Are the United States missing Robertson, Caufield, DeBrincat?
Team USA went undefeated through the group stage at the Olympic Games, rattling off three straight regulation wins, taking the group and claiming the No. 2 seed along with a bye to the quarterfinal round.
Brothers Matthew and Brady Tkachuk have produced up front, as have captain Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes. But at times, the Americans were shaky against both Team Latvia and Team Denmark, seemingly fueling the fire of the questions many ahead about Bill Guerin’s roster choices, most notably leaving out prolific scorers like Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield and Alex DeBrincat.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss whether anything the Americans have shown so far suggests that any mistakes were made in the construction of the roster.
Tyler Yaremchuk: On the U.S. side, I was on with Colby and Johnny earlier today, and I caught the tail end of them talking about how through three games the Jason Robertson thing is still looking like a big, big miss. From what you’ve seen on this USA team, do you still think they could have benefited from a Robertson and I’ll throw Caulfield in there as well, or has the forward group maybe not been an issue?
Steve Peters: It’s been a different offensive group for USA than Canada. We talked about Canada’s speed and balance. Team USA hasn’t had that dynamic, where we’re going to roll lines and everybody’s going to put pressure on. I think you’re seeing the Matthews line do it, and Guentzel I thought was outstanding yesterday. He had more scoring chances from the slot, he was just unable to score, and that Eichel Tkachuk line has also been outstanding, and then it’s everybody else. I don’t want to say that as a slight because Brock Nelson has had a great tournament; Jack Hughes has showed glimpses; Tage Thompson on the power play, but I do worry about this team. And let’s face it, this whole tournament is all built about USA versus Canada. That’s how both teams are trying to beat that opponent. I’m not sure USA can outscore Canada; I’m not sure if this gets to be where USA needs to absolutely get a goal, man, you’d sure like to have some of those offensive guys that just seem to find the net, and Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield are those type of players. They’re leading all Americans in the NHL in goals, and you gotta look at those guys when you actually need a goal who you’re throwing over. I know Auston Matthews is starting to put up numbers now, but the Americans don’t have that dominant forward that Canada has when you talk about needing one. It’s MacKinnon. It’s McDavid. It’s Celebrini. They don’t have one, they have three, and you could even go deeper on that team. So I do worry about the Americans’ ability to score and outscore Canada. Can they make this a 2-1 game against Canada or a 3-2 game? Yeah, I think that’s how they’re going to have to win. Again, if they get there. I’m very, very concerned from a Team USA standpoint against the Swedes who, if they get good goaltending and can finally play to what their expectations are, that Swedish team can be very good.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…