USA’s puck-moving defenders a big reason for team’s Olympic success

The United States’ men’s hockey team prepares to face Slovakia in the Olympic semifinals on Friday, with the winner facing one of Canada or Finland in Sunday’s gold medal game.

The U.S., who have won all four of their games so far in Italy, have relied on their highly skilled backend, led by Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes, who leads all defenders at the Olympics with six points. He scored the overtime game-winning goal against Sweden on Wednesday, and has looked every bit of dominant in the Olympics as he has in the NHL.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the U.S. blue line and if it will be the X-factor for the Americans going forward.

READ MORE: Olympic men’s hockey semifinal preview: USA vs. Slovakia

Tyler Yaremchuk: I listened to Steve Peters and Jonny Lazarus’ post-game show, and they talked about how comfortable Team USA is playing in close, low-scoring games. Part of that is because there’s a really high level of trust that their blue line can be efficient in moving the puck out.

Full marks to Sweden, who played their best game of the tournament, but it was too little, too late. I thought the U.S. showed their strengths in puck moving and goaltending.

Carter Hutton: They did, and again, this was always the factor coming into this. We talked about the high-powered offense for Canada with Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, then you look at the U.S. defensive corps, and you wondered if they could be a difference maker, and against Sweden they were.

When I look at the U.S., it’s about how they defend in the defensive zone. When that puck travels east-west, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck struggles a little bit more; but, when they’re structured and make the game predictable, Hellebuyck is very, very hard to beat, and I think that is going to be a great challenge.

For Team USA, there’s a gaining of confidence. We’re so quick to judge preliminary hockey. When you look at Canada, you thought “oh they’re going to be great,” while the U.S. started slow. Remember, every single game and every single day, a team starts to gel more, and this is a dangerous hockey team.

For them, drawing Slovakia may be the best thing for Team USA.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…