David Poile hasn't been able to watch the United States men's hockey team in person at the Winter Olympics. That's a shame — he picked it.

Poile, also the general manager of the Nashville Predators, needed three operations on his face after a puck struck him in on Feb. 14. On Thursday, appearing publicly for the first time since the incident, he spoke to the Predators' website.

"The U.S. clearly has been the best team. They're playing well in all areas," Poile said.

One of those areas: The shootout. T.J. Oshie, specifically, went 4-for-6 against Russia and made national news in the process. Oshie, a winger for the St. Louis Blues, was a controversial pick for the final roster, and he certainly came through. It brought a certain amount of vindication for Poile and Co.

"We often said we were not going to pick the 25 best players, we were gonna pick the 25 players that could best win a gold medal," Poile said. "We needed all sorts of different roles, and there you go with T.J. Oshie, the best shootout guy in the National Hockey League. A guy that we thought we had to have on the team for various reasons, but one of them was the shootout."