Team USA looking forward to medal-worthy performance against Russia
Team USA players were resolute more than relieved after they escaped the quarterfinals of the world junior championships with a 3-2 win against a pesky Switzerland squad Monday.
“You always get eye-openers along the way and that was it for us,” said U.S. captain Luke Kunin (Minnesota Wild). “We found a way to get the job done, but we have to look at how we played. But we have to be better the next time we put a jersey on.”
That will be in Wednesday's semifinals against the Russians in Montreal (3 p.m. ET, NHL Network). The winner goes for the gold, and the loser plays in the bronze medal game in a tournament featuring the world's top under-20 players.
The Americans downed the Russians 3-2 in their pool-play meeting, but Kunin expects they will have to play better to defeat them a second time. They will have to play like they did in their 3-1 win against Canada and not the way they underperformed against Switzerland.
“(When we play well) we have great communication,” Kunin said. “We are getting pucks behind them. We are playing a heavy forechecking game, a big cycle game and taking pucks to the net.”
If the Americans earn a medal in this tournament, it will be their fifth in eight years.
The WJC started in 1976, and the USA didn’t win a medal until 1986. The United States only won three medals in the first 27 years. Achieving winning consistency has been one of USA Hockey’s objectives, especially since the creation of the U.S. National Team Development Program in 1996.
“This is a marker we’ve been aiming towards,” said Team USA general manager Jim Johannson. ”Expectations are high every year, and the competition has gotten stronger. We’ve had five different countries win in seven years and the gold medal team was in the relegation (game) this year.”
The Canadians are considered the hockey's world superpower, and they also have four medals in the past seven seasons.
“The difference for us is that we are deeper,” Johannson said. “And we’ve had a real good stretch of solid goaltending. I have a hard time thinking of the last time, someone could have said: ‘The goaltending let them down.”
Today, almost 26% of NHL players are American. It wasn't long ago that the American NHL population was around 17%.
Johansson recalls a tournament more than 10 years ago when the Americans shortened their bench to eight forwards and five defensemen against Canada to give themselves a chance. That was the number of players they believed they had who could compete against the Canadiens.
“You look at our team this year and our coach Bob (Motzko) is very comfortable rolling all four lines,” Johannson said.
Since 1993, the Russians have medaled 20 times in 23 years at the world juniors.
“We know have to be better, and we will be better,” Kunin said. “We are going to come out against Russia and play the way we need to play.”