Three of New England’s greatest NHL players and a gold medal-winning Olympic team full of players from the region (or with ties to it) were inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame tonight.

Tony Amonte (Hingham, Mass.), Tom Barrasso (Burlington, Mass.) and John LeClair (St. Albans, Vt.) were three of the NHL’s most recognizable talents over the past two decades, and took their place with the country’s greatest players already enshrined there.

All gave eloquent and moving acceptance speeches, and seeing the three of them together reminded everyone of the 1990s, when New England had a significant share of the star talent playing in the NHL.

Barrasso’s tremendous success as an NHL goalie with Buffalo, who won the Vezina and Calder Trophies after jumping straight from Acton-Boxboro High School, is an amazing feat- and one not duplicated in the almost three decades since he did it in 1983-84.

The American women, who captured a nation’s heart during the Winter Games in Nagano in 1998 by upsetting heavily-favored Canada, have a strong area thread that weaves them together, from New Hampshire and Rhode Island natives Katie King, Tara Mounsey and Sarah DeCosta, to those born outside of New England, but who played their college hockey there like Cammi Granato, Karyn Bye, Angela Ruggiero and Shelley Looney.

The late Frank Zamboni, whose ice resurfacing machine helped revolutionize the sport, was also inducted. His son, who looked remarkably like former college football head coach Lou Holtz, made the acceptance speech on behalf of his father. He reminded everyone that the Zamboni was invented and built in Southern California, not in hockey’s traditional hotbeds.

The ceremony is worth watching if the NHL Network rebroadcasts it as part of the Hockey Weekend in America celebration.

The USA Hockey media teleconference this afternoon was informative, and you’ll see a feature story on it here at HockeyJournal.com soon, but I did want to take the time to share a few of the anecdotes from the call to get the juices flowing as the 2010 Winter Olympic Games rapidly approach.

Craig Patrick emphasized that the 1980 Olympic Team was much better than people give them credit for even 30 years after the fact that they took home gold. “Nobody understands the amount of talent that team had,” he told participating media.

Captain Mike Eruzione (Winthrop, Mass.) followed up eloquently, providing an exclamation point on Patrick’s understated praise. “People say that Herb Brooks didn’t take the best players, he took the right players,” Eruzione said. “I think the right players were the best players as well.” He went on to cite his former teammates like defenseman Ken Morrow (who won four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders), Dave Christian, Mark Johnson, Neal Broten and Mike Ramsey, all of whom went on to have long and productive NHL careers as proof of how skilled the team really was.

Eruzione, who wasn’t the most skilled or talented player on the squad, demonstrated why he was its leader during the call when he was fielding a question about how he feels when he hears some of the inaccurate stories or legends that have grown out of the “Miracle on Ice” repeated around him. He said that he always replies: “That’s great, yeah. Let them enjoy what they think.”

Normal human response, no matter how well inentioned, is to correct someone in error. That Eruzione does not do so speaks to the kind of character you look for in any situation or vocation. It’s a small thing, but does provide a window into one’s soul, and affirms what Brooks recognized when he chose Eruzione as the team’s on-ice leader.

Also from Eruzione: I asked about the feeling the team had in the Russia game when backup goalie Sergei Myshkin went into the nets to replace Hall of Famer Vladislav Tretiak. “It would be liking taking out Patrick Roy and putting in Martin Brodeur,” he said. He added that Brooks always told them to focus their own game and not to worry about what the Soviets were doing. So, while they respected Tretiak’s ability, there was no feeling of relief when they saw him on the bench to start the second frame.

Jim Craig and Jack O’Callahan shared some nice memories and moments as well, and the one thing everyone present took away from the event is that winning any event or championship of this magnitude brings people together and forges a bond that will stay with them the rest of their days.

USA Hockey, in conjunction with the Hockey Weekend Across America celebration, will host a media teleconference today with members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team, several of whom  are from New England.

The Boston University Terrier contingent of captain Mike Eruzione (Winthrop, Mass.), goalie Jim Craig (North Easton, Mass.) and defenseman Jack O’Callahan (Charlestown, Mass.) will participate. Also on the call will be defenseman Bob Suter, whose son, Ryan Suter, is with the Nashville Predators and a member of the 2010 U.S. Men’s Olympic Team.  Miracle on Ice team assistant coach and former two-time Stanley Cup-winning GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Craig Patrick and Al Michaels, who along with Ken Dryden, called the game versus the U.S.S.R. and immortalized it when he exulted “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” in the closing seconds will be there as well.

