"That was extremely gut-wrenching," Archibald says. "We know we're a side that internationally are really competitive and should be at major events. We know we're good enough to be there.
"It comes down to those one-off games and, for whatever reason, we didn't put Canada away in regular time. Against Spain we just couldn't quite produce it when it counted. There's definitely lessons learned and hopefully it hasn't cost us an Olympic campaign."
Archibald is steeped in hockey. His father Jeff was a member of New Zealand's most illustrious team, the 1976 Olympic gold medallists.
His grandfather Eric is still, at 96, patron of the Somerville club and "when I look at old family photos pretty much from when I could walk I had a hockey stick in my hands".
Jeff Archibald was the antithesis of the pushy parent, but was always around to offer timely advice "when he thought it was appropriate".
Ryan scored on his debut against Malaysia in Whangarei in 1997 and from there developed into one of the world's best players.
He, alone of the current squad, can remember the pain of missing out on the Sydney Olympics.
"It was a terrible experience at the time but it made myself and other guys of that era even more hungry to make qualification.
It really highlights how cut-throat it can be."
Archibald recalls winning a one-off game against Argentina to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and scraping past Malaysia 2-1 - "a side we should have beaten comfortably" - to make the 2010 World Cup.
The game has undergone significant changes in Archibald's time. Rolling substitutions and 15-minute quarters have changed the way hockey is played and coached.
"The pace has certainly increased. It's more of a speed and power game as opposed to an endurance game.
"Technical skills have developed - the ability to play the ball off the ground has definitely changed the game a lot - but in general the basic principles are still as they were, passing and receiving skills are the core of the game."
Archibald benefited from having those essential skills drilled into him from a young age.
Having missed the 2004 Olympics, unable to recover from a broken leg suffered in a lead-up practice match, a third Games campaign would be a fine way to round off his career.
"It would be a real setback for men's hockey," he says of the prospect of defeat to the world No1 team today.
"A lot of it comes down to funding that will be missed. If you don't have funding, you can't play games, make tours and develop the talent."
