Germans doing cross country skiing? Women at that, too.

You've made this same post in this thread probably four times.

You must not understand that NBC wants this game in the West time slot where there is the largest audience available. This makes the games more practical, economically, but also helps hockey by exposing larger audiences to it, and making it available to more current hockey fans.

You're getting a free broadcast in HD with no commercial interruptions of play, good announcers and camerawork, and all you can do is whine. Repeatedly.

Surely you can wait two hours?

 

[Anton Babchuk]

Laviolette is simply trying to run the same system he has in Carolina, and he doesn't have the personelle to do it. Is that a coaching mistake? Probably.

Well, we all know how to solve this dilemma.

MATT CULLEN!

 

[Vagrant]

Well, we all know how to solve this dilemma.

MATT CULLEN!

YES! The brokenfaced warrior will rise again! All your medals are belong to us!

 

[CREW99AW]

Good effort from the US team.Lousy final result.

Hopefully their scoring picks up.
and Lavy should go with the rested Grahame tomorrow.

 

[sabresrat]

Lavy should go with the rested Grahame tomorrow.

 

[ILuvLA]

What great game even though the US lost.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

Not bitter about Drury seeing little ice time. More bitter about the fact that I placed a small wager on the US today and saw Gomez and Gionta out there as if they were Jagr and Lemieux during the Pens Stanley Cup years. If I was American I'd be questioning the coaching staff's theory of relying on those 2 guys to lead me to success during this tournament.

Since Gomez and Gionta are both better then Drury, there's no reason to question the American coaching.

 

[sabresrat]

Since Gomez and Gionta are both better then Drury, there's no reason to question the American coaching.

How many game-winning goals do Gomez and Gionta have in international play?

 

[artilector]

I thought the US looked pretty good. Plenty of speed, good playmakers, hard work.
Probably not enough natural-born goal scorers in the long run, but on any given day, surely, US can compete with anybody.

I think Laviolette's system suits them, actually.. They don't have the personnel, especially D-men, to really shut down a skilled opponent - they have to do it by being aggressive, apply pressure all the time.. They did it pretty well against Slovakia, which is actually very good at patiently absorbing that sort of pressure - so I think the US is fine.

Btw, does anybody play the counter-attacking style any better than the Slovaks?!!Gaborik, Hossa, Svatos, Demitra... (and should've had Palffy!) All these guys are breakaway assassins.. I am a fan of Russia, and our forwards have always had speed, but as a group, these Slovak forwards have got to be one of the fastest corps in many years. It sure is a pleasure watching them work against other teams

 

[Brooklyndevil]

How many game-winning goals do Gomez and Gionta have in international play?

What's that have to do with Gomez and Gionta being better?

 

[Blades of Glory]

You've made this same post in this thread probably four times.

You must not understand that NBC wants this game in the West time slot where there is the largest audience available. This makes the games more practical, economically, but also helps hockey by exposing larger audiences to it, and making it available to more current hockey fans.

You're getting a free broadcast in HD with no commercial interruptions of play, good announcers and camerawork, and all you can do is whine. Repeatedly.

Surely you can wait two hours?

Not when other games are constantly providing the updates to a game that hasn't started yet. NBC did a horrible job of concealing the outcome of the game, to at least put a bit of suspense in it. No matter where you went, the USA-Slovakia score was being discussed. Tape delay DOES NOT appeal to larger audiences, especially when the game is being heavily discussed on all other channels.

 

[Lou is God]

Not bitter about Drury seeing little ice time. More bitter about the fact that I placed a small wager on the US today and saw Gomez and Gionta out there as if they were Jagr and Lemieux during the Pens Stanley Cup years. If I was American I'd be questioning the coaching staff's theory of relying on those 2 guys to lead me to success during this tournament.

What other forwards are you going to put out there? Gomez and Gionta are both in the top three in scoring for USA and the only other forward that has been worth a damn offensively is Rolston. I mean com'on.

They have been both playing great and your criticism of them playing to much is way off base.

What they should have done in the third period was drop Tkachuk who has been dead weight from their line and put Rolston with them.

 

[BMOK33]

I'm not attacking Lavy just the way team USA was chosen. What was the philosophy when Waddell picked the team? I originally thought they were going young to give guys some experience and get ready for Vancouver. Then they pick many older players. Why? I'm not going to go through every player but there are a few younger players not chosen that will probably be on the 2010 team. Why not get them some experience.

Age I think is killing the US, especially as far as speed goes....you can see they had no ability to beat Slovakia to any loose pucks and it almost seemed as if the Slovak team recognized this and whenever they were in the offensive zone with little room they would simply wack the puck to an open area knowing darn well one of their teamates would get their before any US player did.

 

[jcpenny]

The way i see it U.S. dominated the game and should have won the game if it wasnt for the lack of finish. Great hustle and hats off to Eric Cole, this guy is money.

 

[dok101]

Same old story with these guys. Although the U.S. forwards are not on par with some of the other teams, they should still be putting away more of these opportunities. There are some guys on the team who can find the back of the net with the best of them, but only Gionta has delivered. Where are Modano and Walt? We need them to get us through tight affairs like the one we found ourselves in against Slovakia.