World Cup of Hockey: What went wrong for Team USA?
Where does Team USA go from here after being eliminated from the World Cup of Hockey following a loss to Canada?
In Lake Placid at the 1980 Winter Olympics, Team USA hockey experienced its highest of highs — a miracle victory over the Soviet Union. Now, 36 years later, they might be experiencing their lowest of lows following a disappointing World Cup of Hockey. USA has seen significant growth in hockey since 1980, but their loss to Canada is a colossal step back.
Who is to blame for the meltdown? It’s easy to blame the players. However, a lot of the blame must be put on general manager Dean Lombardi and head coach John Tortorella. Most of it lies on Lombardi for making questionable roster decisions and for hiring Tortorella in the first place.
But Tortorella is still to blame for questionable decisions made with the roster that he was given. Perhaps no coach could have beaten Canada with USA’s roster. However, that doesn’t excuse scratching Dustin Byfuglien and Kyle Palmieri. Team USA has struggled to score, so benching arguably their most productive defenseman (Byfuglien) and a 30-goal scorer (Palmieri) makes no sense.
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Lombardi’s blame begins with his initial roster decisions. Justin Abdelkader should not have been on Team USA, yet he was a part of the initial roster. Meanwhile, America’s best goal scorer (Phil Kessel) got left off the roster. Luckily for Lombardi, Kessel’s wrist injury would have kept him out of the World Cup anyway. But leaving Kessel off the initial roster was just his first mistake.
Kessel is not the only player whose absence from Team USA’s roster was questionable. Tampa Bay Lightning center Tyler Johnson is one of the most dangerous men in hockey when his wrist is healthy, yet David Backes, pointless at the World Cup, made the team over him.
Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson would have been a solid addition. He’s a creative forward who can make something from out of nothing. Sounds like something a team that ended the 2014 Sochi Olympics by getting shutout two consecutive times could use over someone with 21 penalty minutes like Ryan Kesler. Sure, Kesler is a great defensive center who can win faceoffs, but Paul Stastny brings the same skill set to the table while also providing offense.
Lombardi also left a lot of great defensemen off Team USA’s roster at the World Cup of Hockey. Jack Johnson has not been a good defenseman since roughly 2013. Yet he got a spot on the team over Justin Faulk, one of the most offensively proficient defensemen in the world. Bruins defenseman Torey Krug or Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle would have been better fits than Erik Johnson.
The roster decisions were justified by Lombardi saying that he had a plan to beat Canada. Lombardi stuck with certain veterans and went away from others. When building the roster, he chose grit over skill. America has done this for quite some time, and as the World Cup has proven, skill is preferable to grit. Dylan Larkin, Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Couturier, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Brandon Saad, J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Jacob Trouba, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Seth Jones are starring for Team North America. That doesn’t even include Alex Galchenyuk, who should have made the North American team. This gives Team USA a perfect chance to start valuing skill and speed over intangibles like grit.
They can start by cutting ties with Tortorella and Lombardi. The two attempted to build a team with a strategy that Team USA used in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. They neglected to consider how much the game of hockey has changed since then. Consider the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. They won the Stanley Cup by assembling a roster full of skill and speed. Team USA is stuck in the past and must change how it builds its rosters. The best way to do that? A shakeup among the people directly responsible for making the rosters.
America has several candidates to replace Lombardi as general manager. Devils GM Ray Shero, Islanders GM Garth Snow, and Rangers GM Jeff Gorton each have the experience necessary. Shero has experience building a Stanley Cup winner, something that neither Snow nor Gorton have, so he likely has the upper hand.
Team USA would have a lot of coaches to choose from. Todd Richards, formerly of the Blue Jackets, has experience coaching the team at the international level. So does Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette. Laviolette also runs a high octane offense, something that Team USA should adopt. Dan Bylsma and Shero have a strong history together, so Blysma makes a lot of sense as well (though Bylsma does have the 2014 Sochi Olympics disaster on his plate). Stanley Cup winning coach Mike Sullivan would be a strong option as well.
The World Cup of Hockey quickly turned into a nightmare for Team USA.. But the program could learn from its failures and come back strong with the right personnel moves.