I think that's the real issue people have. If you read the articles on the team USA thought process, you see that it's not really Ryan over brown/oshie or whatever. They're choosing guys that can play roles rather than just "the best players" or most offensively talented or whatever you want to call it, without getting into semantics. I don't know to what degree I agree with that, but I do trust the all around games guys like backes brown and oshie bring over that of Ryan especially in a 4th line ish role. (I actually really like the wheeler selection and is argue he's the one that took Ryan's spot.). Same goes for the D. Is Yandle better thank orpik? Probably in the same way Ryan is better than Oshie.
I think it's fair to disagree with them on the personnel but it's nice that they're so transparent with the team philosophy when they're not really obligated to be.
I agree with the work hard...heavy..tough...in your face hockey philosophy that they are going with(I think that's USA Style hockey) I think it will beat the hell out of Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czechs and def Slovenia(No disrespect to the other Kings fans posters from different Country's). I just think they could have benefited a little more from another skill guy like Ryan. Outside of Kane, Kessel, Parise and MAYBE Statsny/Pavelski there really isn't that high high end talent(which we don't really have at our disposal anyways). Brown, Backes, Kesler, Oshie, Wheeler, Callahan, Stepan, JVR are all pretty much the same type of player again not a bad thing at all and like I said USA players that's their style so that's what we haft to work with so go with the Herb Brooks philosophy since hes the only one to do it. Not that Bobby Ryan ripped up the Last Olympics offensively. If I remember correctly he only had 1 goal last Olympics which is awful for Ryan but okay for Brown because of the roles they are suppose to be filling on the team. I just might have given Ryan another shot with all the other guys so similar in style to TJ Oshie and based on the fact that since the last Olympics Statsny hasnt done really anything and he also had a bad Olympics last time. Plus I also dont feel like Oshie is so heavy anyways. I still believe he is a bit soft Im sure many will disagree.
Based on the amount of grinder types it`s looking quiet obvious that they are going to go with 1 High end talent per line. None of that all 3 snipers on 1 line stuff like some were predicting above. It looks pretty obvious they are going out their to play NHL hockey not international hockey regardless of the size of the ice surface. I don't think they are going to try and out skate teams. I believe with as many agile rearguards they chose they want there offense to start from the back end and they want to smother and beat up teams. Seems like a good idea in theory but we`ll haft to see how it goes. In any case like I expressed above I believe this is a 2 to 3 team Race(Canada, USA, Sweden(Maybe? little old)... so I think this team was mainly built to beat Canada and if it can beat Canada it can beat the rest of the teams. This is what I think the USA shot callers were thinking.
In any case..... Go USA!