Wild GM Bill Guerin: American hockey needs to keep its foot on the gas

The Minnesota Wild are not one of the eight teams that employed Bill Guerin during his nearly two-decade career as an NHL participant But the Wild general manager skated for the home crew in St Paul once In the fall of Guerin played for Crew USA in the World Cup of Hockey Before packed houses at Xcel Ability Center Guerin had teammates like Brett Hull Mike Modano Jeremy Roenick Chris Chelios Keith Tkachuk and current Minnesota Frost head coach Ken Klee The Americans beat Slovakia in the preliminary round and downed Russia in the quarterfinals before falling to Finland in a tight - semifinal event Between three trips to the Olympics a pair of appearances in the World Cup and two stints with the American entry in World Juniors when he was a teenager Guerin spent nearly games wearing red white and blue and vying for a medal on various international hockey stages He won gold in the World Cup and silver in the Olympics in Salt Lake City So when USA Hockey needed a general manager for February s Nations Face-Off Guerin was the logical choice and put together a company that came within an overtime goal of gold He will serve in the same ceiling for Crew USA in the Olympics which will be held next February in Italy In early May as he held his season-ending meeting with the Minnesota media following the Wild s first-round playoff exit Guerin s bags were already packed for the World Championship in Denmark and Sweden And while there were seven Wild players and or prospects dotting several of the international association rosters Guerin was focused on his nation first and employer second I put a big emphasis on it It s not necessarily how plenty of goals you number or this or that or whatever Guerin commented of the tournament held in Europe each spring It s When are we going to win that tournament We need to win that tournament soon We need our best players going Rite of spring The NHL pauses for the Olympics and competitions such as the inaugural Nations Faceoff so that its top players can skate for their countries The World Championship is played at the same time as the NHL playoffs in the spring meaning that the rosters for the United States Canada Sweden Finland Germany Switzerland and others are composed primarily of skaters defensemen and goalies from NHL teams that either didn t make the playoffs or were knocked out in the first round Among the top players for Club USA in were former Gophers star Logan Cooley Frank Nazar and Zach Werenski whose NHL teams Utah Chicago and Columbus respectively did not make it to the playoffs Wild defenseman Zeev Buium was on a plane for Europe to skate for the Americans just a inadequate days after Minnesota was knocked out of the postseason by Vegas Other Wild properties in the tournament were defense prospect David Spacek Czechia goaltending prospect Samuel Hlavaj Slovakia defenseman Jared Spurgeon Canada retiring goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury Canada defenseman Jonas Brodin Sweden and forward Marcus Johansson Sweden With Guerin and other USA Hockey higher-ups in attendance for several of the games in Stockholm the American group did something it had last accomplished in After just one loss in their seven preliminary round games the Americans bested Finland Sweden and Switzerland in the medal round to bring home gold The finale versus the Swiss whose international hockey stock is rising fast was an overtime thriller with Buffalo forward Tage Thompson scoring the challenge s only goal It was a great experience and the buy-in from players was awesome There was a good feel Guerin explained this week while taking several much-needed time away from the rink The guys sought to be there and that s what I ve been trying to push is that it s a great experience to get to play for your country Guerin noted that the unit won gold in an era when rosters had fewer than a dozen players goalies wore little to no padding and the forward pass was a relatively new element to the meeting This is really the first time in modern history that we ve done it Guerin reported And this gold medal may have come at what is looking more and more like the best of times for American hockey Guerin pointed out that the American entry in sled hockey an adapted version of the contest for players who have lost limbs or dealt with paralysis is dominating the world stage Best of times Band USA won its second consecutive gold at the World Juniors and will go for the three-peat when the tournament comes to the Twin Cities in December In April the U S women beat Canada in overtime to claim the World Championship in Czechia And when they get to Italy next winter the Americans will be pushing for their first men s Olympic gold since the Miracle On Ice while the Company USA women won their largest part latest gold in There have been a lot of great accomplishments and the member pool for all of the different categories we play in is having success It s a good thing Guerin commented We don t want to take our foot off the gas though The World Championships happen every year We don t just want to say Hey great we won one let s back off We want to continue to compete for medals That s where we are now With an eye toward the Olympics Guerin revealed perhaps the majority pivotal thing key members of Group USA gained this month in addition to those gold medals was the experience of playing in meaningful games while wearing the nation s colors A lot of times there are very very good players that haven t played in meaningful games Guerin explained We had chosen guys in that category that really stepped up and proved that they can do that The process of choosing the Association USA roster for World Juniors will begin in late July in Minneapolis with the World Juniors Summer Showcase which will include teams from Canada Sweden and Finland as well as the United States and will be held at Ridder Arena on the U of M campus Minnesota Gophers men s hockey coach Bob Motzko is the American coach for World Juniors for the third time in his career Related Articles WJC pre-tourney games slated for Greater Minnesota Wild sign Russian prospect Danila Yurov to entry-level contract As the offseason begins in earnest chosen Wild stories to follow NHL Salt Lake s company brands itself as Utah Mammoth Wild GM Bill Guerin ready to spend