Jesse Pierce

I think these U.S.

guys, specifically the players we're talking about that make such an impact on a nightly basis for the while, they're probably going to have a little bit of a hangover in terms of their play and the emotion and everything tied into the three games and four nights.

I'll be very curious to see how they play that out.

The bottom line is they've earned a great spot in the standings.

We forget because it's been so long.

They had won five straight games into the Olympic break.

And so they've earned the chance maybe to rest some guys and maybe spread that lineup out a little bit and maybe, you know, let this kind of thing settle in a little bit before they make their big push, try to play their best hockey in April, and then ramp up for that matchup with Dallas.

He hated your jacket.

It was very frontal of you to wear the red, white and blue in front of some of these guys from Sweden yesterday.

And I'm glad that he let you know just how he felt, but we could be overreacting, but he didn't play well.

I'll be the first to admit, like if, you know, if you watched it and did so as an analyst, um,

You know, it wasn't his best performance.

It's nothing to panic about.

I do believe those circumstances sometimes can get a little bit blown out of proportion.

And I think Billy's got a ton of confidence in him, and he did the contract extension for a reason.

That being said, you know, if you're the Minnesota Wild and if you're Bill Guerin and you're looking at some of those options at trade deadline,

You know, it's got to give you just a little bit of cause, right?

And, you know, you look at last year and the impact that Marc-Andre Fleury had, and you remember that in that series against the Vegas Golden Knights in a game, I still think the Wild felt like they should have won game five in Sin City.

Remember, after two periods, Gustafson had to pull himself because he was sick, which also happened at the Four Nations tournament last year.

I think he's always been a better goalie when he's got somebody there with him to push him.