US puts veteran Granato on ice

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Goodbye, Cammi Granato. Hello, Caitlin Cahow. Thus did the guard change in United States women's ice hockey yesterday morning, when the Olympic training roster for next winter's Turin Games didn't include the world's most famous player.

''Great players are left behind when teams are selected," said coach Ben Smith, after both Granato and fellow two-time Olympian Shelley Looney were passed over for the 22-member roster. ''This team is no different than any other team."

The 34-year-old Granato, who'd captained both the 1998 and 2002 squads, had made every US global team since 1990 and had scored 10 goals in the Olympics and 47 in nine world tournaments. The 33-year-old Looney had played on both previous Olympic teams plus eight world squads, scoring 22 goals in all.

''Cammi has been an icon in women's hockey," said Smith, who sat down with each player Wednesday night to break the news. ''Shelley scored the winning goal in Nagano [Japan], the biggest goal we've ever had."

But when Smith and his staff made their decisions after a week of practices, scrimmages, and games here, it was clear that neither veteran was among the top dozen forwards. ''I trained as hard for this camp as any before and I came to Lake Placid ready to compete and ready to succeed," Granato said in a statement. ''This hasn't been easy news for me and it is going to take some time to absorb and understand this. It's not what I trained for and it's certainly not what I expected. That said, I'm extremely proud of the players who were named to the roster. They're great athletes, great competitors, and they will represent our country with pride and honor."

No US women's hockey roster had ever been this difficult to make. Among the 40 candidates were 11 members of the team that won the silver medal in Salt Lake City and 19 members of the squad that beat nemesis Canada this year to win the world title for the first time.

''It was definitely a difficult task for the coaches," said Katie King, who was selected for the third time along with fellow forwards Tricia Dunn and Jenny Potter and defenseman Angela Ruggiero. ''We didn't know who would be picked for the team."

Between Wednesday afternoon's final intrasquad game and yesterday morning's announcement, the anxiety among the players reached Olympian heights. ''We're mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted right now," said Ruggiero, who's a prime candidate to inherit the captaincy. ''The stress -- we had players waking up and throwing up."

The stress isn't over yet. Two more players will have to be released before the Games in February and others, most notably defenseman Lyndsay Wall, a 2002 veteran who wasn't in top condition here, could be brought in.

''This is not the final product," said Smith, who'll take the team to Finland next week for the Four Nations tournament against Canada, Sweden, and the hosts. ''The final product won't emerge until we go into the village in Turin [Italy]. The players know that."

The roster, which numbers 11 forwards, seven defensemen, and four goalies (including Northeastern grad Chanda Gunn), includes only two newcomers to the national team, goalie Shari Vogt and the 20-year-old Cahow. ''I'm just completely honored," said the resident of Vinalhaven, Maine, who's midway through her Harvard career. ''I didn't know I was on the radar."

As usual, the list is loaded with Harvardians past (Ruggiero, Jamie Hagerman) and present (Cahow and Julie Chu) plus a bunch of New Englanders -- Dunn (Derry, N.H.), King (Salem, N.H.), Courtney Kennedy (Woburn, Mass.), Helen Resor (Greenwich, Conn.), and Sarah Parsons (Dover, Mass.), the squad's youngest member at 18. ''It was a huge surprise," said Parsons, a Noble & Greenough grad and Dartmouth recruit who scored two goals in the world tournament. ''I had no clue. I knew it was just so up in the air."

When the candidates convened here, Smith told them that past performance guaranteed them nothing. ''The players were going to have to prove it on the ice," he said.

Even the Original Six, the two-time Olympians who'd been present at the creation in 1998, were taking nothing for granted. ''It's always nerve-racking," said the 30-year-old King. ''You always have that pit in your stomach."

Granato and Looney, the two oldest players, clearly were on the bubble. ''They knew they'd be judged against hungry dogs who were pushing for spots," said Smith. ''Sometimes, a role isn't there."

When the roster was announced without Granato and Looney, though, their former teammates confessed to shock. ''Cammi and Shelley set the foundation for the program," said Ruggiero. ''When I came in, I idolized them, but it was time to move on. All I know is, I'm going to miss them tremendously."