Team USA Hockey Blog From Vancouver and Full Team Roster

Earlier today, USA Hockey posted this blog entry:

The Eyes Of Canada Are Upon Us

It was hailed as the most anticipated hockey practice in the history of the sport.

The Pope could have been spotted partying at Robson Square and it would not have been the top story on many local broadcasts.

Olympic organizers could have sold tickets to yesterday’s Team Canada practice and sold out the 18,000 seat Hockey Canada Place. Of course watching Russia and the United States practice before and after the Canadians would have made the afternoon’s practice agenda worth the price of admission for hockey fans everywhere.

When it comes to over-the-top hockey coverage, the Canadians have set the ceiling pretty darn high. Their passion for the game comes through in everything they do.

Just ask the CTV morning anchor who actually predicted that Norway, Canada’s opening game opponent, would actually score on Canada’s Roberto Luongo? CTV soon cut to a commercial and when they came back on the air there were only two anchors on the set and Albuquerque had a new morning weatherman.

“This is our sport in our country.” That’s the tagline you hear all the time on television, in newspapers and from people on the street. They’re very proud of their hockey heritage, and rightly so.

I love the fact that you can turn on Canadian television any time, night or day, and find half a dozen channels broadcasting something to do with hockey. In the States you’re more likely to find a University of Santa Barbara vs. Boise State college basketball contest than the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals on most sportscasts, but that is the world we live in.

I remember checking into my hotel in Montreal on the eve of the World Cup of Hockey in 2004 and watching a two-hour documentary on the history of the hockey stick. And you know what, it was pretty darn interesting, and probably got better ratings than most Stateside sitcoms.

Despite the Americans’ success on the international arena in recent tournaments, most Canadians aren’t giving the U.S. teams much of a chance. That’s just fine with USA Hockey’s coaches and management. The underdog role suits us just fine.

With great attention comes great pressure. Hopefully Steve Yzerman has a place in Michigan that he can retreat to if things don’t turn out golden for the Canadian men. The same probably holds true for the Canadian women, who cruised to a 10-1 victory over Switzerland yesterday.

U.S. teams are quite content to go about their business, tossing around well-worn clichés about taking things “one game at a time” and reveling in their role as tournament underdogs. They are more than happy to live life away from the limelight and leave the prime time pressure to their Canadian counterparts.

Team USA 2010 Olympic Roster

Click each player’s name to learn more from usahockey.com —

2010 United States Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team Roster

	Pos.	Name	Ht	Wt	Birthdate	S/C	Hometown	2009-10 NHL Team
39	G	Ryan Miller	6-2	175	7/17/80	L	East Lansing, Mich.	Buffalo Sabres
29	G	Jonathan Quick	6-1	223	1/21/86	L	Hamden, Conn.	Los Angeles Kings
30	G	Tim Thomas	5-11	201	4/15/74	L	Flint, Mich.	Boston Bruins
4	D	Tim Gleason	6-0	217	1/29/83	L	Clawson, Mich.	Carolina Hurricanes
6	D	Erik Johnson	6-4	236	3/21/88	R	Bloomington, Minn.	St. Louis Blues
3	D	Jack Johnson	6-0	218	1/13/87	L	Ann Arbor, Mich.	Los Angeles Kings
44	D	Brooks Orpik	6-2	219	9/26/80	L	San Francisco, Calif.	Pittsburgh Penguins
28	D	Brian Rafalski%*	5-10	194	9/28/73	R	Dearborn, Mich.	Detroit Red Wings
20	D	Ryan Suter	6-1	198	1/21/85	L	Madison, Wis.	Nashville Predators
19	D	Ryan Whitney	6-3	210	2/19/83	L	Scituate, Mass.	Anaheim Ducks
42	F	David Backes	6-3	225	5/1/84	R	Blaine, Minn.	St. Louis Blues
32	F	Dustin Brown	6-0	208	11/4/84	R	Ithaca, N.Y.	Los Angeles Kings
24	F	Ryan Callahan	5-11	188	3/21/85	R	Rochester, N.Y.	New York Rangers
23	F	Chris Drury%*	5-10	190	8/20/76	R	Trumbull, Conn.	New York Rangers
88	F	Patrick Kane	5-10	178	11/19/88	L	Buffalo, N.Y.	Chicago Blackhawks
17	F	Ryan Kesler	6-2	202	8/31/84	R	Livonia, Mich.	Vancouver Canucks
81	F	Phil Kessel	5-11	180	10/2/87	R	Madison, Wis.	Toronto Maple Leafs
15	F	Jamie Langenbrunner^	6-1	205	7/24/75	R	Cloquet, Minn.	New Jersey Devils
12	F	Ryan Malone	6-4	220	12/1/79	L	Pittsburgh, Pa.	Tampa Bay Lightning
9	F	Zach Parise	5-11	190	7/28/84	L	Prior Lake, Minn.	New Jersey Devils
16	F	Joe Pavelski	5-11	190	7/11/84	R	Plover, Wis.	San Jose Sharks
54	F	Bobby Ryan	6-2	208	3/17/87	R	Cherry Hill, N.J.	Anaheim Ducks
26	F	Paul Stastny	6-0	205	12/27/85	L	St. Louis, Mo.	Colorado Avalanche

Kevin Brackett

Kevin Brackett is a professional film and theatre critic. He is also a member of the St. Louis Film Critics Association (SLFCA). Since founding Review St. Louis in 2008, he remains editor and operator of the online publication. Kevin is also a co-host of the Reel Spoilers podcast, and former National Vice President of the Technology Student Association (TSA), comprised of over 200,000 members worldwide. E-mail: kevin [at] reviewstl.com.

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Screw_The_Candains_GO_USA_USA says:

February 17, 2010 at 5:22 pm

Do you believe in Miracles? In the 1980’s winter games the US men’s hockey team really was not given much of a chance to win. The Soviets were supposedly suppose to win. This is because they were a powerhouse winning gold in every winter games from 1960 until then. Again in the 2010 games 30 years after the miracle on Ice people again are starting to already count out the Americans. Yes the Russian, Canadian, and Swedish team do have a shit load of talent. I mean the Canadian’s have a line made up with Jeff Carter, Sidney “I wanna suck a dick” Crosby, and Jarome Iginla. They could also have Chris Pronger and Shea Weber, shit with those 5 guys on the ice any team should really be scared. Then Russia has a line with Malking, Alexander “the great” Ovechkin and Kovalchuk, how could anyone really see any other teams making it. As in the 1980 games the US were also under dogs to the Soviet Union, but then you didn’t see people in the US rooting for them. That isn’t what we see today. I don’t really understand how in the last thirty years we can have seen such transition from people being strongly patriot to now when we see almost more people rooting for team Canada then we do for their own country here in the US. It’s a little nuts that we see so many people hoping that Canada will win gold, instead of the US. What the Hell is going on with people. Was it because of the cold war that people were still patriotic and wanted to root for their home country, what could have possibly changed. If we were at war with Canada would things be different, is that what it would take for total support of the US Hockey team? If someone knows what or why there is seeming a lack for support for USA hockey please let me know????