Men’s USA Hockey Road Ahead

The NHL is in it’s last day of games and the Men’s Olympic Hockey tournament is scheduled to start on February 12th. The US men’s team will play their first game February 13th at 7:30 AM. Team USA is in Group A which consists of Russia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Against Russia/USSR team USA is 3-8-1 all-time in Olympic games, with the classic victory being the Miracle on Ice in 1980. They are 0-1-1 against Slovakia and Slovenia has never qualified as an independent nation. While Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia the US played them once in 1976 and won.

All-time records are fun, but mean little in predicting how a current team will perform. In 2010 the US lost in the gold medal game to Canada, playing in front of Ryan Miller. Miller is back, but will have competition from Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Quick for the starting job. Zach Parise was named captain and will have Dustin Brown and Ryan Suter as his alternates.

This team will have a battle just to get through the group round. Goaltending will have to be strong and with some of the controversy over the selection of this team it will be interesting to see who emerges as the top performers. Players like Max Pacioretty, Phil Kessel, and Patrick Kane will need to play consistently to give an offensive boost. Big performances from Ryan Suter and Ryan McDonagh will be needed to bolster the defense. A top to bottom team performance is going to go a long way to pushing the team through the best hockey tournament in the world. Fortunately the only injured American as of this post is GM David Poile who will likely be late in joining the team in Sochi.

Stay tuned for results and more coverage!