You don’t have to tell Team USA women’s hockey coach Robb Stauber how long it’s been since the U.S. won a gold medal in women’s ice hockey.

“We know it’s been 20 years,” Stauber said after the team’s loss to Canada in St. Paul on Sunday. “We don’t have to be geniuses to do that math. I think for us it’s not exactly about the 20 years, but more about, it’s time. We’ve got to bring home a gold medal, but you do it one game at a time.”

That mentality comes from years of experience coaching at the international level. Stauber was named the team’s head coach last spring ,and in his first tournament as a head coach, the women took gold at the IIHF World Championships. Stauber, though new to the role, has been with the team since 2010 as an assistant. That time has helped him get familiar with the players much quicker, and Stauber likes what he’s working with.

“In pressure situations, when games are tight or on the line, they are handling themselves on the bench,” Stauber said. “Over the last several games against Canada, they’ve had really good emotional control on the bench and that is critical. It’s hard to tell what that score is going to be. It could be 4-2, it could be 4-1, it could be 2-2 or you could be down by one or two, but at the end of the day, the players just have to be dialed in and focused on the next shift.”

Those players are dialed in because of a respect they have for Stauber. Gigi Marvin is now on her third Olympic team and is playing for her third head coach. She knows, almost better than anyone, how far this program has come in eight years, and so far, she loves the direction it’s going under Stauber.

“It’s by far the best women’s hockey team we’ve ever played on,” Marvin said. “I look around at some of my teammates and everyone is doing things at such a high pace. I mean, women’s hockey is leaps and bounds farther than it was even four years ago.”

While a lot of that comes from a roster that is loaded with talent, and talent that is willing to put in the work, players also believe Stauber and his staff are helping to push them to get the most out of themselves. 

“He just really encourages creativity,” said Lee Stecklein, a defender for Team USA. “I know we all appreciate being given the freedom to play however we’d like while playing within the system. It’s something that we all value.”

“He’s just great with seeing the game, just the mental aspect and being able to break the game down,” Marvin said. “He brings a great dynamic of competitiveness. I’m sure you can tell just by talking to the guy how competitive he is and we all love it. We compete in everything. But that is kind of how we’re wired. And he brings a level of wisdom and experience to our team.”

It’s not just veterans of the program that have seen an improvement under Stauber. Even Team USA rookie goalie Maddie Rooney has seen a great advantage in having the former netminder as a head coach.

“Yeah, it’s great,” Rooney said. “He’s really helpful and knowledgeable, obviously with all the success that he’s had. And he spends a lot of time (working) with us (goalies).”

He also spends a lot of time pining over some pretty big decisions. The team has only two months to prepare for the games, but Stauber’s final roster will be announced on Jan. 1. Currently, the roster stands at 26 players, which he and his staff will have to pare down to 23, giving him less than a month to put together the roster that he feels will dominate the Olympics like they did the IIHF World Championships. As an experienced coach, he no doubt understands his decisions will be met with some skepticism, but he believes in himself and his staff’s ability to get it right.”

“We’re two and a half months away from the Olympics and our team will continue to get better,” Stauber said. “I think everyone will see that we’ve got pretty good vision and we’re sticking with it and we like our direction.”

The direction is upward to the top of the podium where Stauber and many others hope to be receiving Team USA’s first gold medal in women’s ice hockey since the 1998 games in Nagano. It’s a huge benchmark that Stauber has not been able to forget.

Photo: AP