Comebacks and more notes (cont.)

Team USA fails to learn its lesson

The inability to hang together as a team spelled doom for the U.S. at the world juniors.

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I agree wholeheartedly with my SI.com colleague Allan Muir regarding some less-than-high level coaching in Team USA's performance at the recently-concluded World Junior Championships, but that's only a part of the problem. USA Hockey has access to good coaches, lots of them, what they also have is too much cronyism, far too little team-building, and a lack of commitment in their approach to these international competitions.

Year after year the US sends a team that most everyone in hockey agrees is a championship-contending squad, and almost every year the club reaches a point in the tournament when its mettle is tested and it's found wanting. That's not because these kids can't play, it's because they can't seem to find a way to play as a team.

USA Hockey has done a good job in developing talent through its select age-group camps, but skills development is only part of a program. Finding ways to bring a team together, and fast, is something else again. The Canadians, now with five consecutive goal-medal performances, use pride as a motivation and also accept the challenge of carrying on where the previous team left off, but they also select players who have no problem tempering their individual skills and goals for the betterment of the team.

Team USA had 17 players who were 19 or older on the squad and seven of them were first-round picks for various NHL teams. Yet at the first sign of adversity (and that came with a 3-0 lead vs. eventual champion Canada), they fell apart. They hadn't come together as a team and it showed.

At the Olympics in Turin, Dallas Stars veteran Mike Modano blasted USA Hockey for the way it handles its international programs. He took a lot of flak for it, but he wasn't wrong. Winning on the world stage isn't just about having talent; it's about creating an environment where nothing matters except success.

USA Hockey needs to learn how to do that.

International ice war heats up

It took almost a year for International Ice Hockey Federation Chairman Rene Fasel to answer the NHL-inspired charge that he favors Russia in its dispute with the NHL over the still-not-resolved player transfer issue, but he fired back hard last week.

In a WJC tournament-ending press conference in Ottawa, Fasel said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was "anti-Russian." He also issued a stern threat.

"For me it is quite clear," Fasel said. "We can't miss having the NHL players coming to [Russia]. The [the NHL Players' Association] is quite clear they want to go and they have the power to decide and discuss this with the NHL. Russia may be a special place for Gary and maybe he is anti-Russian. But I was clear there will be no World Cup of Hockey if there are no pros in the [2014] Olympic Games."

There is a world of power-plays in those statements. Bettman is thought to be holding Olympic participation hostage against both the PA (because it is something the union wants and the commissioner will have a CBA fight to win before the Russia games) and the Russians (because they are objecting to the proposed player transfer agreements between the NHL and the European Federations). The NHL is also angry that Russia's Kontinental Hockey League doesn't recognize the legally-binding nature of NHL contracts, a charge that the Russians have made against the NHL for years.

Fasel is perceived by the league as favoring the Russians in these disputes and this appears to be a reply to NHL vice president Bill Daly who last year accused the IIHF of "lacking the courage to do what's right."

Stay tuned. This battle is a long way from over.