If the Rangers organization hasn’t been embarrassing enough for the last calendar year, their presence at the Olympics, particularly with USA Hockey, could leave Rangers fans with paper bags on their heads for the foreseeable future if things go poorly, and anything short of gold would be considered mission failure for Team USA.
The Rangers sent three players, two coaches, and their general manager to Milan for the Olympic tournament. The only one not representing the US is Mika Zibanejad, who is being relied upon to be a major scoring threat on Sweden’s power play.
JT Miller and Vincent Trocheck join Mike Sullivan and David Quinn at ice level for the course of the games, while Chris Drury will have a birds eye view of the games as assistant general manager for the Americans. Miller, barring injury, will likely suit up for every game and play middle to bottom six minutes, whereas Trocheck will serve more as a thirteenth forward, and may not dress if Clayton Keller is to get a chance to play.
The real potential for embarrassment rests upon the shoulders of the Rangers coaches. While Drury didn’t make final decisions as assistant GM, adjustments and lineup decisions are the responsibility of the coaching staff from this point on. If the Americans don’t look prepared for each game, and they did have a somewhat sloppy start against Latvia, that reflects on the coaching staff. If they fail to adjust when things aren’t working through the course of a game, that’s a reflection of coaching. If they’re struggling to score and Clayton Keller is sitting in the press box, the coaches will be the target of the angry mob for dressing Trocheck instead.
Trocheck and Miller both had their fingerprints on the 5-1 win to open the group stage of the tournament yesterday against Latvia, Miller made a beautiful play that would have been an assist if the goal wasn’t overturned for offside, and Trocheck assisted on a beauty by Brock Nelson, who had two goals in the contest.
The fourth line is a point of concern for me with Team USA, but not against the weaker teams in the tournament like Latvia. I actually see the fourth liners continuing to thrive in the group stage, since they’ll be getting the easiest matchups. The other teams in group C are Germany and Denmark, they just don’t have nearly enough depth to shutdown a USA bottom six.
In North America, however, we’re all watching this tournament for the same reason. We expect Canada to be awaiting the US in the gold medal game.
Team Canada has the ability to ice a fourth line of Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, and Brandon Hagel. That’s a line that plays with a ton of sand paper, like, 36 grit sandpaper, not to mention they have six Stanley Cup rings between them.
The projected American fourth line of Jack Hughes, Brock Nelson, and Vincent Trocheck? Zero Stanley Cup finals appearances between them.
I love Vincent Trocheck. I’m also not blinded by bias enough to say that Jason Robertson shouldn’t have gotten his roster spot on this team. I point the finger at GM Bill Guerin for that.
This is the team Sullivan has to work with, though. It’s on him to make the tough decisions now, and if Trocheck doesn’t carry his own weight as the tournament progresses, and Clayton Keller is in a suit and tie watching the team fall short of gold, that’s on Mike Sullivan.
Clayton Keller is coming off of a Summer that saw him win gold in international play with Team USA, as the team captain, no less, at the World Championships. It’s not necessarily “best on best,” but wearing the C for your country means something. That’s a guy that was identified as a leader and a winner last summer, and he went and proved that to be true.
I’ll be looking for a much more complete game out of Team USA tomorrow against Denmark. When you’re in the easiest group at the tournament, there’s no excuse to not dominate every game. Latvia gave the Americans some fits in the first period, and almost seemed to be playing with a higher level of intensity at times in the first frame. That cannot happen again. Start on time for the rest of the way. Denmark has zero current NHLers on the roster, and “goals for” is a tie breaker stat for seeding in this tournament. Run it the fuck up.
I’m interested to see what happens with JT Miller through the course of the tournament and then after the games conclude. There’s been noise surrounding him about lingering injuries since training camp, and while he went on a bit of a offensive tear heading into the break, his play for the Rangers has been a target of critics all season long. He looked like he had a fire starting to burn inside of him against Latvia, and that intensity needs to continue to ramp up as the elimination rounds draw closer. I would say there is a non zero chance he gets some sort of surgery and is shut down for the remainder of the NHL season after that. I’m just speculating, but there’s too much smoke to ignore it.
I need to see the US win Olympic Gold like I need air to breathe. I think this is our best shot in my lifetime, we have the defense and goaltending to keep Canada’s titans at bay. They were one shot away at Four Nations, and that was without Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy anchoring the blue line. If they fail to complete the mission with Miller being a leader in the room, and Sullivan and Quinn pulling the reigns, I don’t know if I’ll be able to show my face in public. Go win us a Gold Medal and etch your names into history.