ARLINGTON, Va. -- If Brian Burke said it once he said it a thousand times in the days leading up to the 2010 Olympic hockey tournament in Vancouver: no one gave the U.S. men's hockey team a snowball's chance in Hades of winning a medal.

American hockey was in a state of transition, the GM of the U.S. team would explain to anyone who would listen.

The Canadians, the Swedes, the Russians were all so powerful.

Of course, that American team went on to capture the imaginations of an entire nation in losing in heartbreaking fashion to Canada in overtime of the gold-medal game.

With the Sochi Games on the horizon, there is a palpable change around the U.S. Olympic hockey community as they begin preparations for the 2014 Olympic hockey tournament. And the biggest change is that no one, not Brian Burke (who remains a part of the management team), not the coaches and not the players are suggesting that this American team will be anything but a legitimate gold-medal threat as U.S. hockey enters what officials believe could be a golden age for the sport in America.

"Brian in Vancouver gave the players great cover if you will," David Poile, the GM of the 2014 team, said Monday morning at the Americans' three-day orientation camp being held at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the practice home of the Washington Capitals.

Sidney Crosby's overtime goal in the gold-medal game still haunts the United States. Alex Livesey/Getty Images

"What he really did, he lowered the expectations outside the room," Poile said. "But I can tell you inside the room, we knew we had a chance to win."

Sidney Crosby ruined those dreams when he beat netminder Ryan Miller from a sharp angle in overtime. That memory is a strong motivator for the 16 players from that team who were invited to the orientation camp, as well as the rest of the invitees.

David Backes of the St. Louis Blues joked about trying to suppress the memory of that goal and the emotions that came with losing the gold-medal game.

"I still haven't watched the game. I just saw some highlights of our 2010 run for the first time this camp and it stirred up some emotions," Backes admitted.

"In retrospect, a silver medal is a pretty cool honor to have won. I still hold it in my safe in my house as one of my most valuable possessions. It was a great accomplishment, but like I said before, there's some extra fuel on that fire to have that experience of being the best team in the world on that world stage. This is a great group of guys to try and accomplish that with."

So, what exactly were those emotions?

"I told you, I'm trying to suppress those, so if you keep bringing them up you might see tears and anger and rage and all in the same sentence and that's not a healthy thing," the Blues captain quipped.

"It's a mixed bag. You were so excited and nervous at the same time. When that goal goes in, you're disappointed immediately and you're discouraged."

Having beaten the Canadians in the round-robin portion of the tournament, there was a feeling of wanting another crack at them, he said.

"You almost feel like there's an injustice. Can we play a best of three, the rubber match, all these things," Backes said. "And then after that, you start to put things in perspective and say, I just represented my country on a world stage in an Olympic games and I got a silver medal to show for it. How cool is that?

"At the same time, I'm going, how cool would it have been to say I'm a gold medalist in an Olympic games representing my country. Hopefully, I get another crack at it. So thank you for the psychology session. You can bill me by the hour."

It's hard to imagine Backes won't be an integral part of a forward unit that will once again rely on speed and a vigorous forecheck to disrupt opponents like Canada and Russia, which will ice rosters that may have more raw talent.