5 Rangers named Olympians

Now that all of the rosters for the Olympic hockey teams have been named, congratulations to the Rangers player (and all players) who made the cut.  I'll take a look at the 5 players in the organization who will be playing in Vancouver as well as a few who were candidates but won't be making the trip.  first, the Rangers players who are on Olympic rosters:

• USA - Ryan Callahan and Chris Drury
• Slovakia - Marian Gaborik
• Sweden - Henrik Lundqvist
• Switzerland - Andreas Ambühl (Wolfpack)

Gaborik and Lundqvist were shoe-ins, but the other 3 had to wait to find out if they had made their respective teams.  Ryan Callahan probably played his way onto the team over the past year and a half.  He plays all out on every shift and earned the 'A' from Tortorella for a reason...obviously good things in the eyes of Team USA GM Brian Burke.  Drury is an interesting case, just because of how much his offensive production has dipped over the past 2 years.  I think he makes this team for his defensive zone faceoff prowess and his ability to kill penalties.  He won't be expected to score much on this team, and maybe that will let him take some pressure off himself and improve his play before coming back to the Rangers after the Olympic break.

With a limited Swiss talent pool, the selection of Ambühl probably makes sense.  When he signed with the Rangers in May, he was billed as a Swiss version of Sean Avery and he scored at almost a point per game clip in Switzerland last year.  However, he's failed to translate his game to the AHL so far, posting just 1 goal and 4 assists in 33 games this season.

Click below to read about a few Rangers who were candidates and didn't make the cut, as well as some general Olympic team notes.