Dallas Stars going to Olympic Camps

Throughout the summer, the 12 teams that will be playing in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics coming up in Feb. The different Olympic camps are the 1st step to find out who will eventually make the final rosters and will get to play in the 12 team tournament. Several players from the Dallas Stars have been invited, the highest profile is Mike Modano who is deeply in the mix to make the USA Roster what will be most likely for the final time in his career who just turned 39 during the offseason. As one of the last players from the USA Golden era with players like Jeremy Roenick who retired earlier this month, he's going to bring them in as a leadership role off the ice most likely as the team will most likely will be very young with players like Patrick Kane and Zach Parise.

For USA Hockey, the main goal is to introduce a new generation of USA Players to the international spotlight to improve the teams chances at the both the senior and junior levels in the future. Back in 2006, the USA had one of their worst tournament showings ever where the team only won one game against Kazakhstan and had some disappointing results in the group stage which included a tie against Latvia and 3 losses against Slovakia, Sweden and Russia all by one goal. Then in the Quarterfinals, where they were knocked out by Finland.

This time the USA is looking to the future as they will hope to be a surprise medalist, but looking towards 2014 where the Americans hope to have a shot at Gold.

For Mike Modano, he's hoping to make up for a bad performance from 2006 and most likely end his international career on a strong note and possibly helping the USA get back on the Medal Podium and help the young players deal with the pressure of playing international hockey at both the junior and senior levels.

For Canada, Marty Turco was one of the surprises left off the roster despite making the team as the 3rd goalie and getting very little playing time in Italy in 2006, but with Canada hosting and under a lot of pressure to medal, he could possibly have a shot if he has a strong year to possibly sneak into the roster.

After an injury plagued season, Brendan Morrow is ready to hit the ice and as the captain of the Dallas Stars, he's looking to make up for lost time and regardless of him injured or not, he's looking to make the team as many fans in Canada believe that he can come back and have a strong tournament on home ice. For Stephane Robidas who made it with the defensemen, he's going to have a hard time dealing with players like Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger which should be on the team without much debate on defense, it will be tough for him to make the roster even though he may have what it takes for 2014 Olympic Tournament.

As for some of the other hopefuls, Jere Lehtinen is back in the fray after helping Finland win the Silver Medal in 2006 along with other players like Nicklas Hagman, and Teemu Selanne. He's hoping to get the Fins back on the Medal podium and by going one step higher by winning the Olympic Tournament coming up in Feb.

Sweden will have also have a couple of Stars players with Nicklas Grossman, Fabian Brunnstrom and Loui Eriksson hoping to help defend Sweden's Gold medal from 2006 in Italy.