Asunto: US National Team

I will do Norway.

Spain

Italy

Slovenia

So boys I have some news to report on the Squad.

We are about halfway through the friendlies and this year I took a different step then past years. If anyone who noticed right away what I was doing then great but if not I will explain. Over the course of the last few WC I have come to understand the important need for depth with this team. Our top players are good but we needed to improve the role players. Therefore this series of friendlies I have not played any top 6 forward, top 4 d man, and our starting goalie or any player above the age of 27 and instead gave everyone else a chance to play. Thanks to the role players getting important ice time I have been able to see some great improvements.

Michael Robertson has gone from being a middle six winger to being the top winger of this team and will be on the first line come WC. George Warren who was a third winger in last seasons group may get a shot on the second line if he keeps up his play. Last season the top 4 defensemen were the only ones above 900 Def. Now I have 7 players above 900 and a few in the 880s. Very much it is getting tougher to get into the D corps. 800 was the number needed to be a starting D man. Now its being pushed to 890. The goalie spot sees Mack Gaudreau ready to become the starter through Kevin Clinton and him could split time this season.

This years time is much better then last years team. However it is an older squad. 11 players are either 30 or older and many are key players that will soon be too old to be on the team. Very much the window to get to division I is either this season or next season. I haven't had much luck building up suitable young guns to be able to replace our top guys. This year is win or bust. After I get more scouting reports I will do a series on our WC foes.

I would everyone who is doing a scouting report for me to please check in so I can see your progress. smithe26 has gotten me Slovenia but I need everyone else's reports.

I will send u Norway in the next day or two.

Sounds like you have put together a good game plan to improve our team. Keep up the good work.

Well it helps after having a few seasons to intergrade my system. The National Hockey team takes years to come together so its sadly never going be that easy to build the team from new. We are finally getting to the end of Cory Martin's Players and the beginning of my crop of players.

These (players under 29) are also largely the players that have passed through the U18 team, so I recognize a most of them.

It is interesting for me to see how a generation has actually developed compared to how it seemed like it would develop a while back. A lot of good players were lost to dead teams, bad teams, bad training ratios, or bad CL. In particular, the loss of a bunch of top I.1 teams over the course of one season is going to hurt in 5-10 seasons. There were a lot of former NT players who were in their early 20's, especially forwards.

Robertson's U18 season was a strong season for wingers with the likes of Robertson, Warren, Bolin, and Staton. That year also included Fellows, Cardwell, and Gaudreau. Defense was weak outside of Haus, whose CL turned him from a generational talent to a pretty good player for a I.1 team. Defense was pretty bad in my first few season, but it got better later (especially in the year with the likes of Baron and Jacob). Many of the defenders that started back then wouldn't make a B U18 team now.

Anyway, good luck promoting this season!

wait who is Haus?

Jarrod Haus

He was the top defenseman as an 18 year old an should have been a key player for the senior team, but his CL dropped really fast in his 20's, so he was dropped from the senior team.

If anyone has any players they can suggest to add to the team let me know. The spot I am in most concern about is the center spot.

I will be making reports on the teams I currently have information on. The goal of this is to see if any USA Managers has any knowledge of how to beat other WC teams and inspire training programs to defeat the opposing players.

(Thank you to smithe26 for the information)

Slovenia is an interesting team. The training they have is very disciplined. The secondary ratio stats of there players are exact on all but two or three players and are almost perfectly at the 2 to 1 ratio with the corresponding main stat (Off or Def). They train their players with a purpose.

Their top goalie is better then both of our goalies, their top forward line is better then ours, and their top 4 d men are all better then ours. However their depth is not very impressive and presents an opening. If we can shut down their top line and use our strengthen depth in the third and fourth lines then perhaps we can win the matches up and take the game. The gap between them and us is narrow thanks to them running an even older lineup then we do. Our current number of players 30 and above is 11 compared to their number of 15 as well as them having 5 players above 33(our oldest players are 32). While experience is a factor they are slowing down as a team which leaves us with an opening to take them out before they can replace their older players.

Something to watch is their defensemen. They are all trained to have Passing, technique, and Aggression. Its an interesting debate question here in the US as we wonder if technique truly leads to less penalties taken. They also all have shoting power around 200 and I saw one defensemen who has a cannon at 400 shooting. Their d men can light up the lamp and pose a unique issue. We will need to develop a plan.

Overall Slovenia represents a challenge but not one that we should worry about. They are only slightly better then us and even then only at the top of their lineup. down the middle is our strength and hopefully where we can beat them.