Team USA has been blasted – and deservedly so – over their decisions at the World Cup of Hockey. The method in which they assembled the roster with a focus on grit over skill was one of the biggest factors contributing to their ugly showing. As several talented American players watched from home, it was clear that the U.S. made some bad choices in their selection process.
[link_box id=”22277″ site_id=”17″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]Tyler Johnson of the Tampa Bay Lightning was one of the players passed over in the selection process who could have made an impact for Team USA. Though he didn’t take to Twitter to blast the team as other players have (which led to Team USA getting pretty salty), he did admit that he wished he could have played in the tournament.
Johnson’s comments via the Tampa Bay Times:
“I wish I could have been there. I wish I could have played, but that’s their decision. That’s what’s great about our country is we have a lot of good players, good quality players. They went one route, so hopefully next time I’m playing better so I can make it.”
Johnson later added that he believes he needs to play better in order to grab the attention of Team USA for the next international competition.
“You could make that team 100 different ways and I think if you had 100 different people picking a team there is not going to be a consensus on every single person. Just like Team Canada, they could probably fill three teams and make a different opinion. Unfortunately it wasn’t my year this year and hopefully the next Olympics or World Cup, whatever it may be, I get to be on it. But that’s for me to play better and make it so they can’t leave me off.”
Johnson is correct in the fact there are a ton of different ways to assemble a roster in this type of tournament. Team USA just demonstrated the wrong way to go about doing it, selecting the intangibles over the proven skill. The end result was an embarrassing showing which didn’t surprise anyone. Including Johnson probably wouldn’t have changed the result, but looking past him in the selection process was one of many puzzle pieces which created the failure American fans witnessed in the tourney.
