It takes time for lines to gel, players have to anticipate where the others are going to be. That's why this was doomed to failure. The team should have been playing exhibitions for months before the Olympics.
Exactly. That's why Gomez and Gionta were the team's best forwards (they play together on the same line for the New Jersey Devils), even though Keith Tkachuk was about as talented and mobile as a garbage dumpster playing on their line.
True, but that was the case for most of the teams, which are just a collection of all-stars.