MADISON – When the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team roster is announced Jan. 1, there will be names on it that are unfamiliar to all but the most ardent followers of the game.
The National Hockey League is not allowing its players to participate in the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, so there will be no Patrick Kane, no Ryan Suter, no Phil Kessel. The roster will be a hodgepodge of college players, minor-leaguers and players competing professionally in Europe.
But wait a second. Wasn’t America’s most famous Olympic hockey team a bunch of no-names?
“If we had pros playing in 1980, we wouldn’t know who Mike Eruzione was and who Jim Craig was and we wouldn’t have the ‘miracle’ story,” Tony Granato said.