What is the US doing to develop goalies better than Canada?

As we head into the Winter Olympics, many are trying to compare the teams’ positions, especially in the most important role in the game.

While teams like Sweden, Czechia and Finland are expected to do well in Milan, everyone is hoping for the United States and Canada to run it back after last year’s thrilling conclusion to the 4 Nations Face-Off, and meeting in the gold medal game next month.

However, many are giving the U.S. the advantage, especially with what the team has between the pipes. Along with the two-time reigning Vezina Trophy winner, and defending Hart Trophy winner, Connor Hellebuyck, the Americans have Jake Oettinger at their disposal. That’s compared to Canada, which is relying on Jordan Binnington to save their bacon once again.

It raises the question of what Hockey Canada has been doing to develop its goaltenders, and how seemingly inferior it is behind USA Hockey, and how they’re producing quality goaltenders in every age group.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, The Score’s John Matisz joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to explain what USA Hockey has done a better job of building quality goaltending talent compared to Hockey Canada.

John Matisz: If we’re talking about youth sports, the U.S. is figuring it out. I mean, the Olympics are coming up. They’re going to dominate every sport because they find a way to just funnel money, funnel money, funnel money, and draw on different sports to figure out best practices. The guy that I talked to from USA Hockey, Steve Thompson, who’s their manager of player development there, was pointing how ridiculous it is that, in hockey, you’ll have a, like, 10-year-old fly across the country for a game. Like, obviously, he’s part of a league program, and he’ll be a backup. … That’s sort of where we’re at as sort of a sport. So, that’s something that the U.S. has really tackled

I’m not going to sit here and say, like, some of this isn’t cyclical. Joshua Ravensburg, he looks like he could be the next great Canadian goalie. I don’t know. Will he turn into that? The U.S. program has also had the National Team Development Program. I think we shouldn’t understate that, in terms of how they are able to work with individuals that are at a very high level already and really fine-tune things in a very sort of elite environment. I think that’s certainly something that the U.S. has over Canadians at this point.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…