The United States men's national ice hockey team is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with its U18 and U17 development program in Plymouth, Michigan. The team is controlled by USA Hockey, the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United States. The U.S. team is ranked 6th in the IIHF World Rankings. The current head coach is Jeff Blashill.
The U.S. won gold medals at the 1960 and 1980 Olympics and more recently, silver medals at the 2002 and 2010 Olympics. The U.S. also won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, defeating Canada in the finals. The team's most recent medal at the World Championships came with a bronze in 2018. They won the tournament in 1933 and 1960. Unlike other nations, the U.S. doesn't typically use its best NHL players in the World Championships. Instead, it provides the younger players with an opportunity to gain international experience. Overall, the team has collected eleven Olympic medals (two of them gold), eighteen World Championship medals (two of them gold), and it reached the semifinal round of the Canada Cup/World Cup five times, twice advancing to the finals and winning gold once.
The U.S. is a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, and Sweden.
As of 2017, the U.S. has a registered ice hockey population of 637,744 with USA Hockey. USA Hockey is the largest governing body for ice hockey in the U.S. and is considered the best representation of the number of ice hockey players in the country.
Video United States men's national ice hockey team
History
The American ice hockey team's greatest success was the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, when American college players defeated the heavily favored seasoned professionals from the Soviet Union on the way to a gold medal. Though ice hockey is not a major sport in most areas of the United States, the "Miracle" is often listed as one of the all-time greatest American sporting achievements. The U.S. also won the gold medal in the 1960 Games at Squaw Valley, California, defeating the Soviet Union, Canada, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden along the way. However, since this victory is not as well known as the 1980 win, it has come to be known as the "Forgotten Miracle".
U.S. hockey experienced a spike in talent in the 1980s and 1990s, with future NHL stars including Tony Amonte, Chris Chelios, Derian Hatcher, Brett Hull, Pat LaFontaine, John LeClair, Brian Leetch, Mike Modano, Mike Richter, Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Stevens, Keith Tkachuk, and Doug Weight. Although the U.S. finished no higher than fourth in any World or Olympic event from 1981 through 1994 (unlike other nations, the U.S. was limited to amateurs at these tournaments), the Americans reached the finals of the 1991 Canada Cup and won the 1996 World Cup with a squad of NHL players. Six years later, after the International Olympic Committee and NHL arranged to accommodate an Olympic break in the NHL schedule, the U.S. earned a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics with a roster that included NHL stars Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury, Brian Rafalski, and Brian Rolston. However, by 2006, many of these NHL All-Stars had retired or had declined with age. Though the 2006 Olympic team finished a disappointing 8th, it was more of a transitional team, featuring young NHL players like Rick DiPietro, John-Michael Liles, and Jordan Leopold.
The 2010 U.S. Olympic team was composed of much younger and faster players than teams of previous years, including David Backes, Dustin Brown, Jack Johnson, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Bobby Ryan, Paul Stastny, and Ryan Suter. The team also had a solid group of veterans that included such stars as goalie Ryan Miller, defenseman Brian Rafalski, and team captain Jamie Langenbrunner. The U.S. team upset team Canada 5-3 in the round-robin phase of the tournament and went into the single elimination phase of the tournament as the number-one seeded team. After beating Finland 6-1, the U.S. advanced to the gold medal game, where they lost in overtime 3-2 to Canada to claim the silver medal. The gold medal game between Canada and the U.S. was watched by an estimated 27.6 million U.S. households. This was the most watched hockey game in America since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" game, including any Stanley Cup final or NHL Winter Classic broadcast.
