Team USA: Olympic Hockey

The USA Olympic hockey team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics has a lot of new and fresh faces. The usual veterans including Chelios, Weight, and Modano, have been replaced by a new generation of Olympic hockey players.

Brian Burke, the general manager of the US Olympic hockey team, announced the preliminary roster on January 1, 2010. This roster is not necessarily final. The roster can be altered up to 24 hours before the Olympic hockey tournament commences. If a player is injured before the start of the Olympic hockey tournament he can be replaced by one of the alternates.

The US hockey team will field 3 goalies at the Vancouver Olympics. The goaltenders include: Tim Thomas, age 35, Ryan Miller, age 29 and Jonathan Quick, 24. The alternative goaltender is Craig Anderson.

The US Olympic hockey team will field a strong defence, [update] despite the fact that they have already had to call upon some of the alternates due to injury. Paul Martin and Mike Komisarek both had to withdraw due to injury after being announced to the roster. They have been replaced by Ryan Whitney, age 26 and Tim Gleason, age 27. The balance of the defence squad includes: Brian Rafalski, age 36, Ryan Suter, age 25, Erik Johnson, age 21, Brooks Orpik, age 29, and Jack Johnson, age 23. The remaining alternate candidates for the defence positions on Olympic Team USA include: Matt Niskanen, Ron Hainsey, Alex Goligoski, Matt Carle and Rob Scuderi.

The US Olympic hockey squad is rounded out by an impressive array of young forwards. The forwards include: Zach Parise, age 25, Chris Drury, age 32, Dustin Brown, age 25, Jamie Langenbrunner, age 34, Paul Stastny, age 24, David Backes, age 25, Patrick Kane, age 21, Phil Kessel, age 22, Ryan Kesler, age 25, Bobby Ryan, age 22, Joe Pavelski, age 25, Ryan Malone, age 31, and Ryan Callahan, age 24. The remaining alternate candidates for forward positions on Olympic Team USA include: Jason Pominville, David Booth, Scott Gomez, T.J. Oshie and Brian Gionta.

Team USA is not considered to be one of the top medal contenders in the Vancouver Olympic hockey tournament. The favorites include the Canadian Mens Olympic hockey team and Team Russia. However, the Americans are capable of surprising. The US Olympic hockey team will play their first game is against Switzerland on February 16th.