WC: USA at the 2010 World Championship

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William H Bonney

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Feb 27, 2002
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Jimmy Howard declined due to nagging injuries. He would have been a great addition but this team needs scoring help the most at this point.
 

William H Bonney

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Okposo, Oshie, Dubinsky, and Galiardi have all been pretty much no shows and we've scored 2 goals in 2 games, both having gone to OT.

We're lucky to even have 2 points. A must win versus Finland most likely to avoid relegation. It's looking like a pathetic ending to an amazing year for USA Hockey.

I hope Gordon changes up the lines to try and get something going. Or at least play the 4th line more since they've easily been our best line.
 

Rabid Ranger

2 is better than one
Feb 27, 2002
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Okposo, Oshie, Dubinsky, and Galiardi have all been pretty much no shows and we've scored 2 goals in 2 games, both having gone to OT.

We're lucky to even have 2 points. A must win versus Finland most likely to avoid relegation. It's looking like a pathetic ending to an amazing year for USA Hockey.

I hope Gordon changes up the lines to try and get something going. Or at least play the 4th line more since they've easily been our best line.

I'm not sure this showing so far is "pathetic." Its disappointing, but sometimes teams don't click. I hope Gordon preps for the Finland game a little differantly. We need a spark. Win that game (granted-a tough chore) and we're in business. Some positives is the defense and goaltending have been decent.
 

cagney

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Jun 17, 2002
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I'm not sure this showing so far is "pathetic." Its disappointing, but sometimes teams don't click. I hope Gordon preps for the Finland game a little differantly. We need a spark. Win that game (granted-a tough chore) and we're in business. Some positives is the defense and goaltending have been decent.

Sorry rr, but pathetic is absolutely the right word.
 

William H Bonney

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Sorry rr, but pathetic is absolutely the right word.

Yeah, I thought pathetic was a bit nice. I don't really care if this isn't a very good US team outside of the Top 5 or so defenseman, we shouldn't be losing games to Germany and Denmark outside of goaltending (miraculous their way and bad ours). Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. The worst part is that after the weak effort against Germany nothing changed in the 2 full days they had to prepare for this game.

Granted, a win against Finland and there's plenty of chances for redemption ahead but I'm not confident given the roster and the results in the first two games. Gordon has waited too long already to try and make changes in the lines to spark some chemistry and urgency and he still hasn't realized that our only line that's been consistently good (and usually keeping the puck in the offensive zone) is our 4th line that isn't being utilized enough given their play.
 

Rabid Ranger

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Sorry rr, but pathetic is absolutely the right word.

I guess. Not sure what to make of it. I wasn't sure how the offense would come together, but I thought it would be good enough for at least 3 goals a game. I mean, this isn't an offensive juggernaut, but there are some capable players. Not sure what's going on in Gordon's head, but he and the rest of the coaching staff has to create a spark or we'll find ourselves in the relegation round.
 

Drij

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The problem is all the guys in the top 6 are not top 6 players in the NHL.
Galiardi for example is a 3rd line defensive player.
 

Rabid Ranger

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Feb 27, 2002
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The problem is all the guys in the top 6 are not top 6 players in the NHL.
Galiardi for example is a 3rd line defensive player.

That's not true. Dubinsky, Okposo, and Oshie can be considered legit top six players (and serve that role on their respective NHL teams). The problem is they are inconsistent at this stage of the career, and the team as put together has shown little chemistry. Gordon needs to shake some things up.
 

NotABadPeriod

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Oct 28, 2006
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I wonder how not having any real veteran leadership among the forwards has hurt. Obviously the Olympics and playoffs limited the choices, but you just wonder if even having a guy like Mike Modano or Erik Cole--while those guys aren't going to be scoring machines, getting a voice like that in the locker room couldn't have hurt. Or perhaps even a guy like Mike Grier, Jeff Halpern, or Craig Conroy. Guys who have experience at the international level in these kinds of tournaments. Burke/Poile built this team young, and perhaps too young to succeed. Granted I forget if some of those guys declined, but there were only 5 skaters over 25 on the team, the oldest one being David Moss at 28 (Carter, Greene, Greene and Nystrom the others). They are the youngest team in the tournament overall (average age of only 24.41), and it's showing.
 

Drij

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Mar 5, 2007
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That's not true. Dubinsky, Okposo, and Oshie can be considered legit top six players (and serve that role on their respective NHL teams). The problem is they are inconsistent at this stage of the career, and the team as put together has shown little chemistry. Gordon needs to shake some things up.

Notice that all their NHL teams are bottom feeders...
 

usahockey22flyers

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I know the team isint performing but, i actually really like the roster... Oshie, Okposo and maybe even a guy like Dubinsky all have a shot at 2014 Sochi. Also America locked up Galliardi so if develops into an 80 point scorer (dreams) that would be awesome... Matty Gilroy, ya never know!
 

PanniniClaus

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Oct 12, 2006
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Every now and then the US will have a Worlds like this.They have a chance to move on although they have their work cut out for them. The chance of relegation is next to none. No way they could finish in the bottom 2 of a group of Kazakhstan, Italy and France.
 

NewBlood

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Sep 8, 2005
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American players who refused to play at the WC should get a part of the blame for this humiliation.
 

CDeeps

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Apr 15, 2005
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This squad is still good enough to beat the likes of Germany and Denmark, but there is little chemistry and even less time to gel. I wasn't expecting a fantastic tournament but this is inexcusable, to quote captain JJ. This team should still be performing at a higher level and some blame has to be pointed at the coaching staff. Maybe even It's do or die on Wednesday against Finland, who will be just as desperate.
 

Kronblom

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Keep in mind that this young team only have 6 players with prior experience of World Championships, not counting in Clemmensen. In recent years there have been 10 to 15 players that have played in this tournament before (10 in 2006).

Many of these unknown guys haven´t established themselves in the NHL yet and to expect them to go in and dominate in the World Championships is asking for too much.
 

Robin Hood

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There are NO excuses for the effort the American players have shown so far. I don't care if it's a team of third liners, they are still fulltime proffesional NHL players. Jesus Christ, among the apparent superstars that the Danish coaching staff has picked from the wooping 1,719 in total male players in the country, Denmark has Stefan Lassen who works in a bank and playes hockey after work and Jesper Duus, 42 years old, playing in the Danish league, playing big minutes, and a grand total of 2 fulltime NHL playes, (Eller and Larsen have only played 7 and 2 NHL games respectively). Ohh, you have to play Clemmensen, poor you, while we have a 20-year old from the Danish league who have never played in a international tournament before, and a 24 year old who playes in the Swedish tier II, and let in 10 goals against Sweden. Lucky us!!!

Enough with the excuses - a USA team should be able to come up with a much better showing, regardles of ice size, lack of chemistry, not having their best players, etc..

All the times through the last 8 years where we have suffered 10-1, 12-2, 8-0, and so on-defeats in the WC, you haven't seen us complain about all those crap details. When Sweden beat us 10-3 last week, we didn't excuse ourselves with poor chemistry, lack of stars (Hansen, Bødker, Regin, Green didn't play), and countless other excuses but blamed only ourselves. In the intermission between the 1st and 2nd period against Finland for example, all Frans Nielsen cared about was the lack of discipline by the Danes in the final 10 minutes of the period, even though we were leading, and he was furious about it.

Quit whining and play hockey, please.
 
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