Bury the puck, commands U.S. hockey coach

GJOVIK, Norway – Forget the fancy stuff, U.S. Olympic hockey coach Tim Taylor is telling his players. This is no time for behind-the-back moves, thread-the-needle passes and “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

Just get the puck. See the opening. Let ‘er rip.

“A lot of times in practice, we end up with something I call `the Harlem Globetrotter mentality’ – a lot of razzle-dazzle, pretty plays, every goal has to be a goal-mouth pass and a tap-in,” Taylor said Monday, a day after his team opened with a disappointing 4-4 tie against France.

“The only problem with that is we’re not playing the Washington Generals at the Olympic Games.

“You have to bear down and bury pucks, concentrate on finishing the job. It’s a bottom-line factor. When we get a quality scoring chance, we have to bury the puck. Sunday night, we didn’t.”

Meanwhile, France took advantage of almost every opportunity it had. It scored four times in 14 shots against U.S. goalie Mike Dunham, who was shaky until finally playing well late in the game.

Taylor said Monday that Garth Snow will replace Dunham for Tuesday’s game against Slovakia at Gjovik Olympic Cavern Hall.

Before the tournament, Taylor said he would eventually start Snow – Dunham’s former college roommate at the University of Maine. But the coach had hoped to save Snow for Game 3 against Canada.

“We’ve said all along that we have a strong goaltending tandem. And we’ve said all along that both players would contribute,” Taylor said. “We saw how well Mike is capable of playing for us in the final minutes against France. It’s now Garth’s turn.”

The Americans had 32 shots against France but needed two late fluke goals to salvage the tie. Not only did the U.S. team fail to score on seven power plays, it gave up a short-handed goal.

“All year long, we’ve been able to do the job offensively. Sunday night, we didn’t get it done,” Taylor said. “We can’t play that well and draw that many penalties out of our opponent and not get a power-play goal out of it.”

So Monday at practice, Taylor reduced the game to its most basic element:

Shoot the puck, hard as you can, into the back of the net.

“We worked on just burying the puck,” said Todd Marchant, top scorer during the pre-Olympic tour but scoreless Sunday. “When we get our chances, we’ve got to put it into the back of the net. We can’t float it in. We can’t hope it goes in or trickles through.

“In practice, we were burying the puck. So I think you’re going to see a different offensive game from our team” against Slovakia.

Taylor believes Tuesday’s game will be more offensive on both sides.

“It’s going to be a much more up-and-down game, played at a much faster tempo, just because I think Slovakia will be confident offensively,” he said. “I think France thought they had to neutralize us first before they would have any chance at winning the game.”

Led by former NHL star Peter Stastny, Slovakia tied second-seeded Sweden 4-4 in its opener. The Slovaks are seeded last only because they are new to the Olympics, having gained independence just last year. Slovakia might be the strongest 12th seed in tournament history.

“We’re very aware that we have the same record as Slovakia. We have the same record as Sweden, too,” Taylor said. “If we’re going to be where we want to be, we’ve got to beat those teams.”