With a 4-3 loss to undefeated Finland in the first game of the quarterfinals, the US was ousted from the Olympic Games, missing out on a medal. After getting the silver in 2002 in Salt Lake City, the Americans were optimistic about their chances at a medal coming into the tournament. However, several factors contributed to their demise. A closer look at the roster shows two major factors responsible for their demise:

Age: The international game is faster paced than that of the grind-it-out NHL; the Olympic rinks are bigger and there’s more room around the net. It’s built for young, fresh legs, something that the Americans simply lack. The household names like Chelios, Tkachuk and Modano are getting up there in age, and the four games in five nights style of the preliminary rounds took their toll as the tournament progressed. The top US defensemen are well into their 30’s, and have been successful in the NHL of late largely due to the league’s leniency on obstruction interference, something that was disallowed in the Olympics. The blue-line geezers had trouble keeping up with the speedy Fins, who burned them for four goals.

Scoring: Coming into the tournament, there was speculation as to who would put the puck in the net, and that speculation has translated into a struggle to score. With the loss to Russia in the final game of the preliminary round, the team has lost three straight one-goal games, scoring only one in two of those. The team needed someone to step up in the quarterfinal game, but there were few candidates. The older snipers like Guerin, Modano and Tkachuk were all having down seasons before the start of the Games, and had a combined three goals in four games during the preliminary round. Additionally, not one defenseman had registered a goal during the entire tournament. Brian Gionta was tied for the team lead with three goals, and came up with another one to make the Finland game close late in the third period. But it was too little too late to overcome the four goal outburst Finland put on in the first two periods before the US defense clamped down in the third.

Overall, the US team was better than the sum of its parts, but could not put a complete game together the entire tournament. When their defense was solid, they could not score goals, with two straight 2-1 losses to Slovakia and Sweden. When they finally broke through, they were not tight enough on the other end, with a 5-4 loss to Russia and a 4-3 loss to Finland. Interestingly enough, three goals were more than Finland allowed in all 4 games of the preliminary round; alas, it was not enough.


What’s next?

The US must regroup and learn from the mistakes of this tournament. They will have to do a better job with player selection in order to compete for a medal in the 2010 Olympics. It will be important to stay away from possible sentimental choices like the aging Mike Modano and Keith Tkachuk. The brain trust will need to select younger and faster players if they want to compete with the world hockey powers like Sweden and Russia. In contrast, Rick DiPietro has shown poise, and the experience he gained in Torino will only help. If he continues playing at a high level, he can be counted on to as a mainstay of the US team for years to come.
This year, Finland came back from a poor showing at the 2002 Olympics with an impressive run to the semi-finals, and there is no reason why the US can’t be the Finland of 2010, provided they make the right personnel moves.

Lev Elgudin is a contributing writer for Atomic Sports Media. He can be reached at lev.elgudin@atomicsportsmedia.com.