USA looking to show the hockey world why they’re a powerhouse at the 4 Nations Face-Off

The United States enters the 4 Nations Face-Off as a favourite to win, or at the very least, it’s the closest they’ve ever been to Canada on paper in terms of the quality of their roster. But that’s easier said than done, and in the case of the USA, that hasn’t been done in a while. You’d have to go back to the 1996 World Cup of Hockey to find the last time the USA won a best-on-best tournament, so they need to get the job done to prove that they are the best right now.

Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked about the US team and how much they want to prove that they’re the best hockey country right now on Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I know there are some fans who have the pessimistic mindset of “it’s a made up tournament blah blah blah”. I’m telling you, listening to the players talk and after having [dinner with the 1980 US Olympic team], this does not have the vibes of a made-up, make-believe tournament. There is something on the line here for these guys.

Frank Seravalli: What’s on the line for the US is the ability to make a statement that this American team and USA hockey is surpassing Canada on the international stage. I don’t know that it’ll ever happen truly based on the talent that Canada is churning out. From a numbers and statistical perspectives, you would think that that would be the case, just population-wise, number of players, rinks, all these things kind of changing in the US.

But you’ve got to go out and do it. And it’s not since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey that that’s happened for Team USA. And that means there’s a lot on the line for this American team to make a statement. You can win a World Juniors, you can go back-to-back if you want, and great progress is being made there, but you’ve got to do it best-on-best and they haven’t.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Let me ask you a Team USA fill in the blank then. The Americans win this tournament if…?

Frank Seravalli: If they can get the puck off of Canada. That’s the mission for any team in this tournament. Kill plays, stop the cycle, defend well enough, and be opportunistic. They’re going to have the puck a lot and it’s gonna be up to the US, and it’s gonna be a heavy burden placed on the shoulders of someone like Jaccob Slavin to try and kill a lot of this. They’ve got to have some confidence that their firepower is just as good as Canada.

You can watch the full episode here…