From: NHL.comby Brad Holland
Tyler Ruegsegger and Rhett Rakhshani skate for the same college team, sometimes even on the same line. Each is a sophomore, each was taken in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft — Ruegsegger by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Rakhshani by the New York Islanders — and each has been a valuable asset in Team USA’s 4-0 start at the 2008 World Junior Championships.
The two have maintained the chemistry that began at the club-team level and have helped Team USA to a berth in the semifinal game against archrival Canada on Friday. They were paired in the Americans’ tournament opener against Kazakhstan and paid immediate dividends; Rakhshani scored the game-winner, assisted by Ruegsegger and Kyle Okposo. Though the Americans were heavily favored in that game, Rakhshani says the game was very important to Team USA’s tournament hopes.
”Just getting a good start is very helpful,” he said. “We wanted to finish that game, and just getting the chemistry of the team rolling. With a couple exhibition games before that, there were definitely some areas that we needed to improve on, and I think we got better at all of them by the Kazakhstan game.”
In that game, the Denver duo, skating with Okposo, another Islanders prospect, combined for three points, the game-winning goal, 12 shots and a plus-4 rating. It may not have seemed so at the time, but the win was important because it set the tone and defined the sort of team that Team USA had brought to this championship: Five players scored a goal, and nine had at least one point in the win.
Team chemistry has become a rallying point for the Americans, something they look to as a strength for their team and, it seems, is one of the reasons for their fast start in the tournament. James vanRiemsdyk, the No. 2 overall pick by Philadelphia in last June’s Entry Draft, leads the tournament in scoring with 10 points — including four goals — through four games, and he also sees the strength of a team that has the benefit of having players familiar with one another.
”I definitely think we have some chemistry,” vanRiemsdyk said. “A lot of us have played with each other in the past and we played with each other in the camp over the summer, so we’ve had some chemistry and we’ve been able to build on what we’ve got.”
Rakhshani agrees.
“A lot of us played at the development program together in Ann Arbor, so we know each other really well from there,” he said. “We’re a close-knit group of guys. Guys coming from the same schools, and knowing each other from club teams, it helps the chemistry, definitely.
That always takes time, so in a quick tournament like this it’s nice to get a head start on it.”
With 17 of the 22 Americans skating for NCAA Division I programs, 10 of those 17 playing at one of four schools (the two Denver boys, two Wisconsin Badgers, four Minnesota Golden Gophers and two Michigan Wolverines), and the majority of these players having skated together at either U.S. National Development Teams or camps through the years, familiarity has become a very palpable strength.
They have each grown through a relationship with all of the others, a very valuable asset considering many of them, like Ruegsegger and Rakhshani, hockey players from the western United States — Ruegsegger from Denver, and Rakhshani from Southern California — might easily never have met.
As a teenager growing up in Colorado, Ruegsegger could easily have wound up snowboarding through high school, or learning to play ball and dreaming about a shot in the majors. Instead, he found himself, as a high school junior and senior, skating for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, the same team prep school Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise, among others, once skated for.
Rakhshani, a product of the Wayne Gretzky hockey boom of the 1990s, skated for the California Wave for seven seasons and as a 15-year-old in 2003-04, he tallied 121 points in 56 games. From there, it was off to Ann Arbor to skate for the National Team Development program, and from there, a college scholarship at the University of Denver in the WCHA.
At Denver, Ruegsegger and Rakhshani are roommates and teammates. Unlikely college roommates are nothing new, but two from such different backgrounds who harbor the same passion for hockey makes for a different story altogether — as different as these two skaters are from one another.
We’re different people,” Rakhshani said. “I’m more of an extrovert; he’s more of an introvert. He’s a 4.0 student, and he’s been helping me to get better as well. I’m more social, he’s more stay-inside, more independent, so we definitely help to balance each other out.”
Then, with a laugh, he adds, “Usually he’s the one doing homework and I’m the one watching TV.”
