LOL But we had Pierre talking up Granato as a brilliant coach for putting Slater out to take defensive draws!!!!!!
Olympics: USA Roster Discussion (Roster in post 1)
- Thread starter AmericanDream
- Start date
-
Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
LOL But we had Pierre talking up Granato as a brilliant coach for putting Slater out to take defensive draws!!!!!!
Unspecified
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Apr 29, 2015
- 6,239
- 3,111
Amazing that some of these players played/will play in the NHL should give most spares hope they can to reach mediocrity.
Only Terry and Donato have reasonable hopes of future NHL careers. Brian Gionta is the oldest American Olympic athlete so the ancient relic doesn't count. Jim Slater had a good career, he's just 35 now. The rest are has beens or never was. Undrafted: Chad Billins, Brian O'Neill, Broc Little, Bobby Butler, Ryan Gunderson, Mark Arcobello, Matt Gilroy, Ryan Zapolski,
Most of the rest were 4th plus round draft picks. Brandon Maxwell the only drafted goalie. Blum, Stoa, Sanguinetti, Chris Bourque, Noah Welch the only first two round picks. And Welch was drafted in 2001!
Will Borgen basically wasn't on the team so whatever, but honestly if anything this tournament made me question whether Jordan Greenway is a legitimate NHL prospect or not
If the NHL decides sooner that their players won't be allowed to participate...Could we roster a better team? If the whole team was college kids do we compete for gold?
William H Bonney
Registered User
I’m not implying that I would have left Arcobello home, but when you don’t take your highly skilled players, you end up playing a guy like Arcobello a lot and relying on him in the make-or-break shootout.
The fact that Granato stopped tinkering with his lines given what you pointed out is peak USAH coaching.
Northerner
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2017
- 1,764
- 424
The USA should always be a threat to medal. I don't care what anyone says. Using journeymen, superstars, college or otherwise. There is no excuse to not be a threat to medal always.
Our style of hockey is the problem; the coaching, if you will. They didn't look inspired. They looked tired, and yes, they didn't play as good as they should have.
But if you watch the Canada game this morning - THAT is hockey. Well-coached, hard working, or whatever it was, but they were cutting off pucks, hitting when they needed to hit. The played inspired.
Canada shouldn't have been miles ahead of USA in their performance, but they were. It was evident if you watched both teams play.
William H Bonney
Registered User
Did anyone just see Granato’s intermission interview? Basically reiterates your point. He was downright giddy for a participation medal. Too many folks at the highest levels of USAH leadership (management and coaches) are just happy to participate. They don’t expect to win and they prepare accordingly. It’s an embarrassment.
Exactly. That was embarrassing. It was as if they were happy with the result and didn't think they could better. I nearly laughed when he said the 3-4 NCAA players was the best amount. No, it clearly was way too low, as the NCAA players starred.
Northerner
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2017
- 1,764
- 424
No I missed it but I don't know what to say.
I don't know a lot about Granato's coaching skill but I do know the squad just didn't perform.
I don't think they were capable of playing better.
You can't bring a knife to a gun fight !
AmericanDream
Thank you Elon!
You'll just have to have American Dreams of Gaudette centering Donato and Terry, and wonder what could've been.
William H Bonney
Registered User
Can we stop saying they did as well as they could have or they couldn’t have done better? Germany made it to the gold medal game. This tournament is an embarrassment for USAH. Three failures in the three most recent big tournaments, plus the never ending charade that is the World Championships.
It’s time to clean house at USAH.
It’s time to clean house at USAH.
Not going to happen.
Is and most likely always will be run by a combo of New England / Wisconsin
Engebretson
Thank you, sweet rabbit
Couldn't agree more. With no current NHLers available, they had an opportunity to get creative with the complexion of this roster and chose the predictable USAH way. This tournament should be a wake up call for USAH.
Two parts.
This team as constructed went as far as they could reasonably be expected. Maybe they beat the Czechs and get murdered by fake Russians. But the team sucked and was made worse by bad coaching.
Second part though yeah the brass has clearly shown a cluelessness on the international stage.
AmericanDream
Thank you Elon!
I have been saying this for a long time. When we do win Gold at the WJC level, we almost do it in spite of our selection committees. Constantly leaving off names that should be there year in and year out (though last years squad I had very little to complain about). The 2014 Olympic team was just an epic embarrassment and all those involved with that team should never be asked to construct a team again.
