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Team USA takes issue with Kessel’s tweet

Ice Hockey - Winter Olympics Day 12 - United States v Czech Republic

SOCHI, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 19: Zach Parise #9 (C) of the United States celebrates with teammates Phil Kessel #81 of the United States and Ryan Suter #20 of the United States after scoring his team’s fourth goal in the second period against Ondrej Pavelec #31 of the Czech Republic during the Men’s Ice Hockey Quarterfinal Playoff on Day 12 of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics at Shayba Arena on February 19, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

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Not surprisingly, Phil Kessel’s tweet did not sit well with members of Team USA.

“Didn’t Phil have surgery?” Zach Parise said today, per Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press. “I don’t think he could even play, anyway. His tweet didn’t really make sense.”

David Backes added that certain tweets (Bobby Ryan had one as well) “have been read and I think will be remembered.”

In case you somehow missed it, Kessel tweeted after Team USA’s 4-2 loss to Canada last night: “Just sitting around the house tonight w my dog. Felt like I should be doing something important, but couldn’t put my finger on it.”

The tweet has since been retweeted over 64,000 times.

Kessel, of course, was not chosen to represent the United States at the World Cup, despite being named the best forward at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

He wasn’t the only USA Hockey alumnus to use social media to express displeasure with the Americans’ performance:

“Fact is we were constructed this way,” Backes argued, per Yahoo Sports. “We didn’t go out and play the right way and the players didn’t execute on the ice and I don’t know – criticism is going to be spread out. I’ll take my fair share, but we didn’t get the job done. Open season maybe for a little while here. We’re going to need to take the criticism. Listen to some, maybe block out others but in the end we didn’t get the job done and it didn’t fold out the way we wanted to. I still believe this is the way we needed to be built. We didn’t go out there and do it.”

Related: Tortorella defends Team USA’s roster, blames loss to Canada on ‘self-inflicted’ mistakes