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Players Arrive For Men's National Team Camp

By USAHockey.com, 08/25/13, 2:30PM MDT

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The day felt like a reunion for many of the players, coaches and staff who arrived Sunday in Washington, D.C., for the 2013 Men's National Team Camp.

Players who square off as rivals in the National Hockey League were in many cases teammates on previous U.S. Men's National Teams.

Teammates from recent IIHF World Junior Championship gold medal winning teams in 2010 and 2013 joined veterans of the silver medal winning 2010 U.S. Men's Olympic Team.

"There are a lot of players who have played together in various tournaments so it’s kind of like a reunion getting back together with some of these players, some of who I played with 15 years ago when I was 14 or 15 years old," said Dustin Brown. "It’s always fun to see the faces that you compete against day in and day out in the NHL, and this is a unique opportunity with the camp."

While many of the players either know each other from a national team or from their days at the U.S. National Team Development Program, Team USA staff want this week's camp to be about strengthening those bonds and forming others that will help next February.

"It's all set up to bring the players closer together," said 2014 U.S. Men's Olympic Team General Manager David Poile. "It's a unique situation in that you pick the team but never play together."

The camp officially begins Monday with off-ice team building as well as youth clinics and other events. A packed schedule continues through Tuesday night when the team will attend a Washington Nationals baseball game. The hours spent together will help Team USA down the road, Poile said.

"We're going to spend a lot of time together over the next few days and then when we get over to Sochi, we're going to be a team," he added.

For the purposes of team bonding as well as other activities, head coach Dan Bylsma has divided the 48 players into two teams. The two groups are named the 1960 Team and 1980 Team and are listed below.

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