Musings: World Cup Edition

Courtesy NHL/PA

With the playoffs potentially ending tonight, the focus will shift to the draft, free agency, and the World Cup. Rosters were finalized about two weeks ago, and can be found courtesy of Sports Illustrated here.

Since there is really no cohesive way to jump from team to team, I’ve assembled my thoughts in lazy summer Sunday bulletpoints: 

• What the heck is going on with Team USA? Who selected this team? Why? I’m not even sorry to Brandon Dubinsky fans, there are just a few players more talented who could make this team.
• I’m an avid John Tortorella lover, however I don’t miss him coaching my team. Case in point: the inclusion of not even either Ryan Callahan or David Backes, but the selection of both. This #grit will do nada against the absurd talent of Teams Canada, North America, Sweden, etc.
• The easy post would have been to discuss snubs, and I don’t want to spend too much time on them, but HELLO PHIL KESSEL. I mean, caps lock is necessary when discussing something like this. The fact that talent isn’t seen as the most important trait while drafting a team is ludicrous.
• To elaborate, you don’t need to be a stats snob to understand that when you can roll four lines of pure talent, and you’ll be facing a team that will be rolling four lines of pure talent, your slow grit will get you nowhere. I’ll take Bobby Ryan’s hands any day of the week over Callahan. Want to discuss “grit” and creating issues for other teams? Tyler Johnson is a great candidate for that.
• Moving off of the US, Team Canada snubbed PK Subban whether you’re a fan of his or not. This ties into the weird “Drew Doughty for Norris cause why not?” campaign. It’s exhausting.
• Despite the snub, Canada is always fantastic, but I see North America giving them a really hard time. Every piece of that roster is stacked. It will be a fun preview to the future of the league.
• This tournament will be interesting as far as viewership and fan interaction goes. In September, fans are pretty hungry for action and preseason games, though interesting, aren’t quite as action packed as a full out exhibition. Unfortunately, it might be too deep into baseball season and football will have just begun. This should be a great experiment.
• I’m taking Canada to win it all, how about you?