In spite of the disappointment losing to Canada in overtime in the gold-medal game at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, there was nonetheless a feeling that emotional night that this was a seminal moment for the United States, an arrival of sorts.

Or make that a return, the silver medal providing a connector to earlier moments of defining national hockey moments: the 1996 victory in the World Cup of Hockey over Canada and the 1980 Miracle On Ice gold medal in Lake Placid Olympics.

But somehow by the time the Americans had limped home from the Sochi Olympics in 2014, having been shut out in their final two games and embarrassed by a less-talented Finnish team in the bronze-medal game, the feeling was that line had been broken -- or, at the very least, bent.

Today, with less than three months to the start of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Team USA general manager Dean Lombardi is relying heavily on what made those earlier moments of success possible, while building a team that might restore the Americans to that plateau.

To do so, the Los Angeles Kings GM has cast aside conventional wisdom by leaving a handful of elite, offensive players off the roster and instead has assembled a team that has a clearly defined identity and is already aware of the roles each player is going to be expected to fulfill -- even before it takes its first steps on the ice at training camp in Columbus, Ohio, in early September.

Hard? Oh, you bet.

Gritty? Check.

Capable of the heaviest kinds of hockey? Got it.

"I think you’re on the right track," Lombardi said in a recent phone conversation.

Hall of Fame coach Herb Brooks guided the 1980 U.S. Olympic team to immortality, insisting that while building his team he wasn’t looking for the best players, but the right players.

Lombardi is nothing if not an ardent student of history and the psychology of team-building.

Many thought the 1996 World Cup win would be a pivotal moment for American hockey. Glenn Cratty/Getty Images

He has now staked his reputation on the fact that players such as Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, Justin Abdelkader, Jack Johnson and Erik Johnson are the right players for this best-on-best tournament.

"You’re not building an All-Star team, you’re building a team, and there’s a big difference," Lombardi said.

Lombardi and his selection committee, which includes former Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, Calgary Flames president and GM of the 2010 U.S. team Brian Burke, and longtime USA Hockey executive Jim Johannson along with head coach John Tortorella, spent the last four days before the final seven roster members were announced last Friday hunkered down on a Colorado ranch, putting the finishing touches on one of the most interesting U.S. teams in years.

Before the group got down to brass tacks on the final members of this team, Lombardi talked to members of that 1996 World Cup team that some consider the greatest U.S. team ever assembled. He spoke to players and staff from the 2010 team that came within a goal of winning gold. And then he spoke to members of the 2014 team, trying to understand where things broke down.

In short, Lombardi tried to identify quantitatively what went into the successes and what went into the failures, and tried to assemble a roster that would give the U.S. its best chance at success against the world’s best.

In 1996, for instance, the U.S. squad was at Providence College for several weeks before the tournament started, creating a bond between those players that exists today.

"We don’t have that luxury," Lombardi said, referring to the time and logistical limitations. "So the idea was to bring it together quickly."

So, by excluding Phil Kessel, who leads the Pittsburgh Penguins in playoff scoring, Tampa Bay Lightning center Tyler Johnson and offensively skilled defensemen Justin Faulk of the Carolina Hurricanes, Kevin Shattenkirk of the St. Louis Blues and Cam Fowler of the Anaheim Ducks, all of whom were in Sochi in 2014, Lombardi and the selection committee have assembled a roster that Lombardi believes will settle seamlessly into their roles and be able to quickly put into practice the game plan designed by Tortorella and his coaching staff.

"Given the timing of this, we just can’t be wasting time with people figuring out their roles," Lombardi said. "We had to have a sense of direction."

Given the personalities of those involved in the final decisions, it’s not surprising that there was ultimately unanimity in how this team would look, regardless of the questions that might arise from the outside.

Illustration by Sam Ho

"I think we all believe in the same thing," Lombardi said. "Whether it’s right or wrong, we believe in the same thing."

Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong has repeated a joke a number of times since taking over for Steve Yzerman as the man at the helm of Canada’s deep and talented World Cup roster: It’s a job you only get to screw up once.

That’s the nature of the beast when you’re Canada and expected to win it all every single time, a team that enters the World Cup having won two straight Olympic golds.

But the pressure, while different, is no less significant on Lombardi and his group.

If 2010 seemed to herald a return to international prominence, the World Cup is vital to reinforcing that such prominence isn’t just possible, but probable.

Lombardi admitted the challenge in putting together the World Cup roster is greater than he had imagined -- and that is saying something, given Lombardi constructed a Kings team that won Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014 while managing a salary cap.

"I didn’t realize when I took this job that it was going to be this hard," he said.

The task of informing players who had previously answered the call internationally that they weren’t among those selected for the World Cup roster was especially difficult for the emotional Lombardi.

"It was worse than telling a player he’s been traded," Lombardi said.

At least when a player is traded, another team wants that player’s service. In this case, there are no options other than to accept they did not fit the mold.

"It’s not like they’re going to go and play for Russia," Lombardi said.