USA shouldn’t sit back to beat Canada in gold medal game

If there’s one thing we can learn from the quarterfinals and semifinals of the men’s hockey tournament at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, it’s that defending a lead against Team Canada is a highly difficult proposition. Czechia and Finland each tried and failed holding onto leads against Canada over the last two elimination rounds, ultimately succumbing to a relentless Canadian attack.

The United States, set to face Canada on Sunday for the gold medal, could take a lesson from those games. If they jump out in front against Canada, as Czechia and Finland did, they’ll probably be better served keeping their foot on the gas to add to the lead, rather than sitting back to preserve the one they have. The U.S. themselves experienced the perils of retreating into a defensive shell in the quarterfinals, when Sweden tied the game late in the third period to force overtime.

On Friday’s edition of the Daily Faceoff Olympic post-game show, host Jonny Lazarus was joined by The Athletic‘s Arthur Staple to discuss the United States’ best approach should they grab a lead against Canada in the gold medal game.

Jonny Lazarus: Is U.S.A.’s offense good enough to keep the puck off of Canada’s sticks? Canada is loaded up front. You might have to protect a lead against Canada.

Arthur Staple: I liked what Mikko Rantanen said after the game today, where he was like “We defended every shift after we took the lead for 25 or 30 seconds, and nobody in the world can do anything with the puck after you do that,” which is totally true. I understand there’s always this debate, it’s kind of the chicken or the egg, did they sit back or were they just gassed from defending the best players in the world, or Canada’s best players. It’s more the latter. It’s Team Canada.

Even without Sid, they’ve got MacKinnon, they’ve got McDavid. Celebrini has probably been the best forward in the tournament, maybe outside of McDavid. You’ve got guys behind them. You put that kind of meat sack line of Bennett, Wilson, and Marchand together and it helped really turn the tide in that game against Finland. But those are all incredibly skilled guys, and if the U.S. gets up a goal or gets up two goals, you’re going to have to defend, and it’s not sitting back against this group.

Watch the full episode here: