Chris Chelios Explains What The Americans Did Wrong In World Cup Of Hockey

Chris Chelios, with ties to USA Hockey that span four decades, has a memory just as long. Hartford? Canada Cup? 1987? Soviet Union?

"Oh, yeah, Gary Suter got speared before that slash," Chelios said. "I remember [coach Viktor] Tikhonov going crazy."

Glasnost took a detour that September night in front of a huge flag-waving crowd at the XL Center. Elbows went up late in the first period. Andrei Lomakin took a spear at Suter, his stick blade glancing off the American defenseman's neck. Suter said he could have had his esophagus ripped out. No penalty was called. Suter slashed Lomakin in the face, ripping open a gash around his nose and over his left eye. A major penalty was called. Two power-play goals followed. Final: Soviet Union 5, USA 1.

The Soviets bled. The Americans lost. Ah, the Cold War.

It's different this time. Forget the Cold War. Let's call this the Cold Shoulder. Never has American hockey come under more criticism within its own borders than after the 0-for-World Cup of Hockey stink bomb Team USA set off this week. Canada Cup, the Olympics after the NHL players joined, the World Cup of Hockey, generically it's called best vs. best. And this was the worst. The Americans weren't supposed to win the tournament this time, but they certainly weren't supposed to lose to Team Europe, Canada and the Czech Republic in round-robin play and skulk back across the Canadian border in sporting disgrace.

General manager Dean Lombardi and his staff with Brian Burke and Paul Holmgren have been ripped for trying to repeat the win at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey with a blueprint that doesn't work 20 years later. With words like grit, grind, blue collar and sandpaper as calling cards, the most skilled American team was not assembled. A team built to wear down the Canadians supposedly was, but instead of grinding down the Canadians the Americans created a worse talent gap.

Coach John Tortorella, obstinate, mulish as ever, at first blamed the lack of goal-scoring and, as criticism mounted, the great proprietor of sandpaper hockey told Phil Kessel and everybody else to stop chucking dirt on his team. Tortorella, who gained his chops as a motivator, motivated only five goals for and 11 against in the three losses. Torts won't be back as coach of any best vs. best America teams.

Chelios, who played 26 years in the NHL and the most games ever by a defenseman, competed in 11 international tournaments. From the world juniors in 1980 to that 1987 night in Hartford to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Chelios was there. He was there for the '96 World Cup title. He was there as captain for the 2002 Olympic silver medal in Salt Lake City. He is arguably the greatest American hockey player in history. And before you throw it all on Patrick Kane's and some of the forwards' lack of production, before you throw it all on management's decision never to invite Kessel and some others, Chelios says consider his view.






There is a mitigating factor. With the best Americans and Canadians, 23 and younger, playing on Team North America, Team USA did not have access to Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau, Auston Matthews and Shayne Gostisbehere. The truth is there is a slew of terrific American talent ready to move up on the international stage.

"Absolutely, there is," Chelios said. "We've talked about Canada having the depth to make two teams. Unfortunately, the U.S. doesn't. The North American team was great, exciting, the talk of the tournament. The downside, Team USA is missing Matthews, Eichel, a guy like Gostisbehere. We just don't have that kind of depth. That's not taking anything away from the players they chose, but you're talking a first [Matthews] and second pick overall [Eichel] the past two years."

Of course, if the Team USA hierarchy doesn't put more stock on talent and less on sandpaper one could argue history will repeat itself. One point that should be made here is that, yes, the 1996 World Cup titleists that the USA hierarchy so loves had grit, but that team was flush with talent. Chelios, Brian Leetch, Hull, Pat LaFontaine, Mike Modano and Phil Housley alone are Hall of Famers. Mike Richter was terrific in goal.

Chelios worked for Fox Sports Plus at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Not being in the Olympic Village, not being around the players, going on late after games, Chelios said he didn't enjoy the broadcasting experience nearly as much as this one with ESPN. He said getting hockey back for the World Cup has excited lots of folks at ESPN and he hopes it can lead to more things for the network again. NBC has carried American rights for a decade.

In the meantime, the American house is aflame. Kessel sent out a tweet that nearly blew up the twittersphere: "Just sitting around the house tonight w my dog. Felt like I should be doing something important, but couldn't put my finger on it." Backes called the words, "a little distasteful and aggravating." Kessel later said the tweet wasn't directed at the players.

"I'm not a big fan of people tweeting things like that," Chelios said. "He tried to cover it up. It can be taken out of context, I really believe that, when you read something like that. But I wish he wouldn't do it. Backes replied. It doesn't look good, the in-house fighting. They're both American players. There will be enough people questioning why he wasn't there. He didn't need to make any remarks. The players felt bad enough."

Emotions run high enough after any loss to Canada. How high? How deep?

"I'm not even going to sugar-coat it," Chelios said. "There's so much animosity and hate, the rivalry, mostly because being a U.S. player, Canada has had the upper hand against us. We can talk all we want about being able to compete with them, but other than a few preliminary games and in '96, the record speaks for itself. We got that little brother type thing that we feel we can beat them, but we've got to prove it. It only happened in '96 unfortunately."

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