Phil Kessel

Team USA players are ticked off over Phil Kessel's critical World Cup tweet

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:45 p.m. ET

Pete Blackburn

Minutes after Team USA was embarrassingly eliminated by Canada in just their second World Cup of Hockey preliminary game on Tuesday, Phil Kessel torched the squad for choosing to leave him off the roster. The tweet garnered a lot of attention, picking up over 60,000 retweets in a little over 12 hours.

Apparently, Kessel's shade bomb ended up being seen by the players who did make the American team. When they were asked about it on Wednesday, several players -- including veterans David Backes, Zach Parise, and Derek Stepan -- voiced their disappointment and displeasure with his remarks.

To me, it seems like Kessel's tweet was aimed more at the team's leadership group -- specifically GM Dean Lombardi and coach John Tortorella -- that snubbed him more than it was targeting the players on the roster and their disappointing showing at the tournament.

It's understandable that players would be upset if they felt that one of their fellow countrymen was using a crushing loss as an opportunity to dance on the team's grave. But it seems like Kessel's tweet was aimed more at the team's leadership group -- specifically GM Dean Lombardi and coach John Tortorella -- that snubbed him more than it was targeting the players on the roster and their disappointing showing at the tournament. Also,

Not to mention that if you want to avoid criticism, it's always a good idea to go out there and not play like total crap.

Plus, in fairness to Kessel, he has every right to be a little bitter about being passed over in favor of less-skilled players. He's one of the better pure goal-scorers from America. With Team USA scoring just two combined goals through their first two preliminary games, it's clear that they could have used him.

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Phil Kessel

National Hockey League