Kesler back at home

Photo: Abelimages / Getty Images

Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Justin A. Rice/Red Line Editorial February 11, 2010

BOSTON - If anyone on the U.S. hockey team had a good excuse to not stay in the Olympic Village during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, it would be Ryan Kesler.

After all, Vancouver is Kesler's home.

A forward for the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, won't be resting in his own bed during the Games, however. He will crash in the Olympic Village instead.

"I'm going to stay in the village and get the whole experience," Kesler said after the Canucks beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a shootout Feb. 6. "There's not really one thing I'm not looking forward to. I'm just going to try to get the most of the experience."

Kesler will have an intimate knowledge of the primary Olympic ice hockey venue - General Motor's Place, which will be renamed Canada Hockey Place for the Winter Games. It's where the Canucks player home games during the NHL season.

"Obviously it helps knowing the rink and knowing the city, but I don't know if it's an advantage by any means," said Kesler, a 25-year-old Michigan native of playing in his adopted hometown.

Kesler added that he could have used his speed to his advantage if the tournament were being played on the traditional Olympic-size hockey rink, which is larger than the NHL sheet of ice.

"At the same time, I'm used to the smaller rink," he said.

Kesler, however, is not the only player who will have a home rink edge. Six of his Canucks teammates are also going to be competing on home ice.

While Kesler, a first-time Olympian, is the only member of the Canucks on Team USA, Pavol Demitra (Slovakia), Christian Ehrhoff (Germany), Roberto Luongo (Canada), Sami Salo (Finland), and twin brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin (Sweden) also will be competing in the Games.

The San Jose Sharks leads the league with the most Olympic players going to Vancouver with eight. The Canucks and Detroit Red Wings both have seven.

The Games might be in their hometown, but the Canucks have not been there much lately. Heading into the two-week Olympic break, Vancouver was in the middle of the NHL's longest road trip in league history at 14 games. Kesler said he and his teammates haven't had much time to talk about the coming Games. The Canucks were set to play eight consecutive games away from home before the Olympic Winter Games and six in a row on the road after the Games.

"The Olympics have been in the back of our minds, but right now we're just focusing on this long road trip and trying to get through it," he said after only the fourth game of the trip in Boston.

Through the first five games of the road trip, Kesler had two goals assists and two assists as the Canucks won two games and lost three. Through the first 58 games of the season Kesler had 15 goals and 36 assists, giving the fourth-year player 80 goals and 111 assists in 378 NHL games.

"Ryan is having a real good season," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said before the victory in Boston. "He's a really good skater, he's a really solid competitor at both ends of the ice, and he really comes to play every night. For us he's got a huge role: He kills power plays, he's on the top penalty killing team, and five-on-five I can play him against the best players in the league."

Vigneault said the Winter Games can only improve the skills of a young player such as Kesler.

"Anytime you can measure yourself up against the best, it brings out the best in players," he said. "So I'm hoping that experience will help. He's still a real young player, so it should help him be the best he can be."

Most of Kesler's teammates will be in the same boat. The players on Team USA are significantly younger than those on the 2006 U.S. Olympic squad. The average age of the 2010 U.S. team is 26.5 years, compared to an average of 31.2 years four years ago in Torino. Of the 23 members of Team USA, 20 are first-time Olympians.

When he was 21, Kesler failed to make Team USA for the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games after participating in orientation camp. The team finished 1-4-1 in Italy. At the time only in his second season in the NHL, Kesler said he wasn't ready to play at the Olympic level.

Now there has been a changing of the guard, and Kesler is looking forward to the challenge of playing on a young Olympic team.

"Obviously there's going to be a lot of youth, but we have some veteran leadership in the room and we've got a lot of young skill on the team and a lot of energy, so I think that's going to help us," he said. "Obviously I want to do well and I want the team to do well. We're going there to win a medal, but whatever happens, happens."

He might not have any Olympic experience, but Kesler has competed in the international arena plenty. He played for the U.S. National Team Development Program from 2000 to 2002 and represented the U.S. four times between 2002 and 2006. At the International Ice Hockey Federation World U-18 Hockey Championships in 2002, he led Team USA to a gold medal with seven points in eight games.

"It's going to help me a little bit," he said of his international experience, "but obviously the Olympics are going to be a much bigger stage and the players are going to be that much better. I can draw on it a little bit, but it's definitely going to be harder."

Once he's confronting that challenge head on, Kesler doesn't anticipate having much free time to check out other Olympic events, although he said he will try to see Shaun White catching some air on the snowboarding halfpipe.

At least Kesler doesn't have to worry about missing out on all the sights [CM1] Vancouver has to offer.

"Once the game starts, you are with your team," he said. "It's a great experience, and it's in our hometown so it's going to be a great thing."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Justin A. Rice is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.