By Amy Tennery
MILAN, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The United States and Canada will play with targets on their backs when the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament begins on Wednesday, as the National Hockey League's star players return to the Games for the first time in 12 years.
The NHL ended its run of participation in five straight Games after Sochi 2014 and its return this year - with some 150 players from the league named to rosters - has made ice hockey the hottest ticket in town.
"I don't think any team
here is thinking that this thing is going to be easy," said U.S. alternate captain Charlie McAvoy.
"There's a lot of great countries here with a lot of world-class players and we're going to respect every opponent here."
The NHL's return promises a best-on-best tournament - with the glaring omission of the NHL's top Russian players, who are banned from competing - as Canada and the United States' old rivalry is given new life.
Canada are favoured with their "golden goal" hero Sidney Crosby, who helped the hockey-obsessed nation take the top of the podium in 2010 and 2014, back as captain, after they beat the Americans in the 4 Nations Face Off tournament last year.
But while the all-NHL Canada and U.S. teams will claim much of the spotlight, European challengers will be hungry to play the spoilers.
"Our strength is that we've been playing together for many years now. The core group is largely the same," said Swiss winger Nino Niederreiter.
"For the other teams like the U.S. and Canada, they play in the 4 Nations Face-Off, which is definitely going to help them glue the team together.
"But at the same time, it's a group which just got put together, right? So they haven't really experienced playing with one another, so I think that could be a potential weakness."
Finland will open the action on Wednesday, kicking off their title defence against Slovakia, while hosts Italy - the only one of the 12 teams without an active NHL player - will play the late match at the hastily completed Santagiulia arena.
"Our goal has to be that we improve with every game," said Italian goalkeeper Damian Clara. "The chance to win is zero if you don't play, and we're going to play."
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Milan; Editing by Alison Williams)
