Building Team USA

Seeing is they announced today that Penguins coach Dan Bylsma will be the head coach of Team USA during the Olympics, it certainly looks like the NHL will, in fact, shut down for two weeks so that the players can go to Russia.  The contract is all but signed.  All they have to do is dot the "I's" and cross the "T's."

Now we can get down to the important business of figuring out who's actually going to be on the 2014 U.S. Olympic hockey team.  Some of those decisions should be very easy.  Two of the three goalies are obvious.  The only question there is whether to start Ryan Miller or Jonathan Quick.  Although, with the way they've each played over the past two seasons, the answer to that question also sees fairly obvious.

Other obvious selections include some Vancouver holdovers like Conn Smythe Trophy winner Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks.  The Wild's Zach Parise scored the tying goal in the 2010 gold medal game.  Others who can't anticipate getting those two weeks in February off include Rangers captain Ryan Callahan, San Jose's Joe Pavelski, David Backes of the Blues and Toronto's Phil Kessel.  I would imagine the captain will probably come out of this group.

Some new blood should probably brush up on their Russian, too.  Because I don't see any way the Rangers' Derek Stepan and Chicago's Brandon Saad get left off the Olympic team.  There are also plenty of good American defensemen in the NHL.  The Kings have like four of them.  But there's also Jack Johnson in Columbus and Ryan McDonagh of the Rangers.  Both of them are locks.  Otherwise, the defense spots are pretty much open.

Obviously injuries will most likely come into play, and whoever's having a strong season at the time they pick the team will certainly have an edge.  But the way I see it, there are probably about 4-5 spots on the Olympic team that are currently available for defensemen and forwards to fight for.  Team USA is all set at goalie, with the three spots almost certainly going to Miller, Quick and the Red Wings' Jimmy Howard.

If it was me picking a team today, though, this is the squad I'd go with:

Goalies: Ryan Miller (BUF), Jimmy Howard (DET), Jonathan Quick (LA)

Defensemen: Jack Johnson (CLB), Matt Greene (LA), Alec Martinez (LA), Ryan Suter (MIN), Ryan McDonagh (NYR), Keith Yandle (PHO), John Carlson (WSH)

Forwards: Bobby Ryan (ANA), Brandon Saad (CHI), Patrick Kane (CHI), Zach Parise (MIN), Max Pacioretty (MTL), Ryan Callahan (NYR), Derek Stepan (NYR), Sean Couturier (PHI), Joe Pavelski (SJ), David Backes (STL), Phil Kessel (TOR), Chris Higgins (VAN), Ryan Kesler (VAN)

I picked one extra defenseman and one extra forward, just in case.  As for the team captain, it's gotta be somebody with the Olympic experience from Vancouver, but not necessarily somebody who's the captain of his NHL team.  I'm leaning towards Pavelski, with Backes and Parise as the assistant captains.  But really, it could easily be anybody from that group of forwards.

Anyway, there you have it.  Russia is going to be the prohibitive gold medal favorites, and the Americans are in Russia's group (along with Slovakia and Slovenia).  But no one saw silver in Vancouver coming.  And with the strength of this team lying in goal, I wouldn't be surprised to see another medal run by the U.S. in Sochi.  Provided, of course, that the ink dries on the deal between the NHL and the IOC.