(WGR Sports Radio 550) – In two games at the 2025 World Championship in Denmark, Team USA has still yet to give up a goal.
After Joey Daccord (Seattle Kraken) made 26 saves in a shutout win out Denmark on Friday, Jeremy Swayman (Boston Bruins) stopped all 13 shots he faced in a 6-0 victory over Hungary on Sunday.
Tage Thompson was an absolute force on Friday, but couldn’t put the puck in the net on eight shots, many of which were dangerous.
It was a totally different story, though, on Sunday, as Thompson played 16:09 and had four shots on goal. It wasn’t until his last few shifts of the game that he looked good.
It doesn’t make sense to me why he and his linemates, Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley (Utah Mammoth), aren’t clicking. Thompson and Keller have no goals and two assists combined in the two games, while Cooley has two goals and an assist that came without his two linemates on a line change.
This season, Thompson had 44 goals and 28 assists for 72 points, while Keller had 30 goals and 60 assists for a career-high 90 points.
Look at some of the other players taking part for Team USA this tournament:
- Frank Nazar played 53 games for the Chicago Blackhawks, scoring 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points. He spent 21 games in the AHL with the Rockford IceHogs, and yet, has four points in two games.
- Cutter Gauthier was a 21-year-old rookie with the Anaheim Ducks this year, but he has three goals and four points in this tournament.
- San Jose Sharks' 20-year-old rookie Will Smith has three points.
Keller and Thompson should be far-and-away leading the way for the Americans, but they’re not.
I think the biggest reason Thompson, Keller and Cooley aren’t clicking is they spent most of Sunday either trying to stickhandle through the whole Hungarian team, or they tried to get way too cute looking for the pretty goal.
I’ll use two examples with Thompson: He came through the left circle and had a wide-open shooting opportunity, but wanted to dipsy-doodle with the puck and lost it. Then on a 3-on-2 rush, instead of giving his linemate a good passing lane for an open opportunity, he skated by him to the net and gave him nothing, resulting in a turnover.
There was just no chemistry at all with that line on Sunday, while on Friday, they did produce chances, but couldn’t score. This is against teams they should be dominating on the score sheet.
It’ll be interesting to see if U.S. head coach Ryan Warsofsky will break up that line on Monday against Switzerland.