The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver are still four months away, giving a handful of hockey players who weren't invited to the U.S. orientation camp over the summer plenty of time to impress the powers that be enough to earn spots on the Olympic team.
One of them could be Colorado Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson, who is from Park Ridge, Ill., and makes his offseason home in Chicago.
Anderson isn't thinking a whole lot about the Olympic team at the moment, but he has to be opening some eyes in the American camp, including those of Olympic team general manager Brian Burke.
Burke, who also is GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, watched Anderson make 30 saves against his team earlier this month at the Air Canada Centre when the Avalanche skated to a 4-1 win.
Anderson has continued his extraordinary play, starting all 11 of the Avalanche's games -- he'll be in the crease again Tuesday night when Colorado visits Edmonton -- while posting an 8-1-2 record with a 2.14 goals-against average and .936 save percentage.
Anderson's numbers certainly stack up well with the three goalies who took part in the orientation camp: Buffalo's Ryan Miller (6-0-1, 1.69, .940); Los Angeles' Jonathan Quick (8-3-0, 2.91, .897) and Boston's Tim Thomas (4-3-0), 2.97, .902).
"I'm getting wins, and that's all that really matters," Anderson said. "The goal is to get 'W's' and try to find a way to win, and right now I'm seeing the puck well and the guys are getting goals for me. I'm just doing my job, and my job is to stop the puck."
St. Louis' Ty Conklin (2-1-0, 2.40, .918) is another possibility. He won 25 games with Detroit last season, and it was a surprise when he wasn't invited to the orientation camp.
This much is certain: it looks like the Americans, while decided underdogs in Vancouver, should be pretty solid in goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment