World Cup of Hockey comes to a (disappointing) early end for the two U.S. related teams

By @StefanKubus –

Team USA finished 0-3 in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

If that wasn’t bad enough news, brace yourself.

With Justin Abdelkader and the Americans falling to Team Europe with a lackluster performance and then following it up with a loss to the Canadians, the U.S. failed to advance to the tournament semifinal. With a chance to go home on somewhat of a positive note, that wasn’t in the cards, either, as the Czech Republic handed a third loss to the Americans.

While it developed into a monumental disappointment, let’s face it: it’s a short best-on-best tournament and anything can happen.

Really, it was a bizarre display all-around. Team Czech Republic defeated Russia in the pre-tournament, yet was knocked out after starting round-robin play with two losses. Team North America defeated Team Europe, 4-0 and 7-4, but Europe went on to finish 2-1-0 in its group when the games mattered.

Team USA looked solid in the pre-tournament games, recording a 2-1 record, even beating Canada in one of those contests before losing to their northern neighbors the next night.

One bad game against Europe and, all of a sudden, the Americans find their backs against the wall, no wind in their sails and they need to top the tournament favorite to stay alive. It’s a harsh reality to lose two games and be out, but when you truly look at how they got there, it’s not as unbelievable as it may sound.

There’s question as to whether there were better personnel available, but that’s just an excuse at the end of the day anyway. They may have been out-skilled when it came to Canada, but had the players to be successful in this tournament.

Really, it’s no different than the NHL’s top team going on a five-game losing streak in December; sometimes these things happen. The difference is that it gets amplified when there’s less games in the sample size. How many times have we seen the Washington Capitals establish a phenomenal regular-season record before failing to even reach the Eastern Conference Final? The U.S. simply came out flat and lost a game they likely should’ve won. They did play a much better game against Canada… but it was also against Canada.

Which brings us to Team North America.

The 23-and-under North America club finished 2-1-0 and needed help Thursday afternoon, but couldn’t get it. Russia defeated Finland in its final round-robin game to jump North America and advance along with Sweden in Group B.

So wait, that squad isn’t advancing, either?

But it had been the most exciting team in the tournament, with stars like Auston Matthews, Johnny Gaudreau, Jack Eichel, Connor McDavid and of course Michigan natives Dylan Larkin, Jacob Trouba and Connor Hellebuyck.

The creativity, the speed – no, they certainly weren’t expected to win, but were they ever an entertaining revelation. And after coming out with impressive 4-0 and 7-4 wins over Team Europe in pre-tournament play, it quickly became evident this team was no joke, no dark horse, but rather a serious threat.

After a 4-1 win over Finland in the round-robin opener, it felt like this team really had a chance to make a run. But falling behind to Russia in an abysmal second period of the next contest was all it took to ultimately crush the underdog story. The young guns were unable to cap off a comeback, despite a frenetic, valiant push in the final stretch of the third period.

North America did go on to defeat Sweden in overtime, but ultimately that loss to Russia came back to bite them.

If you haven’t seen North America’s 3-on-3 overtime period with Sweden, do yourself a favor and watch it; it just may be the best 3-on-3 overtime period since the format was brought into the NHL.

All for naught, though. Much like the United States, North America found out that one bad period or game can cost you in such a short tournament.

What a shame, especially considering that nearly that entire group of players won’t be eligible for the team in 2020. This was their one chance, as I suppose it will be for the majority of every North American squad as long as this tournament runs.

In fact, there’s no telling just yet whether this format will stick or not, but four years from now, there’s a good chance we’ll see Dylan Larkin on Team USA. It’s interesting to envision how he’ll blossom as a player from now until the next World Cup of Hockey rolls around.

Now, certainly the road to the finish will feature great hockey, but it won’t be quite as fun, fast, flashy and will obviously lack that hometown connection we like to see. At least current Red Wings Frans Nielsen (Europe), Thomas Vanek (Europe) and Alexey Marchenko (Russia) will have a chance at the prize.