USA Hockey is replacing gray with green at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Halifax and Quebec City.
The Americans, with a roster filled with NHL players 25 and younger, beat a spirited Latvian crowd and team 4-0 in Halifax, Nova Scotia in each team's first game of the tournament. The annual World Championships are usually held in Europe, and this is the first time Canada has hosted the event.
Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks), Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan (Los Angeles Kings) and Zach Parise (New Jersey Devils) scored for the US. Next up for the Americans is Slovenia, then a date with a Canada squad playing on home ice in the national sport.
The National Team Advisory Group of Don Waddell, David Poile, Ray Shero and Brian Burke went with a youth movement this time around, while American stars of the past like Keith Tkachuk (St. Louis Blues), Bill Guerin (New York Islanders), Mathieu Schneider and Doug Weight (Anaheim Ducks) all sat this one out.
Now, the Green Team is hoping to come away with gold. A medal is not out of the question, but gold may be. Americans have never won a tournament without strong goaltending. Can Tim Thomas be the difference?
Selfish thoughts and commentary: It's about time USA Hockey gave John Tortorella his due. I bet many NHL fans don't even realize he has more wins than any American-born coach in NHL history. He's got the fire and confrontational style of a Herb Brooks. I think he can coach like him as well.
In the midst of USA Hockey's necessary youth movement, it is great to see future Hall-of-Famers Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick playing so well in the NHL playoffs. Both of them were the standard-bearers for USA Hockey for 20 years, and I believe these two 500-goal scorers finally put to rest the appaling idea that Americans could not score in the NHL.
I've seen it before, but it props to USA Hockey for the National Team Development Program. Most of the US roster has gone through the system and have trained and played together at various tournaments. No more all-star teams!!
Head-scratchers: Where were Brian Gionta, Jack Johnson, Erik Johnson and Ryan Kesler in Team USA's plans?
Overcoming adversity, in spite of nearly insurmountable odds, was no rare occurrence in the life of former USA Hockey head coach Herb Brooks. Sadly, Brooks died in an automobile accident in 2003, and was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.
But if Herbie were here, Bob Bradley could take a lesson or two from the 1980 US Olympic Hockey coach that he might apply to his current US Men’s National Soccer team. I consulted Kevin Allen’s book, USA Hockey: A Celebration o####reat Tradition (Triumph Books, 1997)for some insight as to what lessons Bradley might glean from Brooks.
Lesson #1: Believe: You know the deck is stacked against you, but you play to win anyway.
The 1980 US Olympic team was far less talented relatively than Bradley’s US Soccer squad at the Copa America. Most of Brooks’ (pictured left) players had never played professional hockey, and all of Bradley’s roster for the Copa were professionals. Much less talented than the opposition, but professionals nonetheless.
Through most of the 20th Century, professional players were not allowed in Olympic Hockey tournaments. The Soviet Union was able to field the best team in the world because their players were technically in the Red Army, and therefore, eligible to play in the Olympics. But, make no mistake, the USSR team of 1980 was unquestionably the best in the world. Allen writes that the Soviets inflicted a 10-3 thrashing of the same US Olympic team that would beat them and win the Gold medal just a week before the games. The year before, they had beaten an NHL All-Star team 6-0.
When Brooks said he wanted to win the gold medal in Lake Placid, not many believed he could, maybe only Brooks himself.
Lesson #2: Turn to humor: Laugh at the opposition to break them down to mortals. Herb made his players laugh at the mighty Soviet right wing Boris Mikhailov by comparing them him to Stan Laurel of “Laurel and Hardy” fame. He told his players in jest “You can beat Stan Laurel, can’t you?”
Mikhailov and Laurel (left)
In the “Miracle on Ice”game, the US played against legendary Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak, the Dominek Hasek of his era. When the USA tied the game 2-2 with one second left in the first period, the Americans had already shown the Soviets to be human, and it was coach Viktor Tikhonov who stunned the crowd by pulling Tretiak and inserting backup goalie Vladimir Myshkin at the start of the second period.
By that point, the laugh was on the USSR. Pulling Tretiak was just what the Americans needed to prove to themselves that they could win. Psychologically, the removal of Tretiak was a huge roadblock that got removed, according to Allen. Bradley can do the same with his opposition (see below).
Argentina's Lionel Messi.........................And Fast Times' Jeff ####oli (You D**K!)
Lesson #3: Carpe Diem: Seize the Day
Brooks was a master motivator and strategist. His players saved their best performances for when it mattered most. Mike Eruzione, of course, scored the game-winning goal to beat the Soviets 4-3 to advance to the gold-medal game in 1980. Goalie Jim Craig must have thought he was being shot at, he turned so many rubber biscuits aside to preserve the Americans victory in the tournament.
According to Allen, Brooks read note card to his team before the USSR game. It said: “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here.” Brooks was hard on his players. He rode them mercilessly at times to instill in them a sense of teamwork and shared responsibility. By the time the Olympics came around, they all understood there would be no tomorrow if they lost. Again, Allen writes that champagne awaited the US players after the victory against the Russians and no one touched it. They would still need to beat Finland (which they did, 4-2 the following day) to win the Gold Medal.
It seems impossible, but miracles can happen.....
But wait a minute, Soccer is not Hockey…. Soccer and Hockey are different sports, to be sure. Bradley’s Copa team had no practice time, and Bradley was so consumed with the Gold Cup, he must not have given the Copa America any preparation time in his mind before beating Mexico 2-1 in the Gold Cup final.
Brooks had almost a year to prepare for the Olympic games, and weeded-out the best 20 players and molded them into a team. Bradley had no such opportunity. However, it is not beyond possibility that Bradley already has in mind the 25 or so players who likely represent the USA in South Africa in 2010, should they qualify. The time for molding the clay is now.
Also, Brooks used a hybrid style of European technical skill with North American-style grit and toughness. A similar hybrid can exist for soccer between European tactics and molding it with South American athleticism and creativity.
Herb Brooks could teach a lot to Bob Bradley. It’s too bad he’s not here to do it, for those who knew him, Brooks was a man that oozed confidence and enthusiasm. He was infectious with his desire to teach and coach. Bradley would do well to read up and follow Brooks’ example.
Though I am a life-long Southerner, ice hockey is my game. I was likely the first hockey-specif ic sportswriter in the state of Louisiana when the ECHL arrived in 1995. I was a freelance hockey sportswriter for local fishwraps between 1995-2000.
Being from New Orleans, I follow the Saints, Hornets and LSU in that order. I have been from Los Angeles to New York City to watch Wayne Gretzky play, and I attended my first hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1985. The greatest hockey ever played was the 1987 Canada Cup Final between Canada and the USSR.
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