NHL Olympic Hockey

Among the United States' best hopes for a medal in Vancouver next February is the women's ice hockey team, which has won one of the three gold medals awarded in the sport's brief Olympic history. Host Canada has won the other two, and the United States and Canada will clash in the final tournament before Vancouver 2010 in the Four Nations Cup, which opens today in Finland.

The U.S. is the defending champion in the event, beating Canada 3-2 in the finals last year. The American women have won either gold or silver in the Four Nations Cup every year in which the U.S. has participated, as has Canada.

Ice hockey will be one of the toughest tickets to get when the Vancouver Olympics open in February. The sport is guaranteed to be among the most popular, if not the top sport, in hockey-mad Canada.

Great for the sport, right? Just as the Salt Lake City Olympics were.

And yet the NHL is not committed to allowing its players to compete in the Olympics past Vancouver, prompting one of the league's best players, Alex Ovechkin, to threaten to go on his own when the Games are in Sochi, Russia, Ovechkin's home country, in 2014. Ovechkin is an ambassador for those Games, but other prominent Russian stars, such as Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Iyla Kovalchuk of the Thrashers, have expressed similar sentiments, saying they would risk penalties from the NHL in order to participate in 2014.

One of the more famous scenes from the movie Miracle happens before the United States-Russia game in Lake Placid. Team USA head coach Herb Brooks -- portrayed by Kurt Russell -- walks into the locker room and delivers a passionate speech to his college-age players.

It's a speech that has been replayed at hockey arenas around the country. Surely, a few hockey coaches have tried to "borrow" the contents of the speech to fire up a team. Of all the impersonations you'll ever hear, the best might be from a four-year-old boy on YouTube. Video after the jump.

Head coach Wayne Gretzky never had the players. Hockey executive Wayne Gretzky never had the most brilliant partners. As a result, The Great One's tenure with the Phoenix Coyotes turned into The Great Disaster.

The Phoenix experience went so Southwest on Gretzky, it has essentially ended the hockey operations and coaching career of the greatest player in the history of the game.

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We're still a few months away from the 2010 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Vancouver. The NHL is allowing players to take part in the Games for a fourth time, but this may be the last.

The idea of shutting down the NHL season for two weeks does not sit well with some owners, and commissioner Gary Bettman wants to talk with the union about the concept before agreeing to send players to the Olympics in 2014. Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin doesn't seem pleased about the idea of missing the Games in his home country.

The USA Olympic orientation camp made for some strange bedfellows. Vancouver forward Ryan Kesler found himself rooming with T.J. Oshie of the Blues, who'd sent some cheap shots Kesler's way in the past, according to Kesler.

"I wasn't a fan," Kesler told FanHouse by phone this week. "And Paul Stastny once got me with a stick on a faceoff and chipped a couple of my teeth. But we sat down and talked and they're good guys. Stastny apologized for high-sticking me in the face."

Could it be that some of the other USA hopefuls felt equally ambivalent about Kesler going into the camp?

USA Hockey knew what it was doing when it named Brian Burke to run the national team. As they try to build the team on the ice into a more serious international contender, Burke will keep them in the headlines. After a relatively silent experience at the IIHF World Championships, where Team USA placed fourth, Burke is back in midseason form.

In Chicago for Team USA's orientation camp in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Burke spoke Tuesday about what fans can expect to see from the Americans. Needless to say, he spoke with brutal honesty, something that fans can equally appreciate and despise.

It's not the more prestigious Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, but the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame has been around since 1973, honoring top American-born hockey players, coaches, and contributors.

The Hall has been through some tough times, as its facility in Eveleth, Minn., was scheduled to close due to low attendance in 2006. The building remains open in Eveleth, and they are still actively inducting new members. The 2009 class features some famous NHL stars, an inventor, and a pioneering group of ladies who changed the face of the sport.

Shea Weber is one of 46 players -- and 16 defensemen -- selected to take part in team Canada's Olympic camp in an effort to suit up for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. Weber, a native of nearby Sicamous, British Columbia, is looking forward to the opportunity to represent his country.

We had a chance to speak with the 23-year-old on Wednesday afternoon about the Olympics, playing in Nashville, the possibility of a defenseman ever reaching the 100-point plateau, and being the No. 44 player on the FanHouse Top 50 -- something that seemed to leave him surprised and excited.

In news that should come as a surprise to no one, Ron Wilson will reportedly be named the coach of the 2010 U.S. Olympic hockey team. The official announcement is set for Monday. "If I am named, it would be a tremendous honor, but as far as I know nothing's going to be determined until Monday," Wilson said. One problem -- he was born in Canada. [ESPN]