WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

September 15, 2016

Dean Lombardi

John Tortorella

Q. John, three games in now, is this team where you hoped it would be as you prepare for Saturday afternoon, or how would you assess the evolution of where Team USA is at heading into Game 1?

JOHN TORTORELLA: I think we've improved as we've gone through the three games and the practices. The biggest battle I think probably for all coaches in the tournament here is how much you give them. You don't want to paralyze them. It's their tournament, quite honestly. It's the players' tournament. But where we're at right now with another practice left tomorrow, I feel very comfortable as far as how we've gone about our business.

Q. Dean, coming out of this tournament, if it is a big success, what's your view about future Olympic participation and how it could play into this event moving forward? Can the two coexist, and how do you think your owner feels about it?

DEAN LOMBARDI: I mean, quite honestly, I'm not even thinking along those lines right now. I mean, it's totally focused on this team here right now. It's the first time I've had a chance to do this, so the last thing I'm looking for is down the road. But I'll have an opinion for you another time.

Q. Dean, you've won a couple Stanley Cups and had obviously some NHL accomplishments. What would a win here or a good showing here mean for you, and how do you think you'd do it just based off of your nationalistic pride in general?

DEAN LOMBARDI: Well, I don't know. It's really hard to describe what this feels like. I guess it goes back to the way I was brought up, and whether it's your own goals and people you know have gone to Vietnam and know what those guys went through and what their reasons were, we don't get a lot of opportunities to really do something for your country. I was raised under Kennedy's saying about don't ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country, and this is really something that touches upon that. It means a heck of a lot to me, those colors, in so many more ways than hockey, and this is just a very small fraction of that.

I guess I could go on forever about how much pride I have in these colors, and hopefully we can give something back in a small way.

Q. John, 2010 in Vancouver the Americans beat Canada early, then it's overtime. You get the sense that the two countries are neck and neck in terms of where they are as hockey programs. Canada, they've gone two gold medals, a couple world golds, and they've now become the team to beat. Has there ever been a widening gap between the two countries, or is it just the results of the last few tournaments?

JOHN TORTORELLA: I don't really follow too much about what goes on. We're so wrapped up with our team when you're coaching in the National Hockey League season. You're worried about your players. To comment on the gap or where the countries are, you know, it's hard for me, because I just wouldn't give you an answer with information.

Certainly in this tournament here you look at Canada as one of the better teams here, and I think if teams are going to do the things that they want to do somewhere along the line, you're going to have to go through Canada. So that is with respect.

But we're just concentrating our group here -- just trying to concentrate on what we need to do and do the best we can do within our team concept to put on a showing and take it one day at a time as we go through this tournament.

Q. John, obviously goaltending is critical in the short-term, but if you were trying to tell someone how you win on best on best tournament in a short format, other than goaltending, in general terms, how do you win it?

JOHN TORTORELLA: Well, for me, for this coach, you're dealing with the best players in the world in all the countries playing, the way we've tried to go about it right from the get-go, and with Dean, the manager of the team, and the scouts, and the 14-month process we went through to pick the team is I think to get your team to play under a team concept and have the identity that everybody buys into and be selfless while you're doing it as a player, that is the most important thing.

The X's and O's and all that, I think that'll come into play, but I think how your team is interacting when the tournament starts and when there's some adversity going on from within the game and game to game, and that's a team concept. That's a camaraderie. I think that's going to be very important.

We have talked about this from day one, 14 months ago, on how we want to go about our business to give us the best chance.

Q. John, can you assess Brandon Dubinsky's performance the first couple games? And obviously you're going to be rotating guys in and out of the lineup. What have you seen from Brandon so far and what does he need to give you more of?

JOHN TORTORELLA: I think he's played well. He didn't play the other night. We gave him the night off for that reason alone. He's played hard. He's played at wing. I moved him to center when Kes was -- when he was ejected out of a game, and I saw Duby's game come alive a little bit. I think he'll probably start at center as we start the tournament here. But for those guys that know Duby, Duby brings you that. He will give you everything he possibly has. He plays so hard on the wall, a good face-off guy. He's going to kill some penalties for us. So he's equipped himself pretty well here the first couple of games he's played here, and he'll probably be in the lineup when we start on Saturday, and we'll see where we go.

Q. John, you're working with deep staff of assistant coaches here. I'm wondering what that experience has been like for you, a lot of New England guys, and also if you --

JOHN TORTORELLA: That's the way we like it.

Q. If you ever think having that kind of manpower would be helpful for an NHL coach with his club team.

JOHN TORTORELLA: I'll tell you, it's been a blast for me. I'm the older guy on the staff. You're talking about -- we were just talking about it today just an hour or so, we've got some coaches -- it's a bit of an alpha male. You have thoughts, and your thoughts are your thoughts, and you're going to believe it, and when you put us all together, no one wins an argument. No one wins the conversation. But it's been really interesting to listen to the ideas as we've tried to develop our team concept. I've divvied out a number of different things to the coaches. Everybody is involved.

But the conversations to me at dinner or having a beer or something like that, how we run our teams, a couple of situations comes up in a game or how you defend that, it's been stimulating to me.

The biggest thing that has been fun for me is that I think we have kind of joined together in a short time here. There's no trying to one-up one another. It's hard conversations when we're talking, and we all have our convictions, but at the end of the day, what's best for our team is we believe in what we bring to the team, and we sell it that way. Bright minds. Bright minds here, and I'm sure all the staffs here within the tournament. It's been a lot of fun for me.

Q. (No microphone.)

JOHN TORTORELLA: This many coaches? Man, I'm not sure if I could have those hard conversations all year long for seven months. I don't know. I don't want to go that far of saying being with these guys for seven, eight months out of the year. I don't want to go as far as saying that.

Q. Speaking of hard conversations, who are your healthy scratches for Game 1, and how did you term them?

JOHN TORTORELLA: I'm not talking about my healthy scratches right now. That'll be prior to the game.