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COLUMBUS, OHIO -- John Tortorella, the coach of Team USA for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, isnt backing off on his comments that hed bench any player who didnt stand for the U.S. national anthem.On Tuesday, Tortorella told ESPN: If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game. The coach seemed taken aback Wednesday by the reaction to his comment, but he did not backtrack on his stance.Im not backing off, Tortorella said after the teams on-ice workout Wednesday.Ill tell you right now. Try to understand me. Im not criticizing anybody for stepping up and putting their thoughts out there about things. Im the furthest thing away from being anything political. No chance Im involved in that stuff, Tortorella said.But the Columbus Blue Jackets coach says he remains unequivocal in his belief that the flag and the anthem should be sacrosanct. Tortorella has a son who is deployed in Afghanistan for the third time as a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces.Listen, he told reporters. Were in a great country because we can express ourselves. And I am not against expressing yourselves. Thats whats great about our country. We can do that. But when there are men and women that give their lives for their flag, for their anthem, have given their lives, continue to put themselves on the line with our services for our flag, for our anthem, families that have been disrupted, traumatic physical injuries, traumatic mental injuries for these people that give us the opportunity to do the things we want to do, theres no chance an anthem and a flag should come into any type of situation where youre trying to make a point.It is probably the most disrespectful thing you can do as a U.S. citizen is to bring that in. Because thats our symbol. All for [expressing] yourself. Thats whats so great. Everybody does. But no chance when it comes to the flag and the anthem. No chance.The issue of respecting the anthem has created a firestorm of debate and controversy after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to sit for the national anthem during one NFL preseason game and then kneel for another.Tortorella, 58, said a number of the players on Team USA came to him after his comments were made public and supported his views on respecting the anthem and flag.Team North America defenseman Seth Jones was asked Thursday about Tortorellas comments regarding sitting for the anthem.I have no problem with the comments, Jones said. Youre not going to see me sitting down. ... I dont know Kaepernick at all, but I wont sit down. Not even a thought.Jones, the son of former NBA player Popeye Jones, plays for Tortorella in Columbus and is the highest-drafted African-American in the NHL.In a follow-up interview with ESPNs Linda Cohn on Wednesday, Tortorella described what would happen if a player on one of his teams decided to boycott the national anthem.On this team here, this World Cup team, there wouldnt even be a player that would think about doing that because I know the guys well enough. Weve gone through it, he said. But if I was ever involved in a situation where someone is trying to make a point, and they have a perfect right to do that, but to disrespect our flag and anthem, as I said yesterday, they would not play.If that ever happened, theres no question, its just not right. And its not black, white, blue, red. It has nothing to do with the politics of all of this. Its just not right. This is our country. Our people are fighting for our country, our flag and our anthem. That shouldnt come into this equation at all. There are other ways of doing things.Earlier Wednesday, a member of the U.S. Army addressed the team but neither Tortorella nor the members of Team USA would describe the exchange.We are playing hockey, Tortorella said. Other people are doing real stuff. This gentleman who spoke to us this morning is doing the real stuff. Life and death. We just want to give to our country in our own little way. Quite honestly we are entertainers. What this man talked about in our locker room and what he does casts a huge shadow over us as far as what were doing.Canada World Cup coach Mike Babcock, who also coaches the Toronto Maple Leafs, was asked what would happen if one of his players sat during the national anthem in protest.This is what I know: Im not going to have to make that decision because thats not going to happen, he said. So I dont have to worry about that reaction. At that time I guess I would decide what to do. One of the greatest things about this tournament is that most of us get to play for your country, and thats a thrill of a lifetime in itself. And then when you get to do it on Canadian soil, thats another thrill.For those of us who have the life we have, and the freedom we have, to repay respects to the people who went before us and made sure that happened; I mean, its pretty straightforward and common sense to me. But I dont know why were talking about this.ESPN senior writer Craig Custance contributed to this report. TreDavious White Youth Jersey . "Four now," Carl Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report proudly following a 5-2 victory over New York on Tuesday night, the clubs fifth straight at home. Josh Allen Womens Jersey . