Trailing not far behind the nIt's lws that the NHL players will participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are announcements from USA Hockey and Hockey Canada regarding their coaching staffs and personnel invited to orientation camps.

It's like they knew it was coming...

Anyways, the St. Louis Blues will be well represented once again. Here's the breakdown:

- General Manager Doug Armstrong will be part of the Canadian Management Group as a Associate Director of Player Personnel reporting to Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman.

- Head Coach Ken Hitchcock is one of Canadian bench boss Mike Babcock's three Associate Coaches

- Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo are on the Canadian Orientation Camp roster. Fellow Blueliner Kevin Shattenkirk joins the US camp.

- Forwards David Backes and TJ Oshie were invited to the US camp.

- Former organizational centerpiece Erik Johnson, now with Colorado, was also invited to the US camp. Johnson's teammate and "St. Louis native" center Paul Stastny will join him.


I still plan on digging in to the potential impacts the Olympics will have on the Blues. This gives us something to chew on for now. Stay tuned.

My two bits in two sentences...

A strong first half from Bouwmeester and Pietrangelo will have them together on Canada's blueline. Backes and Shattenkirk are locks, but Oshie is a wild card who could provide a major impact or completely fall off the radar of the US brain trust.

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Thanks for reading. Hit me up on Twitter: @jtquirin

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