03-27-2019, 05:23 PM(This post was last modified: 03-27-2019, 07:28 PM by FuzzSHL.)
This message has been reviewed and approved by Team USA
Team USA Press Conference
Hello everyone, and thank you for coming on such short notice. I’m sure all of you saw former Team USA member Osbert Whacker’s statement regarding his transfer and I’m sure you all know that’s what we’re here about today. First off, Team USA would like to thank Osbert Whacker for his time on the team and for his love and dedication to the game of hockey. His former teammates all agree he was a pleasure to play with on the ice and will surely miss his presence.
To start, Team USA had hoped to keep this behind closed doors until after the upcoming edition of both the IIHF competition and World Junior Championships, but it is with a heavy heart that we announce that longtime Federation Head @trella will be stepping down at the conclusion of the upcoming tournaments. Team USA can not thank him enough for his time as Federation Head and wishes him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Team USA would like to address some of the issues and concerns raised by Osbert Whacker in his press release. Team USA realizes that the off-ice presence of management and the communication between current, former, and future team members does not meet the expectations we at Team USA set for ourselves. Moving forward, changes to the locker room (on site and discord) have been and are continuing to be planned, as well as changes to how Team USA management interacts with their players.
While these changes were being discussed, Osbert Whacker negotiated his transfer to Team Japan without any mention of it to Team USA staff. We were expecting him to become a key player in our current WJC plans and in future IIHF plans. Reaching out to Whacker to ask if he was still a part of Team USA was an oversight as we should have noticed this move earlier. To that, Team USA would like to apologize to Osbert Whacker for any hard feelings that move may have brought.
Here at Team USA, we acknowledge that some players may have what they consider to be a self “brand” that they have to uphold, but we have a certain level of expectations that we hold our players to. No one player is more important than the other when they step onto the ice. We practice as a team, travel as a team, we win and we lose as a team, and we will bring home medals as a team. That has always been and always will be our stance regarding that topic and we will issue no further comment on it.
When a player or any member of Team USA’s staff has an issue within the organization, we do everything in our power to solve these issues in-house as to not cause any unnecessary distractions in or out of the organization. Osbert Whacker took to twitter to express his disinterest in associating himself with Team USA back in December. Team USA was not approached with any concerns on behalf of Osbert Whacker before the tweet was made. Team USA staff reached out to Osbert Whacker after this incident and attempted to resolve the initial issue Osbert Whacker had with Team USA. After a certain period of time, Osbert Whacker had not made any indication that the issue was ongoing, and as far as Team USA was concerned the issue seemed to have resolved itself. Obviously, this was not the case, and moving forward, Team USA will do everything in its power to make sure every member, whether rostered or not, is happy with how things are both within the organization and in their personal endeavors.
In closing, Team USA would like the fact to be known that moving forward, changes will be made in order to hopefully avoid a situation like this in the future. Team USA, under new management, will strive to maintain a positive atmosphere and locker room climate above all else, and would like to reaffirm its stance on how issues are handled within the organization.
Thank you, and we will now be taking questions.
03-27-2019, 07:16 PMSecondSucks22 Wrote: Reporter from the Halifax Gazette here, how do you feel knowing you will lose this WJC to a superior Canadian team?
We have been eagerly watching the SMJHL this season and we are beyond impressed with the talent we have at our hands. While Canada has historically boasted incredibly talented rosters, we are confident that this upcoming World Junior Championships will be ours for the taking.
03-27-2019, 07:16 PMSecondSucks22 Wrote: Reporter from the Halifax Gazette here, how do you feel knowing you will lose this WJC to a superior Canadian team?
03-27-2019, 07:16 PMSecondSucks22 Wrote: Reporter from the Halifax Gazette here, how do you feel knowing you will lose this WJC to a superior Canadian team?