With USA Hockey "turning a page," as Olympics team general manager Brian Burke put it yesterday, Penguins defensemen Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi have been taken into the fold, while veteran winger and three-time Olympian Bill Guerin has been passed over for a younger, less experienced group.

Orpik and Scuderi, fresh off winning their first Stanley Cup title, were among 34 players invited to the U.S. pre-Olympic orientation camp Aug. 17-19 in suburban Chicago. Although that's not a guarantee they will be on the 23-man roster and headed to their first Olympics in Vancouver in February, it puts them in better standing than Guerin, 38, who was among several older Olympians not invited to the camp.

Orpik has been involved in national team competition before, playing in the 2000 World Junior Championships and the 2006 World Championships, but Scuderi has had limited affiliation with the country's hockey governing body.

"I went to the tryout camp in '96 for the World Juniors, but that was the only thing I've ever remotely done for USA Hockey before," he said. "It's great. I think it's an honor to be invited, given where I've come from. I'm grateful for the opportunity. I know it doesn't guarantee me anything, but I was just hoping to be on the radar screen."

Scuderi, 30, was a fifth-round draft pick by the Penguins in 1998 and developed over several years at Boston College and in the American Hockey League to the point where he now is considered a top-level NHL defensive defenseman and penalty-killer. He is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent today.

Scuderi has been an avid follower of Olympic hockey -- "You get that time off and you think you'll have a nice 10-day break and get away from things, but in the end you end up sitting in front of the TV watching Olympic hockey," he said -- so the idea of playing in the Games is extremely appealing.

"I think it would be an amazing thing to be a part of -- the best that each country has to offer," he said.

Orpik, 28, was a Penguins first-round draft pick in 2000 and followed a similar but quicker route to Scuderi's. They were teammates at Boston College.

"I wouldn't say it was unexpected, but it was a surprise because we played so long and I was still pretty occupied," Orpik said of the invitation, one that had him thinking about his regimen in a condensed offseason.

"I had to force myself into getting back to training [yesterday] with a short run."

Lke Scuderi, Orpik is adept at blocking shots, and at 6 feet 2, 219 pounds, has become one of the most prolific hitters in the NHL. He perused the list of those invited to minicamp and was struck by the lack of veteran Olympians.

"It's a lot of young guys, but it has the potential to be a pretty competitive team," he said.

Other Penguins players are expected to compete in Vancouver, including center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Sergei Gonchar for Russia, which has a camp scheduled tentatively for early August in Moscow, and center Sidney Crosby and possibly goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for Canada, which is holding a camp Aug. 24-28 in Calgary but has not announced invitations. Those two teams would likely be considered early gold-medal favorites, with Sweden close behind.

Penguins wingers and former Olympic competitors Petr Sykora (Czech Republic) and Miroslav Satan (Slovakia) -- each of whom can become an unrestricted free agent today -- are candidates to play in the 2010 Games, but Ruslan Fedotenko, another possible free agent, will not because Ukraine did not qualify.

Besides the 34 Americans invited to the Chicago camp, Burke said another 50 will be incorporated into the Olympic drug-testing program as prospects for the team. He said the final roster will not be decided until around the Dec. 31 deadline.

USA Hockey officials stressed this is an orientation camp, not a tryout, and will focus on "systems and team-building, not scrimmaging or testing," Burke said.

Burke, general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, said he expected criticism over certain choices and omissions pertaining to the minicamp roster, but he and the rest of the American Olympic staff and advisory committee -- which includes Penguins general manager Ray Shero -- opted for a group that includes just five previous Olympians after exhaustive evaluation throughout the past NHL season.

"We're going to be an underdog," Burke said of the 2010 Winter Games. "There's not going to be a penny bet on us in Las Vegas. We're probably going to be the youngest team there."

He tried to reach the veteran Olympians who were not invited to the camp and spoke with Guerin on Monday, the same day Guerin re-signed with the Penguins.

"He said, 'I understand. I'd love to go again, but I understand,'" Burke recalled of their conversation. "People said, with his playoffs and finish to the season, how could you not invite him? But we looked at the whole season."

Guerin had a renewed spark during a strong stretch run and postseason playing alongside Crosby, but he has admitted he grew stale with the struggling New York Islanders before being traded to the Penguins in March.

There are 22 NHL teams represented by the 34 camp invitees. The only three-time Olympian is Dallas' Mike Modano. Chris Drury of the New York Rangers and Brian Rafalski of Detroit have been to two Olympics, and Scott Gomez of the Rangers and Jamie Langenbrunner of New Jersey have been once.

Also invited to the camp are Tampa Bay winger and former Penguin Ryan Malone, who grew up in Upper St. Clair, and defenseman Ryan Whitney, who spent his NHL career with the Penguins before being traded to Anaheim in February.