"The people who built the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team used a roster-building strategy that was right on the edge between bold and insane. Their approach almost destroyed them on Sunday, in one of the most-hyped and most-consequential games in the history of the sport. And then, in sudden-death overtime, that strategy worked perfectly, delivering the United States a 2-1 victory, its biggest hockey triumph since the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the last time this program won a gold medal."
"Three of the four leading American goal scorers in the NHL this year, all with 30 goals in not even three-quarters of a season, did not make the roster. The NHL's No. 2 point-getting defenseman also did not make the roster. Nor did the New York Rangers' Adam Fox, a former Norris Trophy winner who's averaging nearly a point a game in the NHL for head coach Mike Sullivan's lousy New York Rangers."
The U.S. Olympic men's hockey roster prioritized physicality, faceoff specialists, and truculence over top scorers and high-scoring defensemen. General manager Bill Guerin excluded several leading American NHL goal scorers and a top point-getting defenseman, instead choosing players who mirror his own aggressive playing style. Canada fielded elite offensive talents like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby, making the matchup a high-stakes test. The American approach nearly failed during a tense, hyped final, but a sudden-death overtime goal produced a 2-1 victory and the program's first Olympic gold since 1980. U.S. player development improvement over two decades supplied greater skill depth.
Read at Slate Magazine
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