Chris Pryor

Hats off to Team USA

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Last Updated on Thursday, 17 January 2013 17:31

By Chris Pryor

Following up from an article that I previously wrote on the World Juniors (U.S. vs. Canada), I want to give kudos to USA Hockey for their gold medal performance in Ufa, Russia. If you follow sports, you know that when winning a championship, one doesn’t necessarily have to be the best team from start to finish, but you need to be the best team when it counts and the U.S. was just that.

Trying to “find themselves” in pool play, they ended up in third place in their bracket, but from that quarterfinal game on, they rose to the next level of play, came together as a team and walked away with the gold. Throughout the early games they made adjustments, fiddled with lines and combinations and at the end came up with the right recipe for success. They were the “best team” and played like it.

From the goaltending out, they were solid. John Gibson was far and away the stability of goaltending in the tournament. Add to that their defensive corps (which includes maybe the No. 1 pick in the 2013 Draft, Seth Jones) which was a strong group,  and you have a solid base for winning. Their forwards might have been “on paper” not as attractive as some of their opponents, but at the end of the day they played with confidence, accepted their roles and led the tournament in scoring.

You can have all the talent in the world but if you don’t accept your roles and have the right individuals in the right roles you will struggle. Phil Housley and his coaching staff did a masterful job in molding their “ team” in the short time they had and by the end of the tournament it showed.

Congratulations again to USA Hockey, a job well done!

Chris Pryor is the director of hockey operations for the Philadelphia Flyers. He is in charge of the amateur and pro scouting departments. A native of St. Paul, Pryor spent eight seasons as a scout for the Flyers. He played parts of six seasons in the NHL with the Minnesota North Stars and New York Islanders. If you have a question for a pro hockey scout, e-mail it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .