Turin – Too old. Too slow. Too careless.
Toodle-oo, Team USA.
In an Olympic tournament where sloppiness and sluggishness are punishable by a plane ride home, Team USA looked lost from start to Finnish.
What began with a Latvian sleepwalk ended seven nights later with a 4-3 loss Wednesday to Finland (6-0) that blended all the Americans’ faults in Italy.
They hit the ice so flat in the quarterfinals Wednesday night, head coach Peter Laviolette called a first-period timeout to bark some life into his players. They coughed up the puck so often, Finn snipers bombarded U.S. goalie Rick DiPietro with a steady blur of odd-man rushes, outshooting the Americans nearly 2-to-1 through two periods.
And when faced with Olympic elimination and a two-goal gap against the stingiest hockey team in Turin, U.S. players took illegal jabs and slaps, spending 18 minutes in the penalty box during the final period.
“It was a game where we seemed to have the least amount of pop and energy,” Laviolette said. “We never seemed to get it on track in this tournament.”
All week long, the Americans failed to thrill their rowdy fans – who tried once more to inject spark with a thundering “U-S-A!” chant – nor did they scare opposing players. Peter Forsberg sat out Sweden’s game against the United States to rest for a Slovakian showdown. Finland’s Teemu Selanne, his mouth bloodied by Derian Hatcher’s stick, returned the favor by giving Team USA a backhand smack off the ice.
“We know we can beat anybody when we play on our level,” Selanne said. “We didn’t even have to play at that level tonight.”
Finland will now play Russia, which defeated pre-Games favorite Canada, in the semifinals on Friday. Sweden defeated Switzerland and will play the Czech Republic, which beat Slovakia.
After one win in six games, American players and coaches began Wednesday the delicate art of dissecting their Italian debacle. Throughout the tournament, as the team fixed one flaw, another surfaced.
First it was scoring. Three goals against Latvia led to a tie. One goal each against Slovakia and Sweden led to losses. By the time the Americans met Russia on Tuesday, they began pressing to score. Their risks led to turnovers. Their turnovers led to Russian goals – one short-handed. Against the Finns, Brian Rolston turned over the puck three times, causing rushes the other way.
Generally, though, Team USA worked hard in Turin. Its scoring chances were there. The sweat was there. The goals would come, it said after each game.
Facing the Finns, even that blue-collar ethic evaporated.
In the first period, trailing 1-0, Laviolette called a timeout.
“I felt it was not going anywhere,” Laviolette said. “They were clearly on top of their game, and we clearly sitting on our heals. Before the score got too out of hand, I thought it was just an opportunity to gather the team together and somehow get them fired up.”
Several minutes later, Finland’s Sami Salo scored a short-handed goal to boost the lead to 2-0.
The Finns also exposed a final American defect, outskating and outhustling Team USA. Speed ruled. Age wheezed. Out of 13 U.S. forwards, eight are older than 30 and three are 35 (Mike Modano, Bill Guerin and Doug Weight). The seven-man defensive corps is manned by five 30-somethings, and captain Chris Chelios is 44.
“It was a concern of mine,” Laviolette said of the team’s age. “I’ll be honest, before the game, I was talking about (how) we had come from the NHL season, flying over here. We (also) played the late game last night.”
When the Americans craved two goals in the third period just to survive to a shootout, Modano was rarely on the ice. His coach explained: “We wanted guys out there who had jump, that could get down there into the offensive end.”
Off the ice later, Modano called for changes in the hierarchy of USA Hockey, the organization that oversees the men’s and women’s Olympic teams. Modano complained that the players had to make their own arrangements for flights, tickets and hotels.
“The people who run USA Hockey care more about this program than anyone I know,” Laviolette responded.
One of those men at the top, Team USA’s general manager Don Waddell, was caught on camera at Palasport Olimpico during the third period. When he noticed his face was filling the screen, Waddell quickly dropped his head and stared at the floor, his hands clasped tightly.
Staff writer Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
