Chris Brown's Pain of missing the WJC

For Flower Mound's Chris Brown, the pain of missing the World Junior Championship was bad enough. But when the USA clinched the Gold Medal Tuesday night against Canada, it must have been unbearable for him to deal with after the USA won the game in OT. For Chris Brown, he should use this as inspiration for the rest of the season with the University of Michigan to help the Wolverines improve after a very bad 1st half of the season that has them in 10th place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Assiocation (CCHA).

He should use that as a chance to prove USA Hockey wrong that they left him off the team and to prove to the national team that he should have gone with them in Saskatchewan during the tournament which gets underway this weekend with a pair of games against Western Michigan coming up.

He's basically got 1 more shot at making the WJC when the tournament takes place in Buffalo, New York next year to make this team being at 19 years old right now. So all he can do is have a strong 2nd half of the season to impress the coaching staff and the Phoenix Coyotes org. as he continues his road to a possible NHL Career.

If he can have a strong 2nd half, it will be more then a bump on the road in his career and he will get over that. But the thing that will never be forgotten is that he was the very last cut from the team before the roster was revelled that went on to win the USA's 2nd Gold Medal in WJC History. He already has a U18 Gold with the USA when he went to Fargo, North Dakota to win that tournament at the end of last season.

Even though that is a strong tournament to win, it doesn't have the prestigious or the excitement that the WJC has and that makes it a little bit painful that he could have been world champions at both the U18 and WJC tournaments which would have been a big deal.

If Brown is going to let this go, he needs to just play hard the rest of this season and hope that USA Hockey gives him one more shot at possibly defending the WJC Gold next season in New York State. Regardless of the result, look for him to use this as motivation for the rest of the season and to help turn around the Wolverines season.

He should have made the team where he could have been used for his speed and scoring capability that could have been used for a game like Switzerland where Swiss Goalie Benjamin Conz helped keep them in the game for the 1st 2 periods before the Americans pulled away in the 3rd period. He also could have brought an energy factor that was lacking especially in the Sweden game where the Power Play wasn't very good and could have caused the game and a shot a gold Medal.