Sports

Guerin the man to lead U.S. Olympic team

The Greatest Generation of American hockey players has all but receded into memory and ceremony. The boys who banded together to win the 1996 World Cup championship and the 2002 silver medal at the Salt Lake Olympics meet and greet these days at various Hall of Fame inductions.

They were big fish in a small U.S. pond of hockey players back then: guys like Brian Leetch, Chris Chelios, Mike Richter, Pat LaFontaine, Mike Modano, Derian Hatcher and Tony Amonte who had been inspired by the 1980 Miracle at Lake Placid.

But that era is gone. Brian Burke, the general manager of the 2010 U.S. squad that will compete in the Vancouver Games, phrases it somewhat more diplomatically (a first, by the way, for hockey’s Phineas T. Bluster), but even he acknowledges that this team will be comprised of smaller fish from a larger pond.

For whatever the reason, there is an absence of elite talent in the gene pool that reflects a missing generation. Kids like Zach Parise, Patrick Kane, Paul Stastny, Dustin Brown, Ryan Kesler, David Booth and Erik Johnson are emerging stars who might one day lead Team USA to greater glory, but the 2010 Yanks will largely be devoid of upper-echelon experience.

Which is why when Team USA’s Olympic roster is announced during the Jan. 1 Winter Classic at Fenway Park, Burke should name Billy Guerin — World Cup champion in 1996, Olympic silver medal winner in 2002, Stanley Cup winner in 1995 in New Jersey and 2009 in Pittsburgh — to wear the Red White and Blue one more time.

Guerin is 39, but his age has not prevented him from riding shotgun for Sidney Crosby, whose on-ice demeanor has matured exponentially since Guerin joined his locker room last March as another of Penguins GM Ray Shero’s outstanding trade deadline acquisitions.

Guerin demands respect without asking for it. He is a presence inside the room and on the ice. Referees defer to him. So do teammates. He doesn’t necessarily present a portfolio of sophistication that would prompt anyone to define him as an elder statesman, but 17 years of upper-echelon, multiple-championship service in the NHL stamps him as a leader.

Team USA needs a leader such as Guerin, who has been there on the international championship podium and, more to the point, can play and contribute. Guerin can and will go to the net; he can and will play the mean-edged hockey advocated by Burke.

Naming Guerin to Team USA isn’t about giving him a lifetime achievement award. It’s about putting together a squad with the best chance of competing and winning against an apparent powerhouse from Canada and estimable squads from Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

It’s not about what his country can do for Guerin, it’s what Guerin can do for his country’s hockey team. Guerin to Vancouver, the Red Sox fan as captain of the Yanks.

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Slap Shots’ suggested Team USA roster:

Goaltenders (3): Ryan Miller, Buffalo; Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles; Tim Thomas, Boston.

Defense (7): Paul Martin, Devils; Brian Rafalski, Detroit; Erik Johnson, St. Louis; Mike Komisarek, Toronto; Ryan Suter, Nashville; Brooks Orpik, Pittsburgh; Tyler Myers, Buffalo.

Forwards (13): Guerin, Pittsburgh; Zach Parise, Devils; Jamie Langenbrunner, Devils; Ryan Callahan, Rangers; Patrick Kane, Chicago; Ryan Kesler, Vancouver; Dustin Brown, Los Angeles; Phil Kessel, Toronto; Ryan Malone, Tampa Bay; Dustin Byfuglien, Chicago; Bobby Ryan, Anaheim; Paul Stastny, Colorado; David Booth; Florida.

Potential injury replacements: Goaltender: Craig Anderson, Colorado; Defensemen: Matt Carle, Philadelphia; Ryan Whitney, Anaheim; Alex Goligoski, Pittsburgh; Forwards: Paul Gaustad, Buffalo; T.J. Oshie, St. Louis; Kyle Okposo, Islanders; Drew Stafford, Buffalo; Brian Rolston, Devils; Tim Connolly, Buffalo.

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So we’ve been doing research for All Decade lists that will appear in this space next week, in the final Slap Shots of the 2000s, but while reviewing the best and worst first-overall Entry Draft selections, this single Draft Day deserves special mention:

It was June 24, 2000 in Calgary, when Mike Milbury went Mad. Holding the first overall selection, the Islanders’ GM first traded young netminder Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen to the Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha, thus opening a hole in goal that Milbury filled by selecting Rick DiPietro at No. 1 overall, ahead of Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik.

Thus, instead of the Islanders presenting a lineup that would have included Luongo, Jokinen and either Heatley or Gaborik, Milbury chose one with Parrish, Kvasha and DiPietro.

Worst. Draft. Day. Of. The. Decade.

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Theo Fleury told Slap Shots some weeks ago that he believes himself worth of Hall of Fame induction.

“Four years ago when I was an addict, absolutely not, but today I think I do,” Fleury said when he was in New York last month. “That’s one of the reasons I applied for reinstatement because I didn’t want to retire as a suspended player.

“There are guys in [the Hall of Fame] who accomplished less than I did, so yes, I think I earned it.”

We think that Fleury has earned consideration, but only after Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, John LeClair, Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe and Kevin Lowe are accorded entry by the voters who operate without transparency and with a cloak of double-secret probation confidentiality that defies accountability.

larry.brooks@nypost.com