COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Listen carefully while walking through Team USA's locker room, and you can practically hear the arteries hardening.

This isn't a national squad, cynics say, so much as it is a Seniors Tour. Sure, these were some of the planet's finest hockey players in their day. Which, by most accounts, fell sometime between the Jurassic and Pleistocene eras.

Chris Chelios -- carbon-dating puts his age somewhere near 42 -- headlines a roster on which 15 of the 23 forwards and defensemen are 30 or older; Canada, conversely, has just six in that age group.

"Everyone says we're old and we're run down," said U.S. forward Jason Blake, who turns 31 Sept. 2.

Not quite everyone -- certainly, no one associated with the team does -- and some even cite Team USA's bounty of established players as its greatest asset.

"We have some proven, veteran guys," winger Jamie Langenbrunner said. "I'll take those on my team any day."

Team USA didn't often show its age during its pretournament games. It closed out its exhibition schedule last night with a 2-0 victory against Russia at Nationwide Arena and will play its first World Cup game Tuesday against Canada in Montreal.

Chelios, who is expected to re-sign with Detroit after the tournament, and 40-year-old winger Brett Hull, his former teammate with the Red Wings, are Team USA's oldest players. They are just two of the high-profile, big-ticket veterans who have passed through Detroit the past decade or so, as Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch has spent lavishly in an effort to assemble championship teams.

Consequently, he has gotten used to playing alongside guys whose fan mail includes invitations to join the A.A.R.P.

"I'm the wrong guy to be asking about the age thing, because of Detroit," Chelios said.

Older players such as Chelios, Hull, Steve Yzerman and Igor Larionov, among others, contributed mightily to the Red Wings' Stanley Cup runs in 1997, '98 and 2002, and Team USA officials clearly do not view having so many veterans as a liability.

Should Team USA manage to defend the championship it won in 1996, its experience is sure to be cited as a decisive factor. Finish second or worse, and the squad likely will be dismissed as a bunch of guys too old to perform at an elite level.

That isn't entirely out of the question.

Several factors could work in Team USA's favor in the tournament, or at least mitigate the problems that could result from assembling such a veteran group.

For starters, World Cup games will be played on standard 200-foot-by-85-foot NHL rinks. The larger ice surface used in most international events, including the Olympics and world championships, puts a premium on skating, not a strength of many older players.

What's more, smaller rinks allow North American players to stick to the style they play in the NHL.

One key difference from the NHL is the depth available to Team USA coach Ron Wilson. His fourth line -- Steve Konowalchuk, Jeff Halpern and Blake figure to fill that role -- would be a solid No. 2 unit on most NHL teams.

With a dozen or so quality forwards at his disposal, Wilson shouldn't be tempted to drain the energy reserves of his key veterans by using them too much, although a series of injuries on defense could increase the workloads for veterans such as Chelios and Brian Leetch.

Finally, there is the very nature of the World Cup. Unlike an 82-game NHL season, which runs from October to April, the tournament will run only 16 days. Thirty-something players can approach it like a sprint, not a marathon.