Olympic Reward Is Fit for Kings

The last time Herb Brooks coached the U.S. hockey team at the Olympics, he led a bunch of anonymous college kids to a gold-medal upset that became known as the Miracle on Ice.

Grayer than he was 22 years ago at Lake Placid but unchanged in passionately advocating an up-tempo game, Brooks on Saturday filled in the remaining six blanks for the team he will coach at the Salt Lake City Winter Games.

Instead of hoping for a repeat of the David-beats-Goliath scenario, Brooks and Team USA executives structured the roster to emphasize experience, skating skill, dexterity with the puck and intelligence, which they consider more vital than size or muscle on an ice sheet 15 feet wider than NHL rinks.

“If we’re so fortunate as to win the gold medal, it won’t be a miracle,” Brooks said. “We feel we have a kick at that can, but so do six or seven other teams.”

King defenseman Aaron Miller, whom Brooks said “grows on you” with his steadiness and ability to make a quick outlet pass, and hard-nosed King forward Adam Deadmarsh were among the players added Saturday. Also among those chosen were Chicago defenseman Phil Housley--a first-time Olympian at 37--and Tom Poti of Edmonton, at 24 the baby of a defense corps that will average more than 33 years old by the Feb. 15 opener.

Boston’s Brian Rolston and the New York Rangers’ Mike York also were added, joining Deadmarsh in a 13-man forward complement.

Seventeen players were named earlier: goalies Mike Dunham, Tom Barrasso and Mike Richter, defensemen Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Brian Rafalski and Gary Suter, and forwards Tony Amonte, Chris Drury, Bill Guerin, Brett Hull, John LeClair, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk, Doug Weight and Scott Young.

“We spent a lot of months coming down to these selections,” said Craig Patrick, general manager of Team USA and the Pittsburgh Penguins. “We had a very difficult time. We’ve got a lot of people who can do a lot of different things for us in different roles. We feel this team is capable of winning a medal, and hopefully the gold.”

Deadmarsh hopes his Nagano Olympic experience will serve him well at Salt Lake City. The 1998 team, under Coach Ron Wilson, never hit stride offensively and lost in the quarterfinals to the Czech Republic.

“I think it is a little bit of a learning experience,” Deadmarsh said. “You learn how important some of those qualifying games are. We’re going to have a lot to study, I’m sure.”

Deadmarsh was also happy for Miller: “This should definitely open up a lot of people’s eyes at how good a defenseman he is.”

Said Miller: “It’s awesome. It really hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m on this road trip thinking about the Ottawa Senators, the Montreal Canadiens, and then all of a sudden, ‘Oh, yeah, by the way, you’re on the Olympic team.’

Among the notable omissions were Mark Parrish of the New York Islanders, who had a prolific start but has cooled, and burly defenseman Derian Hatcher of Dallas. King defenseman Mathieu Schneider was considered because of his scoring skills but was left out because his return from hernia surgery remains uncertain, Brooks said. Any of them could step in should someone on the roster be injured before the Games. Teams have until the day before their first game to submit their final rosters.

Team USA, like the other seeded teams--Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the defending champion Czechs--will have only one practice between the start of the 12-day NHL Olympic break and the tournament opener.

“Time is against us in this situation,” said Brooks, who tried to cram as much instruction as possible into a four-day orientation camp in September. “A lot of this will be on the fly a little bit.... It’s going to be a little bit of an advantage for the European teams. We play a little more of a north-south, physical game, whereas for the Europeans, it’s old-home week [on the big rink].”

Sweden’s roster was also announced Saturday and included Peter Forsberg, who has been on sabbatical from the Colorado Avalanche since September to recover from various injuries. Forsberg, who scored the gold medal-winning shootout goal against Canada in the 1994 Lillehammer Games, can be replaced until Feb. 14.

Added from NHL rosters were goaltenders Johan Hedberg of Pittsburgh and Mikael Tellqvist of Toronto; forwards Magnus Arvedson of Ottawa, P.J. Axelsson of Boston, Ulf Dahlen of Washington, Tomas Holmstrom of Detroit and Niklas Sundstrom of San Jose; and defensemen Kim Johnsson of Philadelphia, Kenny Jonsson of the New York Islanders, Fredrik Olausson of Detroit and Marcus Ragnarsson of San Jose. Forwards Mathias Johansson and Henrik Zetterberg were plucked from the Swedish Elite League.

Named initially were defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom of Detroit, Mattias Ohlund of Vancouver and Mattias Norstrom of the Kings; forwards Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa, Markus Naslund of Vancouver, Mats Sundin of Toronto, Jorgen Jonsson of Farjestad in the Swedish Elite League, and Forsberg.

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Staff writer Jerry Crowe contributed to this report.