Team USA’s coach for World Junior Championships Phil Housley pleased with his team
Phil Housley, who has just been appointed as the coach of US National junior team for 2013 World Junior Championships, is very happy with his team’s performance against Sweden and Finland in National Junior Evaluation Camp.
48-year-old from St. Paul, Minnesota, who played for nine different teams, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_SabresBuffalo Sabres (1982–1990), Winnipeg Jets (1990–1993), St. Louis Blues (1993–1994), Calgary Flames (1995–1996), New Jersey Devils (1996), Washington, Capitals (1996–1998), Calgary Flames (1998–2001), Chicago Blackhawks (2001–2003), Toronto Maple Leafs (2003),
told that his team seemed slow moving after first couple of days but he was pleased with overall week’s performance as he said,
“I was pleased about the whole week. Especially after the first couple days, it seemed like we were a little sluggish”.
5-foot-10, 185 pounder, former defenseman told that he had sent a warning note to all the players and asked them to come prepared, which they did. He thinks that boys uplifted their performance in international games against Sweden and Finland, as he added,
“(It) seemed like our games picked up in the third game and the international competition. I was very pleased by their effort. (I) talked to them, sent out the letter in June, to come prepared, and for the most part all of these guys worked hard and came
prepared for this camp”.
Team USA played three matches in the camp, winning two of those quite convincingly and losing one in a very tough contest against Finland.
Their best of the performance came on Thursday against 2012 World Junior Champions Sweden whom they thrashed and humiliated by beating them by a score of 10-2.
Americans had lost in the first round of the championships by showing a very disappointing performance, which they would not like to repeat this time and the intentions were clearly shown by the boys.
About Sweden game, Housley said,
"The Sweden game, obviously, we were on the puck in the offensive zone first, our F1 (first fore checking forward) pursuit was very, very good”.
Team USA also recorded a 5-2 win against Team Finland, to whom they had lost in this year’s junior championships so this pretty much shows that this time Housley’s boys are in a mood to avenge their losses.
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