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. http://www.authenticbillsfanaticfootball.com/authentic-bruce-smith-bills-jersey/ . For the Wild it was their first win of the season and they now have a record of 1-1-2 while the Jets fall to 2-2. Jets start a six game home stand Friday with another divisional game, home to the Dallas Stars. O. J. Simpson Womens Jersey . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. Andre Reed Womens Jersey . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. Watch and read part one of the interview hereDoes the price tag in some way force selection? For instance, Pawan Negi in this IPL had a huge price tag and you had situations where you could not play him in the XI in some games. Youre trying to pick the best XI that works on that particular day, against that particular opposition, on that particular ground. You are not trying to pick people based on the money theyve got. In general, in a selection meeting we do not discuss what somebody has earned. A selection meeting is based on what a guy can offer, his form, his performances, does he fit into the team? At times you find there are good players who have to sit out.You might have come out of an auction with clear areas or holes in your team that you have got to fill, and then youre trying to mix and match and sometimes good players miss out. And there are other players who are lesser in terms of international experience or lesser in terms of current performance in domestic cricket that dont actually get a chance to play, and thats difficult for them, and I can understand that. Its an opportunity for them to further their careers, both in terms of selection and also financially. Its a big tournament and if some of them dont get an opportunity, it can lead to frustration, and thats natural.Arent you now picking XIs based on what you anticipate situations to be and how players will respond to those situations? In the past youve had to rotate players, give them certain roles they may not have been used to. For instance, you asked Brad Hodge to bat lower down the order [at Rajasthan Royals]. Tactics have evolved and people are now picking different kinds of players and theyre not just picking players based on reputation. Youre seeing players being picked based on what they bring to the team.Each of those strategies will be based on the team you have. Hodges role is not a trade secret. Hodge batted lower down the order in that team because we didnt have a gun Indian batsman at that stage. We had Ajinkya Rahane, who was still a developing young player at that stage, but he is clearly more a top-order player. Someone like a Brad Hodge can play that role. There could be another team where Brad Hodge might have been more valuable at the top of the order.Data is a very important aspect of the game in T20. Is that significantly different to how youve seen it in the other formats of the game? I think datas growing in every format of the game. People are coming up with new metrics to view things. A lot of it is really useful. But its how you read that data. I think thats the game changer. Thats where the skills of the coaches come in.A particular batsman faces three dot balls and youre aware then, from the data that youve collected, that he has a particular get-out-of-jail shot. Lets assume its over cows corner. Are you down to that level of strategising? Sometimes we get caught up about tactics and strategy and we forget that the most important thing actually is execution. I always like to use the example of Lasith Malinga. He is a great example of someone, when you were facing him, you knew exactly which ball he was going to bowl at the back end of an innings. Millions of people watching on TV know which ball he was going to bowl. If he executed it brilliantly, like he did most times, theres nothing you can do. Can you execute that particular ball that youre asked to do? Sometimes people ask, Oh what is that tactic? Sometimes the tactic and the strategy is not wrong; its the execution thats wrong and a lot of times people get confused with that.We are hearing a lot more about head-to-head contests in T20s. Is that also a part of your scenario, picking players for particular players? You could, in certain cases, and Chris Gayle is a good example. People have in the past used offspinners against him a lot but if Royal Challengers Bangalore open with either [AB] de Villiers or [Virat] Kohli, youve got to counter that as well. I think it happened in a game in Bangalore where R Ashwin didnt actually bowl an over, or he bowled an over very late in the innings because Gayle had got out and then they had a string of right-handers and maybe the situation didnt come up. I think the teams that win are the ones that have the best balance. They have the ability to play every situation and in all conditions. They are not reliant only on certain things panning out for them to be able to use certain players.Whats your sense of how much batting has developed in T20 cricket? I think batting has the freedom to develop. We are more accepting of failure in T20 cricket than we are in any other form of the game. When a batsman takes risks and plays a paddle sweep or a reverse sweep, youre more likely to view it with a certain degree of acceptability than you would in a Test match or one-day match. If you keep practising something, you are going to get better at it. AB de Villiers has had nine IPLs now - think of the amount of batting opportunities he has had to experiment