After Larkin’s challenge, some top US players commit to worlds with Milan Olympics on the horizon

Mere minutes after a crushing overtime defeat to Canada in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, U.S. veteran Dylan Larkin already had a sharp criticism and a suggestion to his fellow Americans about how to prevent similar outcomes in the future.

“We’ve had a tough time with USA Hockey getting guys to play in the world championships, and I think guys that are at home watching this, I’m hoping they’re wanting a piece of it,” Larkin said. “They got to go to the world championships and prove themselves and play for their country.”

Clayton Keller listened. So did Tage Thompson. Jeremy Swayman was on the U.S. 4 Nations roster, but with no guarantee he’ll be one of the three goaltenders at the Olympics in nine months, he committed, too.

It’s no sure thing they’ll be in Milan next February or that the U.S. will win Olympic gold for the first time since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team. But getting elite talent to worlds this spring is a good start with the aim of winning the tournament for the first time since 1933.

“We need to get some winning swagger back,” U.S. world championship coach Ryan Warsofsky told The Associated Press by phone before leaving for Europe. “We want to be a team and a country that has a winning pedigree, and we’ve got to start winning this tournament.”

The fact that the U.S. won World War II more recently than the IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship is something general manager Jeff Kealty brought up to everyone he signed up to play. Warsofsky called it “the ultimate motivation,” while acknowledging also that a lot of guys on the team have a lot to play for to get on the Olympic radar.

“I don’t think it’s going to be the be-all, end-all as to whether or not some of these guys make the team in February, but I don’t think there’s any question that it can help and it can get them front and center with USA Hockey,” Kealty told The AP.

It might make the difference for the final few roster spots after the likes of Thompson, Keller, Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield were left off the 4 Nations team. U.S. Olympic GM Bill Guerin is going to Denmark to watch and scout, and he said he puts “a big emphasis” on players participating and showing what they can do on a big international stage.

“It’s not necessarily how many goals you score or this or that: When are we going to win that tournament? We need to win that tournament soon,” Guerin said Tuesday. “We need our best players though. Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon are going. That should say something. It is a commitment from our players to go and try to win that tournament. ... It is an Olympic year, but we need this more consistently from our players to go over and play and try to win that tournament.”

Canada has won it four times over the past decade, since back-to-back Olympic titles with NHL players in 2010 and ’14. Crosby and MacKinnon joining this year makes the top hockey country on earth the favorite once again.

But the U.S. wants to close the gap on Canada, and even reaching the world championship final for the first time since 1956 would be a step forward. The Americans, of course, are not shooting for silver.

“The biggest thing for us to make a name and a statement is to win the tournament,” Warsofsky said. “That’s what we’ll be remembered for as the team that’s won a tournament for the first time since 1933.”

Just getting great U.S. players to take the tournament seriously would be a plus. Kealty understands with the NHL playoffs going on that the worlds are “very much out of sight, out of mind” in North America but points out players and coaches who have gone always return raving about their experience.

Goalie Charlie Lindgren is one of them, comparing the playoffs with Washington on the road at New York’s Madison Square Garden to a packed arena in Prague facing host Czechia.

“We played our first round at MSG last year with the Caps against the Rangers, which that was at the time the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in,” said Lindgren, who has represented the U.S. twice at worlds. “Then going over there to the Czech Republic and seeing that, it’s just a totally different vibe. It’s almost like you see the soccer games where the crowd’s on their feet the whole game doing chants.”

Lindgren remembers three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane leading the charge in 2018 to get more U.S. stars to the world championships, and the late Johnny Gaudreau was the poster boy for saying yes to USA Hockey when called. Larkin is only absent this year because of a family situation keeping him home.

Perhaps those examples and Larkin’s challenge will be the start of the U.S. path toward winning more gold medals, from the worlds to the Olympics, now that players are showing they do indeed want a piece of this.

“There’s hopefully kind of a moment here,” Kealty said. “I do think more and more of these guys are standing up and wanting to go participate, and I think it speaks great for USA Hockey and speaks great for the future.”

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AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, and AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL