U.S. Hockey Adds Hedican to Roster

Bret Hedican of the Carolina Hurricanes will get another chance to add a gold medal to the family’s Olympic trophy cabinet.

Hedican, the husband of 1992 Olympic figure skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi, was added to the roster of the U.S. men’s hockey team Monday. He replaces King defenseman Aaron Miller, who withdrew because of persistent back problems.

“We were all hoping we’d get through this point of the season without any injuries,” said Don Waddell, general manager of Team USA and the Atlanta Thrashers. “It’s disappointing. I talked to Aaron Miller and he was disappointed about not being able to go over. But Bret Hedican has done a tremendous job for Carolina.... We’ll continue on and not miss a beat.”

Hedican, 35, played for the 1992 U.S. Olympic team that finished fourth at Albertville. He has five goals and 18 points in 51 games this season for the league-leading Hurricanes, coached by U.S. Olympic Coach Peter Laviolette.

Waddell and Laviolette said they’d designated a three-man taxi squad of Carolina forward Matt Cullen, New Jersey Devil defenseman Paul Martin, and goaltender Ryan Miller of Buffalo.

Cullen and Martin will travel to Italy but Miller will remain in North America, on standby. The taxi squad players can practice with the Olympic team but will stay at a hotel outside the Olympic village.

The U.S. opens play against Latvia on Feb. 15.

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Nordic skier Todd Lodwick has competed less this season, and enjoyed it more.

Lodwick, whose seventh-place finish in the Nordic combined -- ski jumping first, then a cross-country race -- in 2002 was the best ever by a U.S. Olympian, skipped several World Cup events this season to be with his wife, Sunny, and the couple’s first child. Charley Jordan arrived in December, yet Lodwick said he was well rested.

“I have to thank my wife for all the rest I get,” he said. “She took the reins and respects that the Olympics come along only every four years.”

Not that he left all the dirty work to his wife.

“I did change the first two weeks’ diapers,” he said.

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Family concerns also weighed heavily on Jenny Potter, the only member of the U.S. women’s hockey team who is a parent.

Potter said that on the flight from the U.S. to Turin, she cried when a picture of her 5-year-old daughter, Madison, fell out of the book she was reading. By the time the Games end, she will have gone a month without seeing her daughter.

“It’s hard, but it’s a big thing when you’re part of this,” said Potter, a three-time Olympian. “When she gets a little older, I think she’ll realize how special it was to have a mom who’s part of the Olympic team.”

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Ben Smith, coach of the U.S. women’s hockey team, said Turin organizers had fixed the problems responsible for terrible ice conditions at a test event held at the Esposizioni in November. The rink was torn up and the refrigeration equipment replaced after concrete poked through the ice at that competition.

The U.S. women practiced there Monday and will play their first game there Saturday against Switzerland.

“They did a nice job with it,” Smith said. “It’s a beautiful building too.”