The United States of Hockey

Twenty young men, all clad in blue sweat suits, sneakers of all colors and the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen crowded a podium designed for just one person in the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. With index fingers pointed to the sky and their other arm around a teammate, the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team gave one more lasting image from a 1980 Winter Olympics that was chock full of them.

When the celebration ended and the players began pouring onto the red carpet below, the last foot to leave the podium represented the last time an American men’s hockey player stood atop the medal stand at the Winter Olympics.

via Third String Goalie

That was 34 years and eight Olympics ago. The Americans have come close twice since, never closer than they were before Sidney Crosby deposited a puck underneath Ryan Miller and into the net in Vancouver in 2010. One goal short. Close is nice, but it isn’t gold.

The U.S. has earned eight silver medals since the first Olympic hockey tournament in 1920, compared to just two gold, won 20 years apart and both on American soil.

When the 2014 edition of the U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey Team takes the ice Thursday, they do so with an opportunity as good as any they’ve had in the NHL era of the Winter Games. In a lot of ways, it is an opportunity built on the foundation laid by that same group of 20 individuals who found a way to beat the Soviets and fit every last one of themselves on top of that podium. Continue reading →

The U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey team held its second practice in Sochi Tuesday. Once again, head coach Dan Bylsma was experimenting with lines as most of them changed from the first practice held on Monday.

(Photo: USA Hockey Magazine)

This is not uncommon for the early stages when the team comes together, but they do have precious little time to gel and find some familiarity with linemates and special teams units. The fact that Team USA opens with a tough Slovakia squad and Russia for its first two games doesn’t offer the most favorable in-game situations to try things out, so these practices are key.

It’s interesting to see what Bylsma has been doing so far. On Monday, at least two players on every line had played together before, which made for some weird mixes, but when you’re trying to manufacture chemistry quickly, made sense. Tuesday’s lines are blended up pretty good though.

Perhaps Bylsma doesn’t want to tip his hand too much in terms of his lineup, which also isn’t a bad strategy, but we won’t know what the official lines are like until an hour before the first game when teams must submit lineups to the IIHF.

Coming up after the jump, a look at the lines and D pairings with some thoughts on each.

Continue reading →

The U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team gathered on the ice for the first time as a group Monday in Sochi. With that first practice comes the coaches beginning with their experimentation process with forward lines and D pairings.

Photo via USA Hockey Magazine

Some news also came out of the first practice as well. General manager David Poile will not be joining Team USA in Sochi due to the injuries he suffered after getting hit by a puck at Nashville’s morning skate Thursday. It’s such a shame as this was a post that clearly energized Poile and one that he put a lot of time and effort into. Ray Shero will be acting GM, which really only matters as him being a sounding board for the coaching staff and for him to participate in directorate meetings as a representative of Team USA. It’s really too bad.

Getting back to the lines, according to reporters on the scene, here is what those looked like (in no particular order). Keep in mind that the team will likely dress 13 forwards and seven defensmen: Continue reading →

With the Olympic break officially on as of Saturday night and players beginning their flights to Sochi this weekend, it’s time to take a look at how the players that will make up the U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team fared in the lead-up to the games.

First off, the U.S. had a bit of scare on the last night of NHL action before the break as Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty left Saturday night’s game in Carolina early and did not return. After the game, however, he declared he was ready to go to Sochi still.

Team USA’s GM, however, David Poile, is unlikely to make it to Sochi until at least the medal round, if at all, after undergoing two surgeries after being hit in the face with a puck at Nashville’s morning skate Thursday. That’s an awfully unfortunate situation for the GM who definitely poured a lot into building this roster. Hopefully he’ll have a chance to make it, but I’m sure he’ll remain in close contact with the staff.

Coming up after the jump, a look at Team USA’s statistical leaders from this season to date, as well as a look at how they’ve fared since being named to the team with a few thoughts on some of the takeaways from the stats heading into Sochi.

Continue reading →

The current generation of NHL players has a legacy-building opportunity in Sochi. (USATSI)

Walk into the USA Hockey office in Colorado Springs and take a look around. That’s what I did my first day as an intern in June 2007. As I stared up the stairwell I would walk up every day for the next year, my eyes drifted past the first step and up to a large display hanging on the wall.

Encased in glass was the stick Tony Amonte used to score the game-winning goal late in the third period against Canada in the decisive third game of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey final. It was a historic moment for American hockey and seemed to signify the United States’ arrival as a legitimate world hockey power.

Two years after that historic victory, NHL players started competing at the Olympics. Seven years after I walked into that building and nearly 18 years since Amonte drove hard to the net and chipped the puck over Curtis Joseph, it’s still the biggest U.S. goal scored in my lifetime. The same goes for every member of the 2014 U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey Team.

There have been other notable goals that carried great significance, but nothing quite like that. Continue reading →