The faces may change, the approach will not.

That's what Team USA General Manager Brian Burke stressed on a day when he and his managerial group officially announced Anaheim's Ryan Whitney and Carolina's Tim Gleason would replace injured defensemen Mike Komisarek and Paul Martin at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver later this month.

"(Whitney and Gleason) are good players," Burke said. "I do believe this team lacks the big-name star power that prior U.S. teams had from the greatest generation, but USA Hockey has given us lots of options to choose from and I think we've tried to identify a particular skill set in putting this team together.

When Joni Pitkanen first arrived in North America during the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Oulu, Finland native's grasp of the English language consisted of not much more than "yes" and "no."

Now in his sixth NHL season with his third team, the Carolina Hurricanes' defenseman has blossomed on and off the ice.

"It took a couple years," Pitkanen told NHL.com. "The first year when I came here I didn't talk too much. It was really difficult, but every year got better and better (and) it's been pretty good last three, four years."

The Philadelphia Flyers traded up with the Tampa Bay Lightning to make Pitkanen the fourth choice of the 2002 Entry Draft and had extremely high hopes for him. After three frustrating seasons -- he had 13 goals, 46 points and a plus-22 rating in 2005-06, then 43 points and minus-25 rating the next season -- the Flyers sent him to the Edmonton Oilers as part of a deal that brought back forward Joffrey Lupul and defenseman Jason Smith. After just one season in Edmonton, he was on the move again, this time to Carolina in exchange for Erik Cole.

At 28, New York Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro knows the view from the highest mountain and the pain inflicted from hitting every branch on the way down.

Nearly a decade removed from being the top pick in the 2000 Entry Draft, the engaging native of Winthrop, Mass., has been an NHL All-Star (2007-08) and a starter for Team USA at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

A week before his 25th birthday, he signed one of the richest contracts in NHL history -- $67.5 million over 15 years -- and went on to play 188 games over the next three seasons on Long Island.

It was near the end of the 2007-08 season that DiPietro began what would become a torturous 20-month stretch in which he underwent surgeries on both hips and both knees, limiting him to just five games last season and four games this season entering this week.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Mike Komisarek will almost certainly not be a part of the Team USA lineup for the 2010 Olympics after receiving bad news from the doctors on Saturday.

Komisarek, out since Jan. 2 with a shoulder injury, was hoping to get clearance to begin physical contact when he went to his check-up Saturday. Instead, he was told he must wait at least another week as the shoulder continues to heal.

Team USA boss Brian Burke, who also happens to be the GM in Toronto, had said that Komisarek would have to get five NHL games under his belt before the Olympics to be a viable candidate to play in the tournament.

If Komisarek is able to return next Saturday -- by no means a given -- the Leafs will have just two games remaining before the Olympic Break.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Phil Kessel insists he's not thinking about the Olympics and is solely focused on trying to help the Toronto Maple Leafs break out of their prolonged slump.

Kessel, though, is fighting his own personal prolonged slump, and that's just not good for the Leafs or for Team USA.

The third-year winger was held without a goal Friday in New Jersey for the fifth straight game. He has only one goal in his last 14 games and just two in the last 21. The Leafs are 5-12-4 over that span and are averaging just over two goals per game.

They scored four against the Devils, but fell in overtime.

"It's been a tough year," Kessel said. "Obviously I was hurt at the start and I came back and we were winning some games for a while, but we just can't find a groove right now. We can't get a win."

The gold-medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team "cared more about each other than any other team or business I've ever been with," Jim Craig, the goalie on that "Miracle On Ice" team, said Friday during a USA Hockey teleconference.

Craig was joined by team captain Mike Eruzione, defensemen Jack O'Callahan and Bob Suter and assistant coach Craig Patrick. Suter is the father of Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Suter, who will be an alternate captain on Team USA at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The paths of father and son show how much American hockey has changed in the 30 years since the nation's last Olympic gold medal.

Ryan Suter is a product of the United States National Team Development Program, funded by USA Hockey. He won gold medals for the United States in World Under-17, World Under-18 and World Junior Championships. Ryan Suter then played a year at the University of Wisconsin before jumping to professional hockey.

There were some pretty tense moments leading up to the final roster selections for each country participating in the 2010 Winter Games, with sleepless nights abounding for players on the bubble and executives charged with shaping the rosters.

For some, there is great joy. For others, terrible disappointment. Kurt Kleinendorst knows all about it and can't help but recall what might have been the most glorious moment of his playing career.

The All-America forward from Providence College was one of 10 players guaranteed a spot on the 1984 Olympic Team headed to Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. That is, until he reconsidered less than a month from the opening ceremonies.

For at least 15 minutes before every game Jonas Hiller sharpens his skates with the perfectionist zeal of a diamond cutter.

With one of his boots clamped in a jig, the Anaheim Ducks goalie and Doug Shearer, the team's equipment manager, take turns making ever-so-slight adjustments to the blade.

After the gentlest touch against the whirling sharpener, Hiller will hold the blade less than a puck's width from his eyes to see if the work meets his exacting standards.

"I just try to get as good of an edge as possible so I can push well," said Hiller, the rare player to sharpen his own skates. " ... It's not too much time, I think, for feeling good on the ice."

That is the kind of focus that has allowed the 27-year-old to wrest the Ducks' No. 1 job from his Conn Smythe Trophy- and Stanley Cup-winning teammate Jean-Sebastien Giguere. It's also what will help to make Switzerland a threat against any team in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak is heating up at the right time.

As the 24-year-old native of Bratislava, Slovakia continues to count the days before he joins his countrymen in Vancouver at his first Winter Olympics, Halak realizes a good showing down the stretch drive to Vancouver will go a long way to boosting his confidence.

Not to mention earn him the starting role for the Slovaks, who finished 13th in the 2002 Winter Games and fifth in '06.

"I met the Slovakian coach (Jan Filc) and general manager Peter Bondra when we were in Washington and they said, 'We're counting on you and hopefully you will get some starts before the Olympics to get your timing down,' " Halak told NHL.com.

You could almost hear a collective groan emanating from the Czech Republic on that February day in 2006 when the great Dominik Hasek limped off the ice after sustaining a tournament-ending leg injury in the opening game of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

Hasek, after all, was the player most responsible for the Czech's stunning gold-medal performance in Nagano in 1998, where Hasek earned a semifinal-round shootout victory against Team Canada before shutting out Russia in the gold-medal game. Would his absence hurt the country's chances at rebounding from a seventh-place showing at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City?

Not really. Not when the No. 2 goalie on the Czech Republic depth chart happens to be Tomas Vokoun. In fact, after being told by doctors he would be unable to play in any of the remaining '06 Games, "The Dominator" admitted the country was in good hands with Vokoun.