Meet the 2014 USA Olympic Men’s Hockey Team

On New Year’s day before the NHL’s Winter Classic game team USA announced the roster for 2014 Olympic men’s hockey team. In 2010 team USA took home the silver medal after falling to team Canada in the finals. This time around our boys will look to bring home the gold. Note that these are the players on the roster and they are not in any order.

Goaltenders:

• Jimmy Howard
• Ryan Miller
• Jonathan Quick

I hate to say it but this might be the weak part of team USA this time around.

Jimmy Howard has not played well this year posting a record of 6-9-8. Jonathan Quick has been hurt most of season and might return next week. Ryan Miller has the most international experience of the three and did help team USA win the silver medal in 2010 but he has not been himself over the last 18 months.

If one of these guys can’t play for some reason then expect Ben Bishop from the Tampa Bay Lightning to join the team.

Defense:

• Ryan Suter
• Kevin Shattenkirk
• Ryan McDonagh
• Justin Faulk
• Brooks Orpik
• Paul Martin
• Cam Fowler
• John Carlson

This is a young solid group of blue-liners that team USA is sending over to Sochi Russia. Most of them are in their mid-twenties and have great passing skills. They are a very mobile and balanced group of guys that can play on both ends of the ice.

The real strong part of their game is the transition from defense to offense. This will also help out on the power-play situations, which could be a big part of team USA’s scoring.

Forwards:

• Zach Parise
• Joe Pavelski
• Patrick Kane
• James Van Riemsdyk
• Ryan Kesler
• Phil Kessel
• Max Pacioretty
• David Backes
• T. J. Oshie
• Dustin Brown
• Paul Stastny
• Ryan Callahan
• Derek Stepan
• Black Wheeler

This is the real power for team USA in this Olympic session. These guys are big, strong and fast which will come in handy against teams like Russia and Canada.

Most of these guys are very good two-way players that have good on-ice awareness and are not afraid of getting their noses dirty on a play.

One of the other strengths of this unit will be penalty killing; Ryan Kesler, Paul Stastny, Backes, T.J. Oshie, Dustin Brown and Ryan Callahan all do a ton of penalty killing for their NHL teams and that will really help team USA in the Olympics this year.

Team USA will be one of the top four team playing in the 2014 Sochi Olympics and I think they will win a medal when the dust settles.