The plain truth is that the best USA players, as a group, simply are not as good as the best players in other countries. This is true both in Olympic hockey and NHL hockey.
Disagree. We more than hold our own with the best teams in the world. We won the silver medal in the 2002 Olympics and the Bronze medal in the 2004 world championships. The US is third overall in Olympic ice hockey medals. In the World under 20 world championships, the US won the gold medal in 2004 and in the under 18 world championships the gold medal in 2002 and 2005 and the sliver medal in 2004.
The percentage of U.S.-born players in the NHL is at its highest point in six seasons. Opening day rosters contained 113 players from the United States, comprising 15.5 percent of the 728 players in the league. That is the highest it has been since 16 percent of players came from the United States in the 1997-98 season. The quality and numbers of US-born hockey players are on the rise. We can compete with the best.