Team USA prediction

Today is Veteran’s Day in the U.S., and before I start, I would like to say thank you to all of the current and former troops out there. They really don’t get enough credit for they do/did; hey make our lives a million times easier on a daily basis. Thank you!

Here was my first prediction on what Team USA could look like from the summer.

Now that we’re over a month into the season, we take another look at the team’s outlook for Vancouver. January 1st is going to be here before we know it, and that’s when GM Brian Burke will announce his roster. Without further ado, here is who I would include on Team USA this February…

Forwards (12)
Patrick Kane
Zach Parise
Paul Stastny
Bobby Ryan
Dustin Brown
Scott Gomez
Phil Kessel
Ryan Kesler
Kyle Okposo
Ryan Malone
Joe Pavelski
Dustin Byfuglien

With the line combos looking like this…
Parise/Stastny/Kane
Ryan/Kesler/Brown
Okposo/Gomez/Kessel
Malone/Pavelski/Byfuglien

Defensemen (6)
Brian Rafalski
Erik Johnson
Ryan Suter
Brooks Orpik
Tom Gilbert
Mike Komisarek

Goalies (2)
Ryan Miller
Tim Thomas

Spares (3)
G Craig Anderson
D Ryan Whitney
F David Backes

Notable Omissions:
C. Drury, D. Booth, M. Modano, J. van Riemsdyk, T. Oshie, J. Langenbrunner, R. Scuderi, J. Johnson, J. Quick

Olympics Outlook:
Canada, Russia, Sweden, and Finland are all better than that team you see above, and there’s nothing the U.S. can do about it. This team has a lot of potential now and in the future, and it won’t be a surprise they come really close to getting a medal. Medal or not, one thing is for sure… these guys will compete very hard and won’t back down.