Another USA Hockey Rant

Well, here I am with another bitchy post about USA Hockey. The first 12 players for our 2010 Worlds team have been announced and it doesn't look good. Here's a breakdown. The forwards are:

Ryan Carter
Brandon Dubinsky
Christian Hanson
David Moss
Eric Nystrom
Kyle Okposo
Ryan Potulny

Frankly, I'm horrified by this group. Right off the bat, I see four fourth liners in Carter, Hanson, Moss, and Nystrom. I'm a little biased about Dubinsky being a Rangers fan. The guy looks great regularly, but he's developing very slowly. At the very least he's deserving of a fourth line spot on this team. I know Ryan Potulny had a decent little season in Edmonton but can we make sure other guys aren't available first before signing him up? Okposo is the only slam dunk of the group.

Now for who is missing. From the Olympic team, Bobby Ryan, Chris Drury, David Backes, Phil Kessel, and Ryan Malone all played for teams that missed the playoffs. Ryan Callahan did too but he's nursing a late season knee injury. There are plenty of options among players from teams eliminated in the first round including Olympians Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, Dustin Brown, and Paul Stastny. These guys can't all be hurt. Anyone who isn't should be on the team.

The four defensemen selected are:

Taylor Chorney
Matt Gilroy
Jack Hillen
Mike Lundin

This is an absurdly inexperieced and not overly talented group. Why on Earth the USA Hockey brass jumped to name four blueliners so quickly is beyond me. I don't think a single one of them warrants a roster spot.

Olympians Tim Gleason, Ryan Whitney, and Erik Johnson were all sitting out the first round of the playoffs. Why weren't they named? All three of them were unavailable? Really? First round losers Ryan Suter and Jack Johnson played in Vancouver. Hopefully, they'll heed the call.

Among other defensemen way more capable than those named are James Wisniewski, Zach Bogosian, Matt Niskanen, Tom Gilbert, and Keith Ballard. And those are only guys from non-playoff teams. Is Mike Lundin considered better than any of those guys by anyone in the hockey world? Come on.

Scott Clemmensen was named in net. I hope he's only needed as a third goalie. Craig Anderson, Ryan Miller, and Jon Quick are recently available. Hopefully at least one of them will don the red, white, and blue.

I have no idea why so many good players never make their way onto Team USA's World roster every spring. Were they not asked? Did they turn the invite down? Are they injured? I understand a guy sitting out because of an injury or a family related issue but otherwise I call out Americans for not caring enough about this event.

A probable excuse for a player to turn down an invite is that he just played a long season and wants to spend time with his family. I can see where they're coming from but Canadians and Europeans could drop the same excuse but they don't. Why? Because they take way more pride in representing their nations in hockey tournaments. Like winning anything, a little sacrifice is required. By sacrifice I mean a millionaire taking his family to Europe for two weeks and staying in first class accomodations for free.

Here's my favorite example. Take an American who is more than talented enough to be on Team USA. His team missed the playoffs. He's tired from a long season, he's been in the NHL for a number of years. He wants to see his kids more than he can during the season. He's asked to play in the worlds. So is a Canadian teammate of his asked to play for Team Canada. He's also got young kids and even has some minor injuries. The Canadian jumps at the chance to play for his country. How can the American look at this and not play for his country? It blows me away. His Canadian teammates have bragging rights from Vancouver and he's given a chance to change that in this latest tournament (albeit on a smaller scale). How can he not take that opportunity?

If I'm working for USA Hockey I'm emailing the list of world championship medalists to every relevant American player so he can see just how emabarrassing that list is for Americans. They'd see that the USA hasn't won the world championship since 1960. That was when in Olympic years the worlds weren't played and the Olympic champion doubled as the world champion. They'd see that we haven't won the worlds outright since 1933. That is abominable. They'd see that we haven't even won a silver since 1956. 1956! Does this not piss anyone else off?

Oh really, ______? You can't make it over to Germany this year? Ok, well just do me a favor and look at this attachment. Have a nice offseason.

Maddening.