Continued: Team USA looking very young, very local

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2008 IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

WHEN

Preliminary round action begins Friday and runs through May 7. The tournament concludes with the gold medal game May 18. Team USA opens Friday in Halifax at 7:15 p.m. against Latvia.

WHERE

Canada is the host, with games being played in Quebec City and Halifax.

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It wasn't hard for Zach Parise to get comfortable with his new team. Parise, who just finished his three seasons with the New Jersey Devils, will co-captain Team USA in the world hockey championships starting Friday.

Parise, a Faribault native, is finding so many familiar faces: David Booth, Patrick O'Sullivan, Drew Stafford, Mark Stuart. Parise knows all of them; they played together on a U.S. team that won its first world junior title back in 2004. A couple of years before that, many of the same guys won the country's first world under-18 gold medal.

This, Parise figures, is just the next step.

"We've played together and we've won together," Parise said Tuesday after a Team USA practice in Portland, Maine. "Look at this group. There are a lot of great players. I think, personally, that USA's hockey future is in good hands."

Rosters for world championship events tend to skew young during non-Olympic years. Still, Team USA figures to have a roster two years from now in Vancouver that bears a lot of resemblance to this one.

The team that begins play Friday night against Lativa in Halifax, Nova Scotia, features only one skater -- Jeff Halpern -- over the age of 27. The 23-man roster -- which includes seven native Minnesotans -- lists 14 players who totaled more than 30 points in the NHL last season. Six of them, including Jason Pominville (80), Kane (72), Parise (65), Dustin Brown (60), Peter Mueller (54) and O'Sullivan (53) had more than 50.

By the way, that group of six ranges in age from 19 to 25.

"When you look around and see all the young guys, all the talent, you definitely feel like you're part of something special here," said Mueller, a Bloomington native. "You can't look too far ahead. The Olympics in Vancouver are two years away and there is a lot of hockey to be played. But the U.S. has a lot of young guys coming up."

Team USA appeared to be showing its age at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, but this group appears poised to fill the generation gap that has characterized U.S. hockey of late. Just ask Jim Johannson, a native of Rochester, who is senior director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. And he will tell you there was a generation gap of sorts, one that fell between two talented groups of players.

At one end were the likes of Mike Modano, Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios and Brian Rolston. At the other end are the youngsters that fill this tournament roster.

"It's hard to put exact birth dates to it, but from 1976-77 to 1980-81 there weren't the numbers," Johannson said, "both in the numbers of high-end guys and the depth. You look at the older group, that was a pretty talented bunch that became the top-end American players for that generation. Then look at the guys we have here now, there is depth and there are more players playing at a high level."

There is a lot of international hockey experience on this team, but much of it is at the junior level. That's one reason why optimism is guarded. And Team USA still is lagging a bit developmentally at the goalie position.

"We have a very young team," said Stuart, who is from Rochester. "But there are some very good players. Look at Kane. Awesome. Zach, O'Sullivan. You can name off a bunch of young guys who came up and are doing well in the NHL. The future does look bright, and this tournament is a good start for us."

Said defenseman Tom Gilbert, a Bloomington native who scored 33 points for Edmonton: "U.S. hockey is definitely growing. This is a bunch of guys who have come up together."

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