What strengths and weaknesses do the United States have with their current roster?

While the United States isn’t necessarily the favorites for men’s hockey at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, they might have the most well-rounded roster in the tournament. From their goaltending, to their blueline, to their entire forward group, there’s no one area an opponent can target as an exploitable weakness. The Americans aren’t short on star power, either, with the likes of Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, and Quinn Hughes highlighting their squad.

This is not to say the U.S. is an unbeatable juggernaut. They fell short at last year’s 4 Nation Face-Off, and are capable of doing so again if they don’t clean up their mistakes.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Steve Peters from Inside the Coaches’ Room to discuss the United States’ stengths and weaknesses coming into the Olympics.

Carter Hutton: On paper, U.S.A.’s team looks really, really good. What do you see in terms of flaws in their game and where can it be exposed as we move into this tournament?

Steve Peters: It’s similar to Canada. There’s good and there’s bad. When you look at team U.S.A., it’s about their forecheck. We talked about their size and their ability to be more physical. I think the way their roster is made up, their lower six are guys that can make plays, create those turnovers off of the forecheck. Expect the Tkachuk brothers to be physical on the Canadian, Finnish, and Swedish skilled defensemen. They get pucks to the net. They create turnovers, they hold pucks in the offensive zone, and they’re dangerous because they can set everything up on their forecheck.

Defensively, one of the things they do well, is they have a really good gap with their offensively skilled defensemen. They’re tight in the neutral zone, and they get pucks going the other way. But it’s caused by their tight gap, because of the way they play, think Florida Panthers, think Carolina Hurricanes, with that really tight gap trying to create these turnovers. But when you have these tight gaps, it does allow teams to get in behind you. When you’re that aggressive in the offensive zone on the forecheck, or you’re that aggressive in the neutral zone when you’re trying to step up and really limit the team’s gap, that allows teams to get in behind you. And that can be a big problem against Canada with their ability to get behind and play like that.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…