Thinking about the rematch and I think the good news for the Americans is that there is no way that was the best they have. Rewatched the 5 goals against and here are my observations :
1- Should Joel Johnson yell at the refs a bit more?. I think there is a time and place for it. Not Pasi M levels of yelling or anything, just something. Prior to Canada’s first goal, Zumwinkle got hauled down by Thompson shortly after a zone exit....no call, play continued and eventually Canada got Filliers line on the ice and their first goal.
2 - there were 16 skaters on the US that averaged shift lengths of 50 seconds or higher. need to address that especially with the young ones. Canada had not one skater with an average that high. Some of this is due to Canada’s forecheck but not all. On the second goal Curl, Compher and Zumwinkle had the puck in the offensive zone. Instead of peeling off and getting the Decker line out there, they let Daoust break out, approach the offensive zone blue line, do a massive circle (zum stuck with her but by this point her linemates
were changing so when Daoust rolled off Zum she was free to give a nice feed to wide open Clark on the neutral zone wall. The forwards had left the building so Bozek challenged Clark but didn’t touch her, which allowed Clark to feed the puck to Fast who took 3 shots on net, eventually scoring a goal. Harvey should have been beating the heck out of Fast but as someone else said, a bit more deer in head lights this game. Decker, coyne, and Knight took the minus on that but had no chance whatsoever to remedy anything by the time they got on the ice. Even when Bozek arrived on the scene where Fast was hacking away, no physicality, so unlike her.
3- I thought a key to this game was going to be the vets keeping things steady. They struggled tho. Reality is a bunch of young players and a new head coach. there’s going to be some nerves and the superstar vets need to take charge. On the first Rattray goal, Canada’s third goal, it was Deckers line and Keller and Barnes on the ice with the puck in Canada’s zone. Barnes pinched to help Coyne on the wall, maybe she had to since both Fast and Rattray were closing in on Coyne, but you also expect Coyne to get that puck fully in the zone on a zone entry. No question that if this team expects to win gold that line needs to be better against Canada. They still got more shots than any other line, historically they are amazing and I assume they’ll be better next game.
4- 4th goal was 18 27 and 13 getting victimized again. Canada’s third line penned them in the zone and then they (and Barnes and Harvey) had to deal with Canada’s first line. I don’t know how you handle Jenner on the wall behind the net when you’re fresh, let alone when you are exhausted.
5- it was Jenner winning a puck on the wall AGAIN on the pk, and feeding Nurse who skated down the ice and sniped on a cold Hensley. Jenner was a factor in 3 goals I think.
Nothing the US can do but get back to work. Of the new players I like Roque, Murphy, Zumwinkle. As exciting as the future might be for Harvey, Dunne and Harmon have a ton more experience. Harvey was third in ice time the other day among defenders. Maybe due to not being able to get off the ice but that surprised me considering she was listed as 7th d.
2 more games until they might meet again. Having witnessed this, and it was so needed, its going to be more painful now if Canada does not win gold. For now though the quarters. Waiting to see if Poulin is back, and what Johnson tries with his lines.
