The United States of Hockey

The U.S. won’t know its opponent until later this afternoon, but they got on the ice in Sochi and got back to work in preparation. When the tournament gets to this stage, it doesn’t take much for the unexpected to happen.

Team USA will meet the winner of today’s qualifier between the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Wednesday at noon ET on USA Network.

Coming off that fantastic preliminary-round performance to earn the No. 2 seed, the U.S. has raised the level of expectations for what this team can accomplish. Team USA is now a legitimate gold-medal threat and anything less would be considered a disappointment.

The fact that their opponent will be coming off an elimination game the night before, the U.S. has to take advantage of the rest they’ve gotten and get back to pushing the pace of games. When the U.S. is allowed to skate, it’s hard for teams to keep up.

After the jump, a look at some of Team USA’s lineup options for the quarterfinal. Continue reading →

The U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey Team finished the preliminary round Sunday with a 5-1 win over Slovenia and a final record of 2-1-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and a goal differential of plus-11. That makes the U.S. the No. 2 overall seed heading into the playoff round.

The Americans now await the winner of the qualifier between the Czech Republic and Slovakia for their quarterfinal opponent.

Instead of going through and recapping the Slovenia game like the others, I figure it’s probably a better use of time to take stock of the team through its first three games overall. There was plenty that went right, but there are definitely many areas in which Team USA can improve.

Coming up after the jump, a quick look at all three games, Team USA’s statistical leaders, some individual assessments and further examination of what looked good and what didn’t for Team USA in the first portion of the tournament.

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So often a game gets hyped up to a degree where it’s impossible to live up to. Somehow, USA-Russia surpassed the hype. The game included back and forth action, some controversy and perhaps the most compelling shootout you’ll ever see.

USATSI

The U.S. came away with a 3-2 victory, two points in the standings and an entire country pretty excited about hockey right now. The win should propel the U.S. and give them some added confidence heading into the rest of the tournament, but in the end, it is a small step in the tournament.

Team USA will now meet Slovenia Sunday with a chance to clinch first place in Group A and a bye to the quarterfinals. There’s a lot of good hockey left, but that game set a seriously high bar.

I already broke down some thoughts on the incredible performance by T.J. Oshie in the shootout over at CBSSports.com, so I’ll try and cover some new ground with five thoughts I had after this game.

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It’s the biggest day of the preliminary round as the U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey Team takes on host Russia at the Bolshoy Ice Dome in the second preliminary round game at the Olympics. The two squads will take the ice at 7:30 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network (also streaming live on NBCOlympics.com  in the U.S.).

Dan Bylsma appears to have turned his focus on defense as he has shuffled his defensive pairings. The forward lines remain the same, but there could be some in-game juggling there as well.

Jonathan Quick gets the start in his second international game and it’s safe to say he probably hasn’t played in an atmosphere like the one he’s about to since the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And even that may be mild compared to how the home crowd will be rocking at Bolshoy for the Olympics.

The U.S. has to play an aggressive, but smart game to slow the Russians’ vaunted scoring attack, while also finding a way to maintain the frenetic offensive pace they were able to play with against Slovakia.

Team USA’s lines after the jump. Continue reading →

Saturday morning will bring the most highly anticipated games of the entire preliminary round as the U.S. meets Russia. The electricity in the Bolshoy Ice Dome is bound to leap through your TV and you may require medical assistance, so watch this game with extreme caution.

Not since Rocky Balboa traveled to Russia to take on Ivan Drago (with David Backes reenacting to the right) has a contest pitting the U.S. against Russia in the motherland been so anticipated.

In all seriousness, though, the way the rest of the Olympics have gone so far, this may be the best game yet. You’ve got two teams coming off high-scoring openers with Russia surviving a brief scare to take out Slovenia, 5-2, and the U.S. earned a surprisingly easy victory over Slovakia, 7-1. And one of the great international rivalries of the last 30 years.

When the two teams meet at 7:30 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, they’ll each face a completely different game than the ones they played previously. Two high-powered offenses with solid enough goaltending and maybe a question mark or two on defense. It should be a fairly wide-open game.

With that in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to look at some of the things the U.S. did against Slovakia that they’d like to carry over and a few things about how defending Russia will be different from that last game.  Continue reading →

Well, that was something, wasn’t it? There was so much buildup to the Olympics and now that it’s finally here, Team USA is apparently really excited about it. So excited they scored seven goals against a pretty solid Slovakian side.

To say it was unexpected is putting it mildly. Unlike Canada and Russia, who struggled a bit against weak opponents, the U.S. surged into their opening game with the confidence of a team that had been together for years it seemed. There were some miscues, but nothing too alarming and nothing that proved too costly.

The team played the way it was built to play and that’s the best result the U.S. could have hoped for. The 7-1 scoreline was just an added bonus.

Now they carry a ton of momentum into the next game and also end the first two days of action with the best goal differential in the tournament, which can definitely matter in tie-breaking scenarios.

Coming up after the jump, five thoughts on our first look at Team USA.

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The U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey Team opens play against Slovakia Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Network. Team USA is looking to improve on its silver medal finish in 2010 and it will need a good start against a Slovakian side that isn’t as deep, but one that is not to be underestimated.

It should be a good test for both teams to start the Olympics as most players are still gaining that familiarity with new teammates and getting their legs under them. Expect some sloppiness out the gates, but things should get better as the game progresses.

The U.S. will go with Jonathan Quick in net, as announced by Dan Bylsma Wednesday. Ryan Miller will be backing up. I had previously penned a column saying I’d lean to giving the job to Miller, but Bylsma has not yet confirmed the net will be Quick’s when Team USA meets Russia in the second game of the preliminary round. So it’ll be interesting to see how that I all plays out. The U.S. has a good problem to have in net with three guys that are capable.

USA Hockey already released the preliminary lines for the opener against the Slovakians and they look somewhat similar to what was utilized in practices earlier this week, with a few subtle differences. Continue reading →

At 7:30 a.m. ET Thursday all of the build up, all of the hype, all of the projected rosters and medal predictions and words upon words of opinion all fade into the background and it’s time for U.S. Olympic hockey.

Every four years since 1998, we have been treated to the game in its finest form. Unrivaled speed, unmatched skill and Stanley Cup-level drama all wrapped into 11 days and 30 games. There’s nothing quite like Olympic hockey and finally it is here once again.

After one of the most exciting and most watched Olympic hockey tournaments in 2010, the world’s eyes turn to Sochi, Russia, where hockey will once again be the centerpiece of the Winter Games. It’s time.

With that in mind, I figured I’d put together a little America kit for you to adequately prepare for the greatest event in American sports. Packed in this little kit is some Olympic-related content from this blog, the finest offerings via YouTube and anything else that popped into my brain and passed the “Is it America Enough?” test. Continue reading →