The United States men’s Olympic hockey team has been playing very well, and after having gotten a bye into the quarterfinals and then knocking out Sweden to make it to the semifinals, Buffalo Sabres fans watching will have noticed something. Star forward Tage Thompson has been underutilized and arguably misused thus far.
Despite being one of their best offensive scoring options, Thompson has been treated as if he plays a completely different role, while other forwards in the group have shown far less, both during the NHL regular season and the Olympics thus far. It is time he is allowed to be the player he is supposed to be, and the United States might be more formidable.
Thompson’s Scoring Would Be Massive in the Coming Games
Team USA has not exactly been hard-pressed to score goals in the Olympics so far, as they have scored five, six, then five goals respectively in their games, before being held to only two vs Sweden in the quarterfinal game. Thompson has contributed two of those 18 goals, despite being limited to around 10 minutes of ice time per game, one of them coming on the power play. As one of the NHL’s premier goal-scoring talents right now, he needs to be put in a position to score, especially with upcoming games against Team Slovakia and possibly a stacked Team Canada if they progress further.
While on the Sabres this season, Thompson has scored 30 goals in 57 games played, and 25 of those have come at even strength. While Team USA has plenty of high-end goal-scoring talent up front in Auston Matthews, Jake Guentzel, and Kyle Connor, having Thompson as a primary scoring option down the middle with wingers like Matthew and Brady Tkachuk could be insanely dangerous. Having a line of massive forwards charging in with a combination of physicality, speed, pure size, playmaking, and creativity, while allowing them all to play off one another, would also just be fun to watch.
Not to mention, the United States has plenty of options for players to match up with their higher-up centers in Jack Eichel and Auston Matthews. Letting Thompson run around and score goals between the Tkachuks would be a dynamite idea.
Wasting Thompson in Favor of Some Others Would Be Unwise
With Thompson’s ice time so low, it has allowed for some other players to be shown some favor, and in some cases it has felt undeserved based on performance. Take Vincent Trocheck, JT Miller, and even Jack Hughes, for example. The two New York Rangers players have shown most of their value on the penalty kill; however, head coach Mike Sullivan has continuously sat Thompson in favor of one or both of Miller/Trocheck at even strength, while Thompson has sat on the bench, many times even coming after a good shift by Thompson or a bad shift by the Rangers’ players.
Or, there have been the multitude of times that Jack Hughes has looked like the equivalent of a baby giraffe learning how to walk, when he cannot stay up on his skates, or when he ran straight into USA captain Auston Matthews vs Germany.
Related: Sabres’ Dahlin Shining Early for Team Sweden
Thompson has shown multiple times in his limited ice time that he not only deserves to play more, but also be treated like the high-end goal scorer he is. Playing him for a much more reasonable 14-15 minutes per night (understanding that both Matthews and Eichel are ahead of him) will let him be in a better space, and it will give Team USA more flexibility with who they send out each shift. Using Thompson as a third-line scoring forward with good power-play time is the best bet for Team USA right now, and the sooner they realize that, the better chance they will have at defeating the top teams left and pushing for a gold medal.
