Are Americans stupid or what?

Ask any artificial intelligence to tell you what the goal/objective of an ice hockey match is, and it'll tell you something like this: score more goals – i.e. put the puck in the opponent's net – more times than the opponent will (in your net).

The aim of a tournament like the Milan-Cortina Olympics? To do it often in the pool phase, and then in every game thereafter.

That's why Bill Guerin is likely to take Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman as his goalkeepers for the games. With them, he maximizes his chances of allowing fewer goals than the opposition. #3Best GoaltendersUSA

Except that if I go by NHL.com's list of 14 forwards and eight defensemen likely to break into Team USA ‘s lineup, I don't see Cole Caufield's name anywhere.

In their latest 2026 U.S. Olympic roster predictions, NHL dot com does not include Cole Caufield on the team.

Caufield is currently tied with Nate MacKinnon, Pavel Dorofeyev & Jack Hughes for the NHL lead in goals. pic.twitter.com/3OFgkONlee

– /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) October 29, 2025

Lane Hutson, I can understand his absence because of the probable presence of Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox… but Cole Caufield?

Between you and me – and not just because we're Montrealers/Québécois – looking up the top scorer in the entire NHL since the start of the current season wouldn't make sense. Caufield has 10 goals in 13 games, as many as Cutter Gauthier, Jack Hughes, Leon Draisaitl and Nathan MacKinnon .

Deliberately ignoring the league's top scorer in a short tournament where the objective is to score more goals than the opposition on consecutive nights could be seen as madness. Or incompetence.

Let's just say that if the Americans are eliminated too early in the tournament, Bill Guerin will be exposed as GM..

Especially since the U.S. scored just one goal in the semi-finals, and then just one more in the bronze final of the 4 Nations tournament last winter..

Not selecting Cutter Gauthier may make sense because of his short track record – a bit like Hutson – but Caufield has experience and scored no less than 40 goals last year (season + playoffs). And he's become a complete all-around player..

I was talking to my friend and colleague Jean Trudel yesterday on Stanley25(9million) and he came up with a theory: there must be someone somewhere in the Hockey USA offices who doesn't like Cole Caufield.

I have to admit, otherwise, Caufield's absence would mean that the decision-makers – who are paid a lot of money – don't know how to build a good hockey team in 2026.

Patrick Kane before Cole Caufield in 2026 is just a no-no (even though he scored some important goals 10 years ago).

If they decide not to bring Cole Caufield to Italy next winter, we'll have to come to one conclusion: Americans – in hockey – are stupid.

Dumb, in the sense of stupid. Or ignorant.

Extension

I invite you to watch this week's episode in its entirety. We re-launched Kirby Dach, talked about how good Juraj Slafkovsky is at doing one specific thing, gave Ivan Demidov some love, talked about how DansLesCoulisses kids some journalists on the beat, talked about the time Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki had some fun with the Montreal media last year, discussed Kris Letang's decision to move his family to Montreal, railed (again) against the roof of the Olympic Stadium, talked about how the team's new team can't wait to get out of the game, talked about how the team's new team can't wait to get out of the game, talked about how the team's new team can't wait to get out of the game, talked about how the team's new team can't wait to get out of the game.the Olympic Stadium roof (again), speculate on Jean's time at BPM Sports, tell the story of a media boss who's starting to challenge his journalists and the content they create, trade on how alcohol-affected sleep is hurting NHLers and predict the next Calder Trophy winner. Enjoy!