USA Olympics: Stastny In; Anderson Out

Young superstar Paul Stastny, ready and excited to play in his first Olympic Games this year in Vancouver.

Congratulations to Paul Stastny, who will be making his debut in the greatest international sports event on Earth – the Olympic Games. Stastny will be leading an especially inexperienced American team this year, along with such young stars as Patrick Kane and Zach Parise, as well as a small handful of veterans such as former-Av Chris Drury.

Looking at the USA roster, I assume Stastny will likely take his place as the 1st line centerman. I believe his exceptional hockey smarts and crisp passing are going to be major advantages for this underdog American team.

Along with Stastny, Colorado will also send back up goaltender Peter Budaj, 27, who will be appearing in his second Olympics with team Slovakia. Ruslan Salei, who is still recovering from a back injury, is hoping to play for Team Belarus.

Obviously, this means that Craig Anderson has not been elected to participate in the Games. If you’ve been reading my blog you know my thoughts on this topic, as I wrote a post about this a week or so ago. I won’t really deal with this topic again, only to tell Jonathan Quick congratulations. It certainly helps to have your GM being one of the few men finalizing the roster, but whatever, I’m sure you and your fans believe you earned it.

I’m just glad Anderson will get a chance to rest up for the stretch run to the playoffs, where he can show the American Olympic roster committee the mistake they made.