Ron Wilson to coach U.S. hockey club

April 7, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ron Wilson has coached American hockey teams from the World Cup to the world championships to the Olympics.

The squad he will take into next year’s Vancouver Games will look nothing like any over the past two decades.

Wilson, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench boss and a USA Hockey fixture as a player and coach for over 30 years, was chosen Monday as coach of the 2010 men’s Olympic team and the club that will participate in the world championships this month in Switzerland.

Familiar faces such as Mike Modano, Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk, no longer have guaranteed spots on the team. The aging veterans haven’t been eliminated from consideration, but they will have to prove they are better choices than up-and-coming stars.

“We’re not going to exclude anyone because they’re too old or too young,” general manager Brian Burke said. “What is important is that each player be able to do a job.”

Get used to names such as Zach Parise, Anaheim rookie Bobby Ryan, and New York Islanders counterpart Kyle Okposo.

“There always comes a time when you’ve got to turn the page,” Wilson said. “A young team playing with enthusiasm coming in is the best way for us to be successful in a place like Vancouver.

“A lot of these younger people have been involved in all kinds of world championships, be it the junior level or the last couple of years in the world championships, and I think it’s their time to shine.”

Wilson coached many of those older players to the gold medal in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and two years later to a quarterfinals ouster at the Nagano Olympics when NHLers first participated.

That experience was a disappointment on the ice, and then off it when unidentified players vandalized their living quarters after the team was eliminated.

“Every experience makes you a better coach,” Wilson said.

Canada, along with Russia and Sweden and Finland — the opponents in the 2006 gold medal game — will be considered favorites. Canada will have the biggest advantage by playing at home.

“We intend to field a competitive team. We’re going there to win. I’ve made no bones about that,” Burke said. “We understand the odds. We understand that we’ll probably be the youngest team in the field. We understand that there won’t be a whole lot of people pulling for us in that marketplace.”