I was seven years old when the U.S. team beat the Russian bear, and it has been one of the defining moments of my life, as it was for many to include Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, who called his being named to the 2010 U.S. Olympic squad the realization of his first hockey dream (Thomas was 5 when the Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid occurred).

It’s hard to believe that it has been three decades since that young, plucky team of upstarts captured a nation’s imagination with their improably victory against a team superior in every aspect save for the final score. They went on to come from behind again in the gold medal game against Finland, an oft-forgotten, but no less critical moment in that team’s achievement.

I’ll be on the line and will have more on this call and what the players have to say on it later.

Ryan Bourque (Boxford, Mass.) has had a great January.

The son of Hockey Hall of Famer and Boston Bruins legend Ray Bourque was a member of Team USA’s gold medal-winning squad at the World Junior (Under-20) Championship to kick off 2010, and in five games he’s played for the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL since his return to Patrick Roy’s junior club, he has seven points.

Wednesday night, he provided a season-high four assists in Quebec’s 10-4 romp over the sad-sack Rimouski Oceanic, who traded B’s prospect Jordan Caron to Rouyn-Noranda last month.

Bourque, 18, who was the 80th overall selection of the New York Rangers in last June’s NHL draft (joining fellow Boxford native Chris Kreider, who went 19th overall, on Broadway) is an undersized forward, but plays a high-energy, two-way game with his excellent speed, agility and hockey sense.

In addition to winning gold in Saskatoon, Bourque also was on last spring’s Under-18 world champion entry played on home soil. Many core players from last year’s winner formed the nucleus of America’s second-ever gold medal Under-20.

Originally committed to UNH, Bourque changed his mind last year and went the major junior route instead. In 36 Quebec League games this season, he has 13 goals and 35 points.

Bourque, who was a star forward at Cushing Academy (like older brother Chris) before joining the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. is moving forward with his development, and given his increased ice time and production since returning from the WJC, expect him to be one of Quebec’s more effective players over the season’s last half.

Interrogative: What do Boston Bruins prospects Adam McQuaid and Matt Marquardt have in common?

Both were drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets (McQuaid in the 2nd round of the ‘05 draft, Marquardt a year later in the 7th), and were traded to the B’s before their draft rights expired.

But that’s where the similarities end.

McQuaid, who played his junior hockey with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, was acquired for a fifth-round pick in the 2007 draft (which was later flipped to Dallas; they used it on rookie forward Jamie Benn). The native of Prince Edward Island is a hard-hitting defender who came into pro hockey with known skating deficiencies, established himself as a tireless worker and high-character player with the Providence Bruins starting in the 07-08 campaign. This year, partially because of injuries which decimated Boston’s defense corps early in the season, and partially because the organization wanted to reward McQuaid’s hard work and progress, he got his chance to play in the NHL.

Marquardt, a high-scoring power winger (at 6-foot-3, 229 pounds) in the QMJHL with the Moncton Wildcats and Baie-Comeau Drakkar, also with known skating deficiencies, came to the Bruins even-up for struggling prospect Jonathan Sigalet. After a slow start in Providence last year, his first as a pro, Marquardt picked up his production and was cruising along in early spring, when an injury felled him for much of the last quarter of the regular season and first part of the playoffs. He returned in time to taste some of Providence’s run to the East Conference finals, and looked like a go-to guy for 09-10 with a solid rookie year under his belt.

Unfortunately, where McQuaid has flourished this season, Marquardt has faded. The Providence Bruins sent him to the Reading Royals, Boston’s East Coast Hockey League affiliate this week, the team announced in a recent press release. In 33 games with Providence, Marquardt had zero goals and eight assists. It appears as if head coach Rob Murray has tried to be patient with the 22-year-old, but at some point, when you’re supposed to be scoring on a team that can’t seem to score, something must be done.

It wasn’t the first time this season that Marquardt had been sent down: in 4 games with the Royals, he has a goal and an assist. However, it was hoped that upon returning to the AHL, the modest success might kickstart his production.

McQuaid and Marquardt serve as reminders about how difficult it can be to find success at the highest level. McQuaid is a no-frills player who has overcome mobility issues to demonstrate that he has a future as a lower pairing, defensively-sound role playerwith toughness in the NHL, while Marquardt appears to be a longshot.

The Bruins and their fans can take solace in the fact that Sigalet hasn’t found success with the Blue Jackets either, but for the time being, it looks like one Columbus reclamation project has panned out.

