Dressed for success: Canadian team gets Canucks' room, U.S. in a storage closet
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VANCOUVER, B.C. - Ryan Kesler was understandably hesitant when he first heard where the U.S. men's hockey team would be putting on its equipment during the Olympics.
Normally, the Vancouver Canucks forward gets ready in a state-of-the-art dressing room that is the envy of many NHL teams. Now, he's changing down the hall in a converted storage room in the bowels of GM Place.
But Kesler has been pleasantly surprised at how comfortable USA Hockey was able to make the space.
"It's different, it's a smaller dressing room but it still feels like home for me," he said.
One of the little-known advantages Team Canada carries into Sunday's game with the U.S. is the quality of its change room. The Canadians are occupying the swanky Canucks room - fresh off a multi-million dollar upgrade over the summer - while the other 11 countries competing here get ready in grittier surroundings.
It was one of the perks that came with the No. 1 world ranking Canada held when official Olympic seedings were determined back in 2008.
The Canucks' space includes all of the amenities you'd expect in an NHL dressing room and a few you might not - MP3 chargers in lockers, fingerprint-activated lock boxes and 25 big-screen TVs, to name a few.
"It's got everything you need in there," said Canadian forward Corey Perry. "It's something special."
Hockey Canada has also put in plenty of work with the decorations.
Slogans, signs, flags and pictures adorn the walls and any reference to the Canucks has been covered up. There's no confusion about what the players are representing when they take a look around the 8,000 square-foot facility.
"There's nothing in the room that says Vancouver on it," said Perry. "It's all Canada stuff in there. It's a great room, it's nice, you call it home and you use the facilities."
Added captain Scott Niedermayer: "I haven't really seen much Canucks stuff. Hockey Canada does a good job of creating that environment for us."
The most notable thing the U.S. players first noticed about their dressing room was its lack of size.
However, USA Hockey also went out of its way to make the room as comfortable as possible and elected to highlight its own history with pictures and signs, including one that reads: "Be brilliant in the basics."
"It felt like I was in Europe with the locker-rooms they've got over there," said U.S. forward Zach Parise. "It's really cool going there and seeing all that stuff on the walls."
At least one player thinks the cozy setup might be a good thing.
"My first thought was that it's going to be tight, but it will give us a chance to get together and really know guys," said forward Bobby Ryan. "They did a great job, everything is top of the line. USA Hockey did a good job turning it into a U.S. locker-room."
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© 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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