2015 WJC Archive:
The Truth About Jack Eichel
USA Announces Preliminary Roster
USA Injury Update
Questions abound for the powers that be at USA Hockey as their National Junior Team Selection Camp gets under way with 30 of America's best U20 players at Walter Brown Arena on the campus of Boston University. For general manager Jim Johannson the only question that matters is, who is going to give Team USA the best chance at winning gold at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship? because that's who he's bringing to Montreal for their opening game against Finland on December 26th.
I had the opportunity to pick Johannson's brain today about this year's team and it would be irresponsible of me not to share his thoughts with you.
Let's start with the goalies…
The early lead goes to returning netminder, Thatcher Demko (Boston College, VAN), but Brandon Halverson (Sault St Marie, NYR) and Alex Nedeljkovic (Plymouth, CAR) are right on his heels. All three are having great starts to their respective seasons and while all three will be going to Canada for pre-tournament exhibition games in Kingston, it remains to be seen if USA Hockey will take all three goalies to the tournament like they have the past two years.
"Whether we take three or two will be determined by the comfort level of the coaches. If we need someone in an emergency, the tournament is in North America and we won't have any trouble bringing someone back. We're comfortable both ways, so it's really up to the gut feeling of the coaches," said Johannson. "I think all three goalies bring unique talents, but in the end - and I said it this summer - we want someone to command the net and that rests with the players. It's a position that has a big target on it no matter what and we'll consider body of work, but performance over the next six or seven days of this camp will hopefully end up making the decision for us."
The impression I get is that no one's name is penciled in between the pipes. This job is still entirely up for grabs and USA Hockey is waiting for someone to step up and claim it. Halverson might be the odd man out simply because of his lack of international experience and while Demko might have the slight advantage, Nedeljkovic will give him a serious run for his money.
On to the blue line…
The level of competition was already pretty difficult after the summer evaluation camp considering Will Butcher (Denver, COL), Ian McCoshen (Boston College, FLA) and Steve Santini (Boston College, NJD) return from last year's team. Ryan Collins (Minnesota, CBJ) seemed to pencil his name on the roster, Brandon Carlo (Tri-Cities, DE15) had a strong showing as did Jack Dougherty (Wisconsin, NSH) and Michael Downing (Michigan, FLA). That's a pretty strong group of defensemen, but then you add first round draft pick Anthony DeAngelo (Sarnia, TBL) and projected top ten selections in this year's draft Noah Hanifin (Boston College, DE15) and Zach Werenski (Michigan, DE15) - none of whom were in Lake Placid - and things get even more difficult for the decision makers.
"It's an elite pool of defensemen that we have here and to separate guys is going to be really hard. Part of it will be the feel the coaches get from them and the other part will be determining the players who excel in playing the way we're going to have to play. We have to get pucks to our forwards and let them go, but our D also need to come into the play so it really is a five man attack. But in the end they still have to be able to play well in our zone. So, I think the guys that are able to balance that the best are going to be the ones that end up on the roster," explained Johannson. "I think there's a lot of abilities back there and unique players with some great offensive abilities coupled with some guys that are known more for their steady defensive play. How it all interacts? We don't know, but we're going to be a high energy team, we're going to skate, we're going to be a puck possession team. That's what the World Juniors is and yet, in the end, you have to defend and play well in your zone and I know that's a message that's going to be pretty loud and clear from the coaches."
In regards to not being in Lake Placid…
"In the case of Noah and Zach, it was as much an academic decision as it was a hockey decision to not bring them to Lake Placid. The last thing I wanted was ten days in Lake Placid disrupting their plans to accelerate and finish high school over the summer. We were fine with their decision to do that, but I didn't want to be the guy that caused an issue with it either. Plus, we knew them very well as players."
"In the case of Anthony, it was two-fold and we spoke very openly about it with him. There were some things in his game that needed to change. Mostly, the maturity in his game needs to be shown both in his decision making and in his discipline. I think he's still working at that, but I think he knows the significance of that and also by his not coming to Lake Placid, he sees where we stand on it and credit to the player, he went out and had a really, really good start to the season and been a very good player. I've seen him play a lot of very good games in Sarnia and he has to equate that to what we're doing at this camp too."
Hanifin and Werenski have had outstanding starts to their freshmen seasons, especially considering they're only 17 years old. In my opinion, they will have to have disastrous camps or be injured not to be on this team. I was pretty surprised DeAngelo wasn't in Lake Placid, but as Johannson explained, it seems their message was received loud and clear because he has played like a man on a mission starting with Tampa's rookie camp in Nashville. I thought he was one of their best players there and he's not taken his foot off the gas. He has a lot to prove, but he's more than capable of helping this team.
Sticking with the defense…Steve Santini's status after wrist surgery…
"We're going to give Steve as much time as we can. He's been skating. He's in great shape. He just hasn't played in a hockey game. He'll be skating around this week and, in all honesty, it will be up to him as far as what he can and can not do. Thank God, Mike Ayers (BC assistant coach) is here and can help our coaches know what he's been doing at BC. He's without a doubt a guy we want on this team. He's a character kid who brings everything that the World Juniors is all about. We're going to give him as much time as we can. For me, it's really going to come down to Steven saying I can go for you guys or I can't. We've made it clear with the medical team that they have to tell us the status. They've been handling that and we'll know a lot more after the 22nd (when the cast comes off and the pins are removed from his wrist). We obviously won't put a kid in harms way, but Jerry York (BC head coach) will be the first to tell you that if the kid can go I want him going," said Johannson. "He's a guy with a lot of heart and soul and character and we really want him to be a part of this club."
As he said, they want Santini on this team and if he is, I believe he will be named captain of Team USA.
Looking up front…
As usual, versatility is key and USA has it in spades.
"This is one of the deeper groups we've had in terms of offensive ability," said Johannson. "We've got a mix of 19 year old players that are really good two way players. I think it's exciting to have that type of character leadership and that type of player in your older players mixed in with some young guys that are pretty phenomenal offensive players. I think that balance works well and gives the coaches a lot of ways to put lines together or to use players. If something's not quite going, they have more options and there's nothing like internal competition within a team to earn your ice time with the coaches and I think that's great up front."
You know what else USA has an abundance of? Underage players. This has the potential to be the youngest Team USA in recent memory, if not ever.
"I can't tell you how many times I've sat in a room and said this was a 19-year-old tournament and we've got four 17-year-olds here," said Johannson. "I think it's a little bit of the reality of the game today. These kids are accelerating at a fast pace and they're physically ready. I think the neat part is ,if you walk into that room, you're going to have a hard time picking out who the 17-year-olds are because they're not scrawny. They're physically ready to play this type of hockey. It's a great sign for us that they're ready to play at this level and just goes to show the level of competition to make this team now."
Only half the players on the current roster are 19 and there's a very real possibility that USA's top three centers could be 18 and younger - Jack Eichel (Boston University, DE15), Dylan Larkin (Michigan, DET), Auston Matthews (NTDP, DE16).
"We're fortunate to have the guys here that we do. We legitimately have 5 or 6 centermen here that are really good hockey players. Versatility is going to factor in up front. Some guys are going to have to play wing and they're going to have to show that they can. That's part of what these next seven days are going to help us determine," said Johannson.
There are so many options for Team USA upfront…so many! Sorting out special teams will go a long way into determining who stays and who goes home.
One guy everyone is curious about - and that includes the powers that be at USA Hockey - is Miles Wood (Nobles & Greenough - HS, NJD), mostly because he's a 19-year old playing high school hockey.
"We knew about him, but the hard part of our evaluation camp is that we use it to make a lot of determinations about who we're going to track in the fall. I think Miles' playing situation factored into him not coming to Lake Placid. The guy's going to be at Nobles - and nothing against Nobles - it's just such a different level of hockey compared to what everyone else was playing and as we got out watching a lot of players in the fall, the more and more we came back saying here's a player who's a great skater with the right kind of recklessness to his game. He's a big strong kid. He's a 19-year-old. He's not a young kid playing prep school hockey and I know his camp with NJ went well and the more we thought about it the more we said we have to get him to this level of competition and see if his game rises up instead of just watching him play at the prep school level," explained Johannson. "These first four days will be critical for him to be playing at this level but also to see what he can do here."
Looking behind the bench, there's no question in Johannson's mind that they made the right decision…
Mark Osiecki has been an assistant coach under Mike Eaves in Wisconsin, the head coach at Ohio State and is in his second season as head coach for the Rockford Ice Hogs, the AHL affiliate for the Chicago Blackhawks. He's been an assistant for Team USA three times - 2010, 2011 and 2013 - and has two golds and a bronze to show for it.
"He has a habit of bringing home medals!" said Johannson. "He understands the tournament. His experience has been important and the three times we've had him as an assistant, the head coaches in all three cases, the first words out of their mouths were, I've got to have Ozzy and that says a lot about him as a coach. Plus, we've known him for a long time and it was just a perfect fit. We're also fortunate that the Blackhawks support their people as much as they do our program to give him the opportunity. I think it's a win-win for everyone to have him coaching our team."
In general, Johannson isn't looking for anything different in this team from previous teams. He wants hard working, disciplined players who are versatile, can push the pace and maintain puck possession. Disciplined being the key word.
"It was discussed in our opening meeting last night and it was discussed this morning. It's been brought up first and foremost each time and it's funny because the three plays that led to the penalties that proved to be our downfall last year were not selfish plays. I can't call any of them discipline issues, but those 58 seconds were a dramatic change in the game and I think our players understand that and they don't want to be in that situation and I think it's more about not putting ourselves in that position as opposed to lack of discipline or selfish play," he said. "I think it will be a disciplined group, but you also have to be hard to play against and be able to play multiple styles of the game. In the end it's big and strong, but you have to get to the end and so I think we have a good mix of size and strength that can play with pace and I think we have a lot of responsible players mixed in with incredibly talented offensive players and I'm not saying that they aren't responsible too, just that they have other components to their game that you don't coach. You can't coach. They just go out and play their game and I think that's important and as I'm sure Mark will emphasize to the players, discipline and controlling the puck is going to be key for us to have success."
As they say, the best defense is a great offense. The other team can't score if they don't have the puck and if Day One of this selection camp is any indication, this team will be aggressive in their puck pursuit.
As far as cuts are concerned, there won't be any until after the exhibition game against BU on Friday. Then those that remain will stay with the team for both pre-tournament exhibition games in Kingston with the final decisions coming after that. Of course, Team USA doesn't have to file a complete roster and can choose to leave a spot open if there's an injury concern or a question about the type of player they need more.
Today was all about drills. Tomorrow, I anticipate more special teams situations and possibly a scrimmage. Regardless, I will have more for you from Steve Santini and Miles Wood and a video podcast for you in the afternoon.
If you have questions, let me know! For up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on twitter…
Julie
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