I highly encourage perusing the usahockey.com site for some pretty cool pictures, game blogs for the World Championship games, and the player blog of Adam Burish. I was surprised to see that USA Hockey in this tournament is very similar to the Kings, apparently the youth movement is contagious…. Who knew?! In fact, the guys have been split there for some drills/practices per Burish where the divide is between the Under 25's and the Over 25's. Think of the Kings, where a similar division could be made here with the Under 25's:
• Anze Kopitar
• Dustin Brown
• Jack Johnson
• Patrick O’Sullivan
• Brian Boyle
• Teddy Purcell
• Peter Harrold
The Over 25s include:
• Michael Cammalleri
• Lubomir Visnovsky
• Rob Blake
• Tom Preissing
• Jeff Giuliano (if resigned and the Union Leader wrote that the Kings want to talk contract with him prior to July 1)
• Mikal Handzus
• Derek Armstrong
• Jason LaBarbera
• Matt Ellis
• Alexander Frolov
• Kyle Calder
• Raitis Ivanans
Keep in mind that this Team USA represents a changing of the guard. If the NHL play-offs weren't the issue, the regulars were generally stalwarts like Mike Modano, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull, Jeremy Roenick, Doug Weight amongst others. They have been replaced for Peter Mueller, Patrick Kane, Zach Parise, Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan amonst others.
Prior to the relegation rounds at the World Championships, Team USA won the teams they were supposed to win: Slovenia, Germany, and Latvia and lost to Canada. Now, Team USA fell to Finland in a bit of a heart breaker. The US took a 2-0 lead and with 3 unanswered goals by Finland that went to a loss. Per the game blog from
camerone@usahockey.com, the video goal review failed and the contest should have been tied at regulation. Here are some of Camerone’s thoughts on Team USA:
“What we learned: Even video replay isn’t infallible. Finland edged the U.S. by one-goal, but the score should have been 2-2 at the end of regulation. I will now grit my teeth and temper my analysis by saying it was quite obvious the puck entered the side of the net.
We also learned that Robert Esche is the man for Team USA in net. He made 42 saves and showed veteran leadership that will help the youngsters playing in front of him.
Glass half empty: Team USA can’t close out talented opponents. Aside from Latvia and Slovenia, the U.S. has yet to snuff out any opponent when the opportunity presented itself. Missed chances against Canada, a rally allowed to Germany and another to Finland present reason for worry heading toward the quarters.
Glass half full: A young U.S. roster is playing light years beyond where it should given the relative age of its players compared to other teams. The Finland game will sting as does the Canada game, but this unit has proven it learns quickly and fights harder than ever against adversity. Something tells me the U.S. is looking forward to rematches with Canada, etc.
Player of the game: Robert Esche. As mentioned before, he made 42 saves and flashed the leather on multiple occasions. Today’s game sealed his spot in net. It’s his tournament now.
What’s next: Monday, 11:30 a.m. EDT, vs. Norway.”
Team USA vs. Team Finland Game Blog
Equally cool is the blogs from new participant, Adam Burish. See if you find the parallels I did to the Kings’ own youth movement and perhaps why the Los Angeles veterans so under-achieved this season.
“This is a young, energetic group of guys we have on this U.S. team, which makes it a lot of fun to be around. Everybody seems to be in the same position as far as being young in our NHL careers, and experiencing the world championships for the first time. Some of the "older" guys have made jokes about not fitting in because they are older than 25, which on this team seems like grandpa status.”
Burish’s Welcome to Camp Blog
The older vs. younger theme continued when Team USA did some bonding in an old-fashioned paint ball fight. Read more:
“We set up two teams, the "old guys" vs. the "young guys." The “old guys" were 25 and older, which is called old in this bunch of guys. The funniest part of the experience was right when we showed up Matt Greene and Zach Parise went right to the middle of the field and on the count of three started shooting point blank at each other as we all looked on.
If you have ever gone paintballing you know that when those balls hit you it really hurts as they travel between 60-80 mph. It was hilarious to see them jumping around while they freely shot each other. The next day at practice everybody was laughing at guys that had their bodies covered in welts left from getting shot all afternoon.”
Team USA Bonds in Paint Ball Shoot-Out
Finally, reading Burish’s blog on his first experience competing in the rivalry between U.S. and Canada is a must read:
“Our last game and only loss came to our biggest rival, Canada. It was my first experience in a USA vs. Canada game, and it is something I will always remember. The intensity that a game like that brings with two huge rivals, even though it is still so early in the tournament, was unbelievable. Both teams have such great pride, and play with such desperation to try and win. Unfortunately they beat us with less than a minute remaining, but I have a feeling we may see them again. In the mean time we have other tough, important games that we must be focused for, and we will be.”
The Rivalry Between the U.S. and Canada Gains New Recruits
All and all, it appears that Team U.S.A. needs to show as much patience as the Kings. Team USA may have lost to Canada and Finland, but it appears they were hardly one-sided matches. The old adage that it isn’t over ‘til it is over, since there is more hockey to be played. Even if that is not to be, that merely means it is not this time,
no longer …. not ever.
Finland Rallied with a 3 goal third -- AP Game Article Photo Gallery Canada Game Showing Brown at Home in the Crease Team USA Watches Their Flat Go Up the Rafters Carla Muller Carla.hockeygal@att.net
CarlaMuller
USA Hockey’s Own Youth Movement Parallels the Kings 
