Bobby Ryan: The whole Olympic experience has been a whirlwind

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Winger Bobby Ryan of the Ducks and the U.S. Olympic hockey team is joining The Times’ Olympic blog and will be posting his thoughts periodically during the Vancouver Games. Ryan, 22, is playing in his first Olympics.

Hello Times readers, and thanks for reading! I’m excited to be blogging for the Olympics. Putting the USA jersey on is an incredible, very surreal feeling. It’s an honor to go out wearing that jersey and play for your country.

Today we played Switzerland in the first men’s hockey game at the 2010 Winter Olympics. When I was fortunate enough to score our first goal, it settled me down a little bit because I was a little jittery going into the game. Fans might not be able to tell, but it’s a little different type of game on the international stage. To get that first goal for your country was an incredible feeling for me.

The whole Olympic experience so far has been a whirlwind since my teammate Ryan Whitney and I arrived in Vancouver on Sunday night. We’ve gone place to place, meeting to meeting, but I’m starting to get to know the guys a little bit.

It’s been amazing to meet the other athletes that are here in the Olympic Village. Everyone is having a good time.

We have a team event planned for tomorrow after practice just to get all the guys together since it’s such a short tournament. We play Norway on Thursday, so other than probably watching some video from the Canada-Norway game, it’s hopefully going to be a relaxing day. It’s been go, go, go since we got here but we’re off to a great start so far!

-- Bobby Ryan