Three Empire State natives will represent the United States as part of the men's ice hockey roster at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Ithaca's Dustin Brown, Rochester's Ryan Callahan, Amherst's Brooks Orpik and Buffalo's Patrick Kane were announced as members of Team USA following Boston's 2-1 win over Philadelphia in the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park. All four will be making their Olympic debuts on a team that sports only three players with past Olympics experience: Detroit's Brian Rafalski (2002, 2006), Chris Drury of the New York Rangers (2002, 2006), and New Jersey's Jamie Langenbrunner (1998).
"Our management group has worked hard to put together a group of players that will give us the best chance to win the gold medal in Vancouver and we feel like we've done that," said Brian Burke, general manager of Team USA. "We had some difficult decisions to make, but that's a credit to USA Hockey and depth of the player pool in our country."
The average age of the Team USA roster is 26.5 years old. Rafalski is the oldest member at age 36, Kane is the youngest at 21. The Americans will begin their quest for gold on Feb. 16 when they face Switzerland at 3 p.m. EST.
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