Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1440267
A nd we ended up taking a five-hour pregame nap. It was incredible." Drury is simply a winner. He won a NCAA title with Boston University, the Hobey Baker Award, Calder Trophy and a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. But before all that, not only did Drury win the national peewee championship in hockey, Drury also pitched a complete game, five-hitter and knocked in two runs to help win the 1989 Little League World Series against Chinese Taipei for his hometown of Trumbull, Conn. "I watched that in Lake Placid, I think, at World Junior tryouts with his brother, (Ted)," Guerin said. " We were all gathered around this TV in this motel we were staying at and watched that, and it was pretty hilarious. "He's a winner. A lways has been. A nd with all the success he's had, he's just an extremely humble guy." is in that that he is in this posi- tion today," U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer John Vanbiesbrouck, USA Hockey's assistant executive director, said. "Great experience and leadership and honesty. And I think that means a lot to us as we communicate to the players and they know that we have a guy with a very strong voice, and he's going to back it up. That's how he was as a player. And it appears that's the way he is as a manager. And so we're very fortunate." Two Legends Tasked to Lead A longside Guerin, his former USA teammate and roommate, Chris Drury, was named assis- tant GM. This February, when the Americans head over to Beijing, China, it will be Guerin and Drury, two of the great USA Hockey players of all-time, who will be tasked with trying to build a gold-medal-winning squad. Guerin, a U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer who played 18 years in the NHL, scored 429 goals and won four Stanley Cups—two as a player in New Jersey and Pittsburgh, two as an executive in Pittsburgh. The Worcester, Mass., native wore Red, W hite and Blue in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2006 Olympics in Torino. He won the silver in 2002, but it was in 2006 that he was actually roommates with his new assistant GM. They joked they had the lon- gest pregame nap in the history of Olympic hockey. "It was incredible," Guerin said. "Our game didn't start 'til like 9:30 at night. I think it might have been the first game of the tournament for us. So we were still a bit jet lagged. "A nd we went through our reg- ular game-day routine, and we went back to take our nap, but it was like seven hours to the game. Photos / USA Hockey, Getty Images Russo's Rants Guerin played in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympic Games for Team USA. M H J ON L I N E . C O M | J A N / F E B 2 0 2 2 28 "I think the player pool in the United States just keeps getting better. It keeps getting deeper and deeper. – Bill Guerin