Despite their differences, the two have developed a friendship and a camaraderie through hockey that transcends their respective backgrounds. It’s the kind of chemistry that has pervaded the Team USA locker room.
“It’s a room full of leaders, to be honest,” Ruegsegger said. “Everyone on this team plays an important role, no matter who it is. I think that when you look across the locker room, everyone in there, you look up to each other.
"And it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing an A or a C. Everyone has that role."
”Just getting a good start is very helpful,” he said. “We wanted to finish that game, and just getting the chemistry of the team rolling. With a couple exhibition games before that, there were definitely some areas that we needed to improve on, and I think we got better at all of them by the Kazakhstan game.”
In that game, the Denver duo, skating with Okposo, another Islanders prospect, combined for three points, the game-winning goal, 12 shots and a plus-4 rating. It may not have seemed so at the time, but the win was important because it set the tone and defined the sort of team that Team USA had brought to this championship: Five players scored a goal, and nine had at least one point in the win.
Team chemistry has become a rallying point for the Americans, something they look to as a strength for their team and, it seems, is one of the reasons for their fast start in the tournament. James vanRiemsdyk, the No. 2 overall pick by Philadelphia in last June’s Entry Draft, leads the tournament in scoring with 10 points — including four goals — through four games, and he also sees the strength of a team that has the benefit of having players familiar with one another.
”I definitely think we have some chemistry,” vanRiemsdyk said. “A lot of us have played with each other in the past and we played with each other in the camp over the summer, so we’ve had some chemistry and we’ve been able to build on what we’ve got.”
Rakhshani agrees.
“A lot of us played at the development program together in Ann Arbor, so we know each other really well from there,” he said. “We’re a close-knit group of guys. Guys coming from the same schools, and knowing each other from club teams, it helps the chemistry, definitely.
That always takes time, so in a quick tournament like this it’s nice to get a head start on it.”
With 17 of the 22 Americans skating for NCAA Division I programs, 10 of those 17 playing at one of four schools (the two Denver boys, two Wisconsin Badgers, four Minnesota Golden Gophers and two Michigan Wolverines), and the majority of these players having skated together at either U.S. National Development Teams or camps through the years, familiarity has become a very palpable strength.
They have each grown through a relationship with all of the others, a very valuable asset considering many of them, like Ruegsegger and Rakhshani, hockey players from the western United States — Ruegsegger from Denver, and Rakhshani from Southern California — might easily never have met.
As a teenager growing up in Colorado, Ruegsegger could easily have wound up snowboarding through high school, or learning to play ball and dreaming about a shot in the majors. Instead, he found himself, as a high school junior and senior, skating for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, the same team prep school Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise, among others, once skated for.
Rakhshani, a product of the Wayne Gretzky hockey boom of the 1990s, skated for the California Wave for seven seasons and as a 15-year-old in 2003-04, he tallied 121 points in 56 games. From there, it was off to Ann Arbor to skate for the National Team Development program, and from there, a college scholarship at the University of Denver in the WCHA.
At Denver, Ruegsegger and Rakhshani are roommates and teammates. Unlikely college roommates are nothing new, but two from such different backgrounds who harbor the same passion for hockey makes for a different story altogether — as different as these two skaters are from one another.
We’re different people,” Rakhshani said. “I’m more of an extrovert; he’s more of an introvert. He’s a 4.0 student, and he’s been helping me to get better as well. I’m more social, he’s more stay-inside, more independent, so we definitely help to balance each other out.”
Then, with a laugh, he adds, “Usually he’s the one doing homework and I’m the one watching TV.”
Despite their differences, the two have developed a friendship and a camaraderie through hockey that transcends their respective backgrounds. It’s the kind of chemistry that has pervaded the Team USA locker room.
“It’s a room full of leaders, to be honest,” Ruegsegger said. “Everyone on this team plays an important role, no matter who it is. I think that when you look across the locker room, everyone in there, you look up to each other.
"And it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing an A or a C. Everyone has that role."
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