"USA Hockey Leaks over the past couple of days have prepared us for this, so there are no true surprises in this morning's announcement. That still doesn't make some of GM Bill Guerin's decisions any sounder. The most blatant is the omission of Dallas's Jason Robertson, who leads all Americans in NHL scoring with 48 points (24 goals). Robertson, like other top forward snubs including Cole Caufield, and to a lesser extent Matthew Knies and Alex DeBrincat, is a little one-dimensional."
"The snubs are smaller, younger guys, all offensively minded. The players who beat them out are less skilled but also less specialized. They check, they can play on the penalty kill, they can center a line. That flexibility is a nice thing to have, though it may prove unnecessary in a short tournament. More relevant to USA Hockey's thinking is, for lack of a better term because you know the braintrust is using it incessantly, is "grit.""
Team USA enters Milan aiming to win gold and prevent Canada from doing the same. The roster selection emphasizes versatile, defensively responsible players who can check, kill penalties, and center lines rather than pure offensive specialists. High-scoring Americans such as Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield, Matthew Knies, and Alex DeBrincat were omitted in favor of players judged to provide more "grit" and lineup flexibility. The choices include some borderline veterans like Vincent Trocheck, Brock Nelson, and J.T. Miller. The omission of defenseman Adam Fox stands out as particularly surprising given his season performance.
Read at Defector
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]