from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

Editor's note: For the past four months, Scott Burnside was one of only two writers in the country who had unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access to the building of the U.S. hockey team bound for the Sochi Winter Olympics. Here is how the squad was named:

ARLINGTON, Va. -- As the men grab last-minute cups of coffee and settle into their chairs, there is some discussion about just where The Board will be placed in the conference room.

If it was a person -- a living, breathing organism -- The Board would have been afforded a seat of prominence at the long table where the men tasked with selecting the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team were seated. Instead The Board, on which the names of some four dozen Olympic hopefuls printed on small, movable magnetic strips were affixed, settled into a spot just off to the side, in plain sight of the team's management committee and coaching staff.

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