On a day when President Obama said it was San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s constitutional right to not stand during the national anthem, John Tortorella talked about it being an honor to be America’s coach at the World Cup of Hockey.
Advertisement
Tortorella also said previously that he plans to use Kane a lot in a variety of roles on Team USA. “It’s hard, and (it’s a competition) I have thought about for months coming into this”. “It’s a tournament full of different elements, but at the same time, you have one goal and that is to win”. The United States entertains Canada at Nationwide Arena on Friday, has a return match in Ottawa on Saturday and squares off against Finland in Washington on September 13. “I think he’s ready for more responsibility now”. “I’m going to couple this in with all these analytics and stuff like that. When you don’t win, all that stuff doesn’t mean as much”. “It’s not going to be fair but we have to eventually make a decision of who is going to start”.
The announcement from the National Hockey League and NHLPA on Wednesday night comes a day before Team North America plays its pre-tournament opener against Team Europe in Quebec City. There was a lot of speculation regarding the anthems for the World Cup, mostly as a result of the North American team, and the European team being comprised of multiple nations with multiple anthems.
“The Fall Festival is a critical touchpoint for the players in our program as they come together for the first time on the ice this season with our coaching staff”, said Davidson on the Hockey Canada Website. We will be prepared for it.
Though you may have forgotten about it, or not known it existed at all, the World Cup of Hockey gets underway in less than two weeks. “He’s so shifty that you have to kind of give him room, but not give him room”, Byfuglien said of defending against Kane during the regular season. Plenty of others can play too. Taking two points, and shutting them out, dramatically increases your chances of making the semifinals in such a short tournament. “In the end, in addition to our captain and alternate captains, we also selected four other players and those seven guys will form an overall leadership group for our team”. Tortorella was quick to stress it’s a bit of a moving target.
The B.C. native was in upbeat spirits among his Canadian teammates at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, if admittedly anxious to finally get back into game action.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was Kane getting a letter. “Small (is better)”, Kane said without hesitation. Parise was the captain for the Americans at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, where they failed to medal.
Advertisement
When asked by Linda Cohn of ESPN how he would deal with one of his players expressing a political stance at a hockey game, he bristled. If you don’t have the puck, get it back.
