BRING ON THE WORLD - AGAIN!

May 10th, 2012... Bounce Back! We suffered our first loss of the tournament against Slovakia on Monday. They are a very good team despite not having a win in the tournament yet as they lost two close ones to Canada (3-2) and Finland (1-0). Every game is important in a short tournament like this, so we have to learn from it and get ready for the next one. We were able to bounce back from the loss with a solid win against Belarus. We're right back at it tomorrow against Kazakhstan. Even though they're winless, we still have play our game and not let up. Every team is capable of winning and we don't want to look past them. Even though we play Finland, who is undefeated and the tournament-host, on Sunday, we have to focus on the task at hand and take it one game at a time.

We had a few days off in between games, so besides regrouping and preparing for Belarus, I was able to do a Twitter Chat with the fans through USA Hockey. It was a lot of fun answering people on a variety of topics. I know I couldn't get to everyone, so maybe I'll do it again soon. If you want to read it, my fans at "Crash the Net" posted the chat here.

May 6th, 2012... What a Start! Great two games to kick off the tournament. We started a little slow against France, but we have a lot of new guys who were making their national team debuts and after awhile, they seemed to get more comfortable and started playing our game. It was nice to get such a convincing 7-2 win to get things started and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

It doesn't take much to get up for a game against Canada. They've had our number in this tournament lately, but we battled all night long. Despite giving up a late goal to allow them to tie it, we held our composure and took care of things in overtime. I know we'll probably see Canada again in this tournament, but it's nice to get bragging rights for a bit. Right now I'm enjoying the day off to rest up as we continue the grind tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for the congratulations and support, we still have a lot of work to do to reach our ultimate goal, but hope everyone enjoys watching the games on the NBC Sports Network. Go USA!

Scoring the overtime goal against Canada was one of the biggest of my career.

May 2nd, 2012... We started the tournament off on a winning note with a 3-2 exhibition win over Sweden today. It was good to get used to the boys and I also received the honor of being named captain of the squad. I'm excited to lead this team to a gold medal. I won't be happy with anything less. Now we're off to Finland to start the real deal. First game is Friday against France on the NBC Sports Network (5:15am in the Eastern Time Zone). Hope everyone will be watching and cheering us on. Go USA!

Team USA 2012 IIHF Men's World Championship Schedule
May 4-20 • Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden

Preliminary Round Standings
Group H • Helsinki, Finland