with this. Hes got gifts that other people dont have, but hes also had so many opportunities to fail, to learn from them and to keep refining his batting technique for T20. People have been allowed to take few more risks.Are power-hitters more valuable in a T20 sett-up than the conventional batsmen? Of course they are, which is why a lot of the West Indian players are so valuable in an IPL because they are able to play the kind of shots that are not easy for others to hit.dddddddddddd The West Indian team of this World T20 was a brilliant T20 team because it had batting so deep, with power-hitters who could change the course of the game from No. 2 to 8. Its not easy to accomplish that for every other team, especially in the IPL teams for certain because no ones going to allow you to pick eight power-hitters.It is almost sacrilege to start suggesting that players like Virat Kohli or David Warner, while extremely valuable for their teams, may not be quite as valuable as these dynamic power-hitters, who can actually turn the game on its head. And if youve got a team loaded with a few of those, you have a greater chance of success? If your dynamic power-hitter can score 900 runs for you, then yes, but not all dynamic power-hitters can score, which is why Chris Gayle has been one of the most dominant T20 players for a long time because he scores as many runs as he does, at a great rate. These are not easy skills to obtain - consistency as well as power-hitting, and the ability to negotiate pace, spin. Its not like there are many players around who can do all of these things. Theres no way that the talents and the abilities of a David Warner or a Virat Kohli are ever going to go extinct.Is the concept of the par score in T20 changing? I think the batsmen are slightly ahead of the bowlers in terms of the way their skills have improved over the last 9-11 years in T20 cricket, but the bowlers are slowly catching up. We find bowlers coming up with new skills and strategies to counter some of these batsmen. Mustafizur [Rahman] was excellent in this [IPL] tournament. The nature of bowling is such that youre limited physically by the amount you can do. Batsmen can set up bowling machines to mimic certain kinds of balls and you can go on practising. They have a little leeway. You cant obviously go on bowling for two hours every day because youre going to get injured.In terms of embracing innovation, are young batsmen now more accepting of it? When youre growing up, youre a product of the environment you are in, and the environment that a lot of them are in is one where they grow up watching their heroes play these shots. So its only natural that they will take what they have seen the night before and go to their summer camps and try that. You see more and more batsmen today being fearless about the risks they want to take, being more innovative and more creative.How much has captaincy in T20 evolved with time, and is it the most challenging form of the game in which to captain? Because of the nature of the game, one decision to give somebody the ball could actually cost you a game, whereas in a Test or one-day match, you have an opportunity to come back. Sometimes at the back end of a game, you are weighing your options and you get one of those decisions wrong, and sometimes its not even a wrong decision, and thats why I think in T20 cricket it goes down to execution. You have to make decisions a lot quicker, be very flexible. You have to be quick on your feet and clear in your thinking - you cant get muddled. You cant afford to get rattled because the ball is flying all over the place, and its the captains who can actually just hold their own in that kind of situation that are the ones who end up being successful. In a T20 scenario theres more input possibly because the coach/mentor is right there in the dugout. What sort of dynamic does that create? Does the captain want all that input or is he almost shooing you away? Thats unique to different players and different captains. Some captains might like some conversation, some captains might not. I think its just the dynamic of the team, the way its structured, the kind of information the captain is looking at.You have the strategic time-out, where you are actually allowed on to the field to offer inputs. In the strategic time-out you dont get in the way and confuse them even more. Its again something thats very unique to this format and sometimes just to bounce off a few ideas of the captain. Sometimes you realise how different you might be thinking but its the guy on the ground who finally makes a decision, and he should be given the right to make that decision.Where do you see T20 headed over the next two or three years? I think T20 cricket is only going to get bigger and bigger. We need to be a bit careful that we maintain the balance between bat and ball. I see that as one of the major challenges of T20 cricket. What we dont want is for every score to become a 200-plus score, where its always about power-hitting skills. We want to bring the skills of cricket. You want somebody to negotiate a difficult spell, the turning ball, and see if he can score at seven-eight runs an over against a good spinner. I think otherwise you just might put up bowling machines and see who hits it further.Watch ESPNcricinfo Talking Cricket at 9.30pm IST on Fridays and the repeat at noon on Sundays on SONYESPN ' ' '