Embed from Getty Images It’s a little later than I would have liked to get this story up, but a late-tournament illness knocked me out of commission and the recovery took a little longer than I expected. Finally back on my feet, with a little distance from the tournament and a couple re-watches of some of the games and now we can finally wrap a bow on this tournament. The silver medal always feels a little empty with it coming in defeat. You could tell by the looks on the U.S. players’ faces just how empty a feeling it was for them, falling just short of the gold medal thanks to a late goal fr ..read more

Embed from Getty Images VANCOUVER — The U.S. finished preliminary play with a 3-0-1-0 record, beating Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Finland, while dropping a thriller against Sweden. Through four games, it’s still hard to get a read on this U.S. team. They have only just begun starting to establish an identity. They look a lot like recent U.S. teams, but I’m not sure we’ve seen them play like any of the teams that contributed to USA’s unprecedented streak of medals in three consecutive years. Part of the problem is that the team’s most skilled forward has played just one game as Jack Hughes has mis ..read more

Embed from Getty Images It’s always a better end to the story when the team that makes the miraculous comeback also wins the game. That wasn’t meant to be for the U.S. that recovered from an astonishingly poor performance through the first 50 minutes to earn a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to Sweden. The Swedes now have won 47 straight preliminary round games with their last loss coming Dec. 31, 2006 when they lost in overtime to the U.S. If you turned off the game after Erik Brannstrom easily weaved through USA’s defense to make it 4-0 in the third period, no one would have blamed you. The U.S ..read more

The first day of competition at the World Junior Championship came to a close after three tight matchups and one comical blowout. The U.S. National Junior Team avoided an early scare, using a third-period comeback to earn a 2-1 win over a Slovakia squad that got some spectacular goaltending. In other action, Sweden defeated Finland 2-1; the Czech Republic squeaked past Switzerland in overtime, 2-1; and Canada rolled over Denmark 14-0 (I am totally fine with Mr. Worldwide, but if I hear Pitbull’s ‘Don’t Stop The Party’ 14 times in the span of two hours again, my ears will start bleeding). But w ..read more

Embed from Getty Images The U.S. National Junior Team was finalized Sunday ahead of the 2019 World Junior Championship set to begin Dec. 26. The U.S. roster features 23 players — 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goaltenders. All of the five returning players who were in camp made the roster, but the final list was not without a few minor surprises. Here’s a look at Team USA’s final list as well as some thoughts on potential lineup configurations and thoughts on team configuration. First off, the players that made the team listed with some different positional possibilities. THIS IS ..read more

Embed from Getty Images Back for a limited time only, I’ll be providing some thoughts on Team USA in the build-up to the 2019 World Junior Championship starting today with the camp roster. Team USA’s bid to improve on a bronze-medal finish and extend an unprecedented three-straight medals streak alive will start in Everett, Wash., with the start of training camp. USA Hockey announced the 29-player preliminary roster that will be whittled down to 23 before the World Juniors begin on Dec. 26 in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. This should be an interesting group for Team USA, with several available ..read more

Embed from Getty Images Every coach who has ever coached an international tournament as at one point or another told his team that it is all about getting better in every game you play. The U.S. can’t say they’ve gotten better each time out, but they can say they had their best game to date when it mattered most. The Americans beat Slovakia 5-1 in the qualification round to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinal against the Czech Republic (The game will air Tuesday night at 10:10 p.m. ET. The Americans played their most complete game from start to finish, making only a few errors and playing thro ..read more

Embed from Getty Images Coming into the game, if you looked at the two rosters, you’d have expected the Olympic Athletes from Russia to be the better team and they were. The U.S. dropped a 4-0 decision to OAR and despite a shot counter that favored the Americans, 29-26, anyone watching the game saw that the Russians were better in a lot of different ways. That’s not to say that the U.S. didn’t have chances to keep the game tighter than the final scoreline ended. They certainly didn’t get run out of the building or anything. But the Americans’ inability to capitalize on the best chances took th ..read more

Embed from Getty Images Team USA bounced back in a big way from their shocking loss to Slovenia with a 2-1 win over Slovakia. With the win, the U.S. has four points in the standings and holds sole possession of first place in the group with one game to play. It’s quite a swing from the bitterness of Wednesday’s collapse. Considering Slovakia successfully outplayed OAR, the most skilled team in the tournament for a 3-2 win Wednesday, the U.S. had to work for the little bit it got. More importantly, however, Team USA had to minimize mistakes as Slovakia’s passive game thrives on opportunism over ..read more

Embed from Getty Images If you’re an American, you were probably like me sitting there with your mouth agape as Jan Mursak was left all alone in front and sent a shot past Ryan Zapolski to give Slovenia a shocking 3-2 overtime win over the United States. Yeah, not an ideal way to start the Olympics. Not an ideal result at any point. What’s so unfortunate about the game is that the U.S. was in control. They were the better team by far through 40 minutes. Their first period took me by complete surprise. Here is a team that had never played a game together, only had six practices including a morn ..read more