This Olympic team really didn't have much to go with, but there clearly were some better names out there that they left off again, especially the kids. It just seems an outdated mindset and thinking when constructing these teams despite this games growth all over the country we still seem to box ourselves into corners.
The other issue is lack of elite coaching. We just do not have enough of it yet IMO. We have plenty of NHL coaches, but nobody you can really call elite in my eyes, and that trickles all the way down to what we have at college and juniors. We need better coaching overall to lead these teams, we did not get that with Granato who like others said seemed happy to get where they got - that is not good.
As for our World Championships year in and year out- many of us have been saying this but it seems as if it will never happen - keep accountability and punish those that decline. It is a simple system, you play when you are called upon and not when it seems to fit your schedule or deemed a big enough stage. Once we start letting players know if they decline this tournament and put a system in place, if and when a World Cup/Olympics comes along they will be in danger of not making the squad vs someone who has answered the call. I am fine with that 100% even if it means we take a less talented squad at times.
William H Bonney
Registered User
I don't expect it to happen, but it should.
I don't buy it. I 100% agree that the construction of the team significantly hampered the likelihood of this team having success here, but outside of Russia, none of these teams have any of their top-end players. Team USA was not unique in its challenges here, and leaving this tournament without a medal (let alone without playing for one) is a failure.
It's even bigger than the lack of a medal. It's the fact that other countries continuously do more with less. Most teams here "sucked" and most had a lot less talent than Team USA. And yet, we lost to Slovenia! Germany has 4 wins in this tournament and is in the gold medal game. Germany!
When teams that barely qualify for the top tier tournaments beat you or are playing for a medal and you're not, you certainly didn't do as well as you could have and you certainly could have done better.
I don't say that in any way to absolve USAH management from their continual boneheaded roster decisions or the fact that our last 2 Olympic head coaches played not to lose rather than to win. But most of the rosters here were ugly, and yet, here we are, again on the outside looking in.
AmericanDream
Thank you Elon!
another player I forgot about who I would have loved to see on this team - Steve Moses
he played in the AHL this year but went to the KHL - maybe thats why they didn't bring him..I dont know.
he played in the AHL this year but went to the KHL - maybe thats why they didn't bring him..I dont know.
Rabid Ranger
2 is better than one
Coaching (at all levels) is still a weakness for USA Hockey. We strike lightning in a bottle from time to time but overall we still lag in top level coaching. Tony Granato. LOL.
He was the emergency (third) playoff goalie for the Milwaukee Admirals several years ago, but he never dressed for a game to the best of my knowledge. So nobody else saw him in the AHL. Then he went to Europe for the last 5 years.
Moses was a big star in the KHL. He scored 36 goals for Jokerit in 60 games in 2014-15. Nashville signed him and he came to Milwaukee and scored 2 goals in 16 games, which is not what the Preds expected of him. They released him. I thought that he quit on the team in Milwaukee. He went to St Petersburg and scored 10 goals in 21 games in the rest of 2015-16. The next year he scores 3 goals in 24 games for St Petersburg. Then he goes to Rochester for 17-18 and scores 7 goals in 29 games. I think he was released or suspended and he goes back to Jokerit.
Either he does not like playing in North America or he is a head case. How else do you explain his playing on two good to above average AHL teams and not finishing either season? As a Milwaukee fan, I assumed that he would get 8 to 10 games here and then move up to Nashville. I never dreamed that he would flame out. I think his career is over. All of this happened after his best season as a pro! I don't get it. He is 28, not 38.
Gionta was on the team to give it some experience and leadership. He just retired last year after 15 NHL seasons. Bobby Butler has 130 NHL games and is a PK specialist who can score. He has 21 goals in 36 games for Milwaukee so far this season. Blum, who also played in Milwaukee from 2008-13 is not who I would have picked for this team, but he played okay. Arcobello played 139 NHL games, but after Edmonton, he was a journeyman. Some of the fans in Nashville liked him, but he only played 3 or 4 games before going to Pittsburgh in another trade by Poile.
You can't just slap a team together at the last minute. If it wasn't for Zapolski, this team would have been winless.
I predicted 5th place for the US and they didn't make the Medal Round. I sure didn't pick Germany to be playing for the Gold!