The NHL pulled out of the Olympics for the 2018 competition in a dispute over insurance and the IOC's ambush marketing restrictions, prohibiting the national teams from inviting any player it held under contract. The American team was put at a particular disadvantage, as more than 25% of NHL players are Americans (in comparison, only 4.5% are Russians). As a result, the U.S. had to enter the tournament with a hastily assembled team of players from European leagues, AHLers on one-way contracts, and college players. The team proved unsuccessful, losing to Slovenia and the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the preliminary round, and being eliminated by the Czechs in the quarterfinals. The OAR team benefited most from NHL's absence and ultimately won the tournament with a team that was composed primarily of SKA Saint Petersburg and HC CSKA Moscow players from the Russia-based KHL and featured ex-NHL all-stars Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Vyacheslav Voynov (all SKA).
Maps United States men's national ice hockey team
Competitive record
Olympic Games
World Championship
- Note: Between 1920 and 1968, the Olympic ice hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.
- Note: World War II forced cancellation of all tournaments from 1940 to 1946.
- Note: In 1972, a separate tournament was held both for the World Championships and the Winter Olympics for the first time.
- Note: No World Championships were held during the Olympic years 1980, 1984, and 1988.
- 1920 -- Silver
- 1924 -- Silver
- 1928 -- did not participate
- 1930 -- did not participate
- 1931 -- Silver
- 1932 -- Silver
- 1933 -- Gold
- 1934 -- Silver
- 1935 -- did not participate
- 1936 -- Bronze
- 1937 -- did not participate
- 1938 -- 7th place
- 1939 -- Silver
- 1947 -- 5th place
- 1948 -- 4th place
- 1949 -- Bronze
- 1950 -- Silver
- 1951 -- 6th place
- 1952 -- Silver
- 1953 -- did not participate
- 1954 -- did not participate
- 1955 -- 4th place
- 1956 -- Silver
- 1957 -- did not participate
- 1958 -- 5th place
- 1959 -- 4th place
- 1960 -- Gold
- 1961 -- 6th place
- 1962 -- Bronze
- 1963 -- 8th place
- 1964 -- 5th place
- 1965 -- 6th place
- 1966 -- 6th place
- 1967 -- 5th place
- 1968 -- 6th place
- 1969 -- 6th place (relegated)
- 1970 -- 7th place (1st in Group B, promoted)
- 1971 -- 6th place (relegated)
- 1972 -- 8th place (2nd in Group B)
- 1973 -- 8th place (2nd in Group B)
- 1974 -- 7th place (1st in Group B, promoted)
- 1975 -- 6th place
- 1976 -- 4th place
- 1977 -- 6th place
- 1978 -- 6th place
- 1979 -- 7th place
- 1981 -- 5th place
- 1982 -- 8th place (relegated)
- 1983 -- 9th place (1st in Group B, promoted)
- 1985 -- 4th place
- 1986 -- 6th place
- 1987 -- 7th place
- 1989 -- 6th place
- 1990 -- 5th place
- 1991 -- 4th place
- 1992 -- 7th place
- 1993 -- 6th place
- 1994 -- 4th place
- 1995 -- 6th place
- 1996 -- Bronze
- 1997 -- 6th place
- 1998 -- 12th place
- 1999 -- 6th place
- 2000 -- 5th place
- 2001 -- 4th place
- 2002 -- 7th place
- 2003 -- 13th place
- 2004 -- Bronze
- 2005 -- 6th place
- 2006 -- 7th place
Canada Cup/World Cup
Team
Current roster
Roster for the 2018 IIHF World Championship.
Head coach: Jeff Blashill
IIHF World Championship directorate awards
The IIHF has given awards for each year's championship tournament to the top goalie, defenseman, and forward (all since 1954), and most valuable player (since 2004). The following American team members have won awards.
- 1955 - Don Rigazio (goalie)
- 1956 - Willard Ikola (goalie)
- 1959 - Bill Cleary (forward)
- 1960 - Jack McCartan (goalie)
- 1962 - John Mayasich (defenseman)
- 1967 - Carl Wetzel (goalie)
- 2004 - Ty Conklin (goalie)
- 2014 - Seth Jones (defenseman)
See also
- List of United States national ice hockey team rosters
References
External links
- Official website
- IIHF profile
Source of article : Wikipedia
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