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Poile on USA's fourth-place finish in Sochi: 'Chalk that up to another learning experience'

As the general manager of the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, David Poile admits to being disappointed with a fourth-place finish in Sochi, but appears encouraged by the overall progress of the program and the player selection process prior to the tournament.

“The bronze-medal game (a 5-0 loss to Finland) was disappointing, but I’ve seen that many times in sports, where it was hard to bounce back,” Poile told The Tennessean. “I don’t like it and don’t accept it. Chalk that up to another learning experience. So instead of going 10-2 in the last two Olympics, we go 9-3. It’s not bad, but it’s still not gold medal-ish.”

Despite the loss to Finland - preceded by a semifinal loss to Canada - Poile affirmed the goal of USA hockey is to get "better and better until we win," adding Canada's track record is a measuring stick for that they hope to accomplish moving forward.

He added he has no regrets about roster selection, arguing it's noteworthy that decisions of that sort need to be made at all.

I think we could have taken other players, and I think the result would be the same. The good news is that we finally had those decisions to make, and we were finally getting people’s attention by who we didn’t take. We were getting written about or criticized or whatever, and I think that’s fabulous that the United States is now talking about players we didn’t take.

Unfortunately, Poile was unable to attend the Winter Olympics due to facial injuries suffered prior to the break.

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