Tag Archives: Team USA

Jordan Greenway continues to impress at IIHF World Junior Championship

01 Sunday Jan 2017

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Team USA's Jordan Greenway

Team USA’s Jordan Greenway

If the U.S. team at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship was a 1960s pop music group, it would probably be called Jordan and the Americans (Okay, I had to get some kind of Jay and the Americans reference in there before the end of the year).

Boston University forward Jordan Greenway continued his impressive play for Team USA at the tournament Saturday, by notching a goal and an assist and by generally wrecking havoc on Team Canada in the U.S.’s 3-1 victory at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

Greenway, a 2015 Minnesota Wild second round draft pick, made his 6-foot-5, 230-pound presence felt at both ends of the ice and made life miserable for Team Canada’s goaltender with numerous close-range stuff-in attempts.

His play Saturday caught the attention of analysts on the NHL Network and several folks on social media.

More from Chris Peters’ The United States of Hockey blog:  The way Greenway has developed over the last two years should give a lot of hope to Minnesota Wild fans. He played like the power forward he was brought onto this team to be, using his frame to get pucks to the net and make some plays. The move he made to score Team USA’s second goal showed his combination of power and finesse. You need guys like that to impose their will on a game and I thought we saw that more today from Greenway than any other time in the tournament.

Minority players having big impact in World Cup of Hockey, from scoring to sitting

18 Sunday Sep 2016

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The World Cup of Hockey is only a few days old and already players of color are having a huge impact in the best-on-best international tournament – from a brother from France scoring to Big Buff sitting.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a Philadelphia Flyers forward and Team Europe’s only French member, put a dagger in Team USA in the World Cup opener Saturday, scoring on a neat second-period tip-in in Europe’s 3-0 shocker over the United States.

On a Europe squad stacked with firepower the likes of Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks’ Marian Hossa, Bellemare made the most of his 15 minutes-plus of ice time, registering a goal, one shot, and one hit. He won 36 percent of his face-offs.

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While Team Europe basked in its upset victory, Team USA Head Coach John Tortorella faced questions about his decision not to dress Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfgulien for Saturday’s game.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Byfuglien is one of the National Hockey League’s best offensive blue-liners, blessed with one of the league’s hardest and most-accurate shots. He was eighth in scoring among NHL defensemen last season with 19 goals and 34 assists.

Dustin Byfuglien

Dustin Byfuglien

He’s the highest-scoring defenseman on a Team USA roster that includes John Carlson and Matt Niskanen of the Washington Capitals, Jack Johnson of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Erik Johnson of the Colorado Avalanche, Ryan Suter of the Minnesota Wild, and the New York Rangers’ Ryan McDonagh.

“Well, I have to take someone out, and Buff has been used on defense and forward, along with Kyle Palmieri as a right winger, too, and we made the decision for this game, this was our best lineup,” Tortorella explained after the game. “It’s certainly not a negative thought on Buff, but we decided to go with this lineup tonight.”

 

Don’t know about you, but I think Tortorella might pencil Byfuglien into the lineup when Team USA faces Canada Tuesday night.

Byfuglien and Bellemare are among five players of color participating in the eight-team World Cup of Hockey tourney. Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, whose mother is a former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nation, Toronto Maple Leafs rookie forward Auston Matthews, and Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones are the other three.