VANCOUVER, B.C. – How do you put together a team in 18 hours?
That was the challenge facing USA Olympic men’s hockey coach Ron Wilson, whose players weren’t able to break away from their NHL jobs until Sunday.
The Americans took the ice for a short practice Monday night at 6, then faced off against Switzerland at noon on Tuesday.
Wilson was pleased with what he saw – a 3-1 victory that showcased Team USA’s balance of speed and strength – and he’ll be even more pleased once he’s able to associate names and jersey numbers with faces.
“The whole game was a chance for me as a coach to get to know some of these players a little bit better,” Wilson said. “I’m coaching these guys, and I had to refer to my game card to make sure I was getting the lines right.”
It would be inaccurate to suggest Wilson has no history with any of the 23 guys on the American roster. He’s familiar with forward Phil Kessel, who plays for the same Toronto Maple Leafs organization that employs Wilson as its head coach.
Of the remaining 22 men on the roster, six answer to the first name of Ryan, while another owns Ryan as a last name.
Said Wilson: “We’ve got so many damned Ryans, it’s confusing. You say ‘Ryan,’ and five guys turn around. We have to start thinking what their nicknames are. And if we don’t know, then make one up.”
The Ryans on the American roster include Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who turned away 14 of 15 shots in the opener and would have been credited with a shutout had he not gotten careless in controlling the puck after a save.
There’s also Ryan Malone, the Tampa Bay Lightning forward who scored Team USA’s final goal on a power play.
The most popular American-born Ryan at Canada Hockey Place? That would be Ryan Kesler, who plays for the Vancouver Canucks.
Ryan Kesler is not to be confused with Ryan Callahan, of the New York Rangers, or Ryan Whitney, of the Anaheim Ducks, or even Ryan Suter, of the Nashville Predators.
Of course, the longer the U.S. team stays in the tournament, the more complex Wilson’s problems become. The performance the Americans put forth Tuesday – a bit sloppy but solid overall, and sometimes even scintillating – made it difficult to discount them as medal contenders, if for no other reason than their depth.
While the first line of Zach Parise, Paul Stastny and Patrick Kane was held in check, Bobby Ryan and David Backes, with the fourth line, scored a goal apiece. It was Backes who contributed the highlight of the game: taking a rebound in front of the U.S. goal early in the second period, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound forward skated the length of the ice before cutting in on Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller and shooting the puck into the right side of the net.
That’s not a play often seen during a practice, especially the kind of let’s-just-get-acquainted-with-each-other session Wilson oversaw on Monday.
“Once we got the kinks out, you could tell we’ve got three or four pretty good lines,” said forward Dustin Brown. “That’s the key for us – working the kinks out. Today you could see we were sometimes off a foot here or a foot there. When we connect on those passes, you’ll see even more speed.”
The U.S. team will never realize the almost mystical connection of teammates who’ve been playing on the same line for several years.
And it won’t be molded into a unit that’s a team in the sense of the 1980 American gold medalists, college kids who needed several months of traveling together to put aside their regional rivalries and invest in a collective identity.
But just because this group of NHL stars will disband when the Olympic Games conclude doesn’t mean it can’t find its own kind of identity. Tuesday was a start.
“We’ve had one practice,” said general manager Brian Burke. “That was the first 60 minutes these guys have played together – ever. On that basis, from that yardstick, I’m pleased with the game. Was there some rust? Were there some misplays? Yes. Did we have a couple of breakdowns that could cost us later in the tournament? Yes.
“But these guys barely know each other. You’re not gonna get ready here, the way you’d be ready playing together on a regular basis. You’re not going to see that early in the tournament, anyway.”
Next up for Team USA is Norway on Thursday, and then Canada.
“We’ll take this victory and put it in our back pocket,” said Malone. “But we need to be better against Norway, and a lot better against Canada.”
“We are,” said Wilson, “a chemistry experiment.”
For the American hockey team, chemistry will be achieved when its coach is able tell one Ryan from another.
