from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

On the day last week that Team USA announced its leadership group, a few eyebrows were raised that Patrick Kane got an "A" as an alternate captain.

Even Kane, the defending Hart Trophy winner and NHL scoring champion, acknowledged that wearing a letter with this team wasn't something he had necessarily anticipated.

"It's a pretty huge honor," he said. "I don't know if I was really expecting it. But I think there's so many great leaders in here."

Team USA head coach John Tortorella, as he is wont to do, was unequivocal about his decision to not only include Kane in the team's leadership group, but to bestow upon him an even greater symbol of leadership with an "A."

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