[SamAdams76]

I didn't watch the game, but I suspect that it was a lot like most "all star" teams - they didn't practice together enough to become a team.

This was likely the secret sauce behind the 1980 Olympic hockey team win. That was not a collection of NHL superstars on a two-week "vacation" but a real team of motivated amateurs (kids just out of high school) put together by the late Herb Brooks and they practiced together for months and months. A true team.

[Alberta's Child]

Very few of those players were “kids right out of high school.” Most of them had played three or more years of NCAA hockey on elite teams like Minnesota, Boston U. and Wisconsin. Some of them had finished college or were seniors, and delayed the start of their NHL careers just to play in the Olympics.

Brooks was right about one thing, though: He said from the start that he didn’t want the BEST players on that team, but the RIGHT players.

[Tallguy]

Kids just out of college... and most of them with NHL contracts and delayed reporting dates.