ESPN.com reported yesterday that defenseman Zach McKelvie, whom the Bruins signed as a free agent over the summer, will have to complete a commitment of at least two years’ service on active duty after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. in lieu of spending the year with Boston’s AHL or ECHL affiliates in Providence, R.I. or Reading, Pa.

McKelvie , 24, was quoted in the piece as saying that the original Department of Defense policy, which would have allowed him to spend the 2009-10 season playing pro hockey, changed while he was still in school.

“The old rule when I committed to stay in the Army, the old rule was that if you had a contract you could play immediately upon graduation for a two-year period and they would evaluate you during that period and they would determine at the end of that period whether you could keep playing or you could come back here to the Army. But now the new Department of Defense Policy, which came out maybe a year and a half ago, after I committed, is that you have to serve two years first and then if you have a contract you can play after,” McKelvie told ESPN.com.

To break it down: The U.S. Army spends several hundred thousand dollars for each cadet who completes the four-year coursework and supplementary military training at West Point. While in a perfect world, and one in which America was not at war on two fronts, one might figure that an exception could be made in McKelvie’s case, the reality is not that simple. In the first place, this is a DoD policy, meaning that the Army, who worked with GM Peter Chiarelli to allow McKelvie to come to terms and initially agreed to let him play in Boston’s system when the contract was signed, is not the approving authority in this case. DoD encompasses all services that comprise the nation’s military, and therefore, this is not a decision the Army can overturn on its own, even if it wanted to.

At the same time, McKelvie’s frustration is understandable. Like former Detroit Lions’ seventh-round pick Caleb Campbell, he thought he’d been given the green light to pursue his pro hockey dreams and to have that path pulled away from him stings.

However, having served nearly 16 years on active duty alongside many West Point grads, I know that McKelvie, by virtue of his successful completion of the rigorous academic coursework and demanding physical and mental challenges of the accompanying military training he recieved during his summers, is well prepared to overcome this hurdle.

From the Boston perspective, McKelvie’s frustration is matched. I spoke to Providence head coach Rob Murray about him several months ago, and Murray expressed dismay at what had transpired (when McKelvie was ordered to return to West Point indefinitely to serve as an athletic intern), saying that he had been highly impressed with McKelvie given the limited on- and off-ice work he did with him at B’s training camp in September. Murray feels that McKelvie would have been an impact player on his Providence squad this season, and that after planning to have him on board during camp and preseason, McKelvie’s absence created a negative ripple effect for the club.

What McKelvie could have provided Providence is open to debate, but given his outstanding speed and mobility, work ethic and mental toughness, one might gather that he would have been a solid rookie pro at the AHL level. Had he proven unable to handle that level of competition, more playing time with the Reading Royals of the ECHL would have been an option.

What we do know is that none of that matters for now, as Second Lieutenant McKelvie will serve out his military service, starting with infantry officer basic course training at Fort Benning, Ga. The course will teach him how to be a rifle platoon leader and provide him with basic military skills to be able to perform junior staff officer duties. From there, he will possibly go onto Ranger School, the military’s premier small unit leadership course: a grueling, two-month-plus, three-phase test of physical, mental and emotional stamina which takes place at Benning, then in the mountains of Dahlonega, Ga. and in the swamps of Florida. After that (and assuming he earns the coveted Ranger tab), where McKelvie goes is up to the Army, but he’ll have some input into where he ends up, be it at Benning, or wherever else he is needed.

If past experiences are any indication, if McKelvie is serious about pro hockey, the door will be open to him for a return in 24 months or so. It won’t be easy, but just as Tim Thomas overcame long odds to become an NHL All-Star at an advanced age, the same could hold true for McKelvie. That doesn’t sound like much of a consolation to him or the Bruins at this stage of his life, but he just spent four years learning how not to quit and to achieve near-Herculean tasks in the classroom, on the ice, and in the world’s foremost leadership laboratory.

Don’t bet for a second that you’ve heard the last of Zach McKelvie.

Hello, hockey fans!

I’m glad that you’ve managed to find the Kirk’s Call blog of hockeyjournal.com!

I’m excited for the opportunity to be able to bring you more detailed coverage of Boston Bruins prospects, NHL New England and other topics pertaining to hockey, especially as we approach the final five months leading to the NHL Entry Draft in Los Angeles.

This blog will be a companion to Doug Flynn’s continued outstanding Bruins coverage and I’m looking forward to providing you all plenty of bonus insights and observations that we aren’t able to include in our feature stories.

Feel free to drop me a note if you have questions or want particular attention paid to specific players in Boston’s system, the New England region or beyond!