You saw the dejected looks on the Americans’ faces as Canada ended Team USA’s World Cup hopes on Tuesday night.
Patrick Kane nearly lost it on the bench. Ryan Suter apologized through the media. But it wasn’t what was said, it was how they felt.
“We were thinking, ‘The (NHL regular season) hasn’t even started yet,’” Joe Pavelski said by phone on Wednesday, with a rueful laugh. “Instead, there was that feeling you have when your season is over. Everyone was so disappointed.
“You never want to let anyone down. And you know you did.”
No US player sat longer at his interview podium after the Canada game than Pavelski. When you’re the captain, you eat it. Comes with the job.
Watching him in those moments, Pavelski’s eyes flickered just once. It came when he was asked about the torrent of criticism directed at the team, the coup de grace delivered by a Phil Kessel tweet seconds after the clock showed three zeroes.
Normally, the media leads the pile-on. Not this time. It was especially weird to see it happen in hockey.
With a night to sleep on it, what did he think? Pavelski paused.
“I have ton of respect for all of those guys. (Kessel’s tweet), I don’t think it was about us. He wanted be a part of it and couldn’t help…but it’s tough to see,” he said. “Everyone who said something has been part of this before. Every one of them has gone through what we are going through…you think they would understand.”
What if the comments were not directed at the players?
“Maybe they don’t mean for us to take those comments personally, but when you put on that jersey, you do. I wish we had done more, not put those guys in a situation where they could say those things,” Pavelski said. “A couple of them are not afraid to say what they feel. Even though we didn’t do well, we have pride in USA Hockey. There were still some cool moments of team building, being together. We are all in this together, we want the program to keep getting better.”
The only thing I didn’t like Wednesday was that only players faced the five-alarm blaze. Many of them — David Backes, Kane, Ryan McDonagh, Max Pacioretty, Zach Parise, Kyle Palmieri, Pavelski, Derek Stepan, Suter — weathered one hard question after another in the 12 post-defeat hours.
After a while, some of the reporters danced around the same questions until Parise half-jokingly said, “Are you asking me if I shouldn’t be invited back?”
The hardest thing for Pavelski is that he’s 32. If the NHLers do go to the Olympics in 2018, he could easily be there. But if that falls apart, could he make another World Cup team at 36?
“I don’t know,” he answered. “You reach a point where you train every summer to perform at a high level on a year-by-year basis.”
Understated and incredibly professional, Pavelski’s story is well-known. Taken 205th overall in 2003, he’s beaten the odds to become captain of both the San Jose Sharks and Team USA. That doesn’t ease the pain of some hard defeats: 2010 Gold Medal Game; 2014 Olympic semifinals and Bronze Medal Game; 2016 Stanley Cup Final. Now this.
Pavelski was asked if there were any texts or messages that helped. He said there were some, but his heart really wasn’t in that answer.
You do appreciate it, but they don’t ease the pain. It’s a truth I learned the hard way at the Olympics: you don’t forget until you forgive yourself. That takes a long time. The scars run deep and they are easily ripped open.
In 2004, with the US Olympic basketball team under siege after a semifinal loss to Argentina, fans thought they’d quit. Allen Iverson made a passionate speech that a bronze still mattered, which the Americans won.
Pavelski and teammates don’t have a medal to play for. The Czechs — also winless, with no chance of advancing — will play hard. Pavelski believes the US will match that.
“I just wish we could give everyone a little bit better of an ending. We realize how much everyone cares.”
