I didn't see this article posted anywhere in this thread, so I'll just leave this here.
http://espn.go.com/olympics/hockey/s...pics-was-named
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For the past four months, Scott Burnside was one of only two writers in the country who had unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access to the building of the U.S. hockey team bound for the Sochi Winter Olympics. Here is how the squad was named:
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Brian Burke, who sits out the initial meeting, later telling ESPN.com that he purposefully avoided it because he wanted this to be Poile's meeting even though as director of player personnel for the Olympic team Burke will join Shero and Poile in Sochi.
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Bobby Ryan was also in Vancouver and has been the most consistent of U.S.-born scorers, having tallied 30 or more goals four times for Anaheim before being dealt to Ottawa in the offseason. And yet there is surprising resistance to simply penciling him into a spot on the wing.
The issue is where he fits. If he's not a top-six forward, his skating doesn't really lend itself to him being a third-line checker. He cannot kill penalties, and while in Anaheim, he was not on the team's top power-play unit.
"I think he's sleepy. I think he skates sleepy," offers one member of the selection committee.
No one questioned Bobby Ryan's talent, but he made the U.S. decision-makers nervous.
Poile asks for a show of hands: "Are guys nervous about Bobby Ryan?" A flurry of hands go up in the air.
"That's a lot of guys," Poile note
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Apparently Burke wasn't the only one who felt that way.
We as fans are always demanding more ''behind the scenes'' looks at the players we love to watch. Sadly with that access comes a more realistic view of how coaches and management view these players. And it's not always pretty. If we as fans want to be able to see behind the scenes and get a view of how things really go down, then we have to be prepared for some sort of controversy, especially when a reporter is allowed to attend.
I have absolutely no issue with what was said. Every single player on that squad, and every international squad, is going to be scrutinized like that. The Americans just happened to have a reporter in the room.
If you don't want Burke or any other GM to say something mean about another player, then you must like when NHL players and coaches give the same boring, stale interviews that everyone seems to complain about. I for one find it refreshing, and I hope the potential backlash of this doesn't impede other GMs from doing the same sort of format in the future.