from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

"The big-ice game is the big equalizer. It's the game that you can get swallowed up by as a North American player," Hitchcock told ESPN.com in a separate interview Sunday. "If we were guilty of anything before Torino, it's that we didn't do enough detail preparation knowing the changes in the game that were going to get played. The first mistake was an honest mistake -- that all of us felt there was a sense of obligation to that group from 2004 because they played so well."

At the management staff news conference Sunday, Lowe could not have spelled it out any more plainly.

"We are much more open-minded to have a different team than the gold-medal team in Vancouver," Lowe said. "Not that we were close-minded for '06 after Salt Lake but certainly respectful of the group that had won in '02. You know, there were the incumbents, the ones who had won … We felt they were still capable of delivering as a group. Well, this is a lot different than the National Hockey League. It is four years removed from [the Vancouver Olympics].

"The biggest lesson is foot speed -- for all players," Lowe added. "You have to be able to skate, and you have to be able to move the puck. We've seen that time and time again -- in '06 and [at the] World Championship the last couple of years. It's quite evident.

"The team will be made up of players who can skate, think and move the puck. There could be a number of changes from the gold-medal team in Vancouver."

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