Commesso and the U.S. men's Olympic squad boarded an overnight flight from L.A. to Beijing on Wednesday night after a few days of practices as a team in California. He's pulled on the red, white and blue at nearly every level of his career, but the opportunity to do so in an Olympic setting carries a different meaning.
"It's going to mean so much," he said. "Even at World Juniors, even though it was real short, I remember going over to the bench in our first preliminary game and talking to our trainer. I was just telling him, 'Man, this really doesn't get old.' Putting these colors on and representing this country, it truly doesn't get old.
"Every time that I do it, it's just so cool and I always cherish it and I'm always very thankful that I get to do it. To get to do it at the Olympics stage, I'm kind of at a loss for words. It hasn't totally sunk in yet."
He's the youngest of the team's goalie trio, alongside Pat Nagle, a 34-year-old veteran of 11 pro seasons in the AHL and ECHL, and Strauss Mann, who has played this season in the Swedish Hockey League after three years at the University of Michigan. With the last-minute nature of the team's selection and limited time together on the ice before the games, it remains to be seen where the 19 year old falls in the net depth chart, but the experience alone will last a lifetime.
"We have the Stanley Cup, and those are high stakes, but when we talk about athletes in the vast majority of sports, the Olympics is the pinnacle," Aubry said. "Drew's getting an opportunity to learn from not only other hockey players or teammates, but there could be some valuable lessons that he learns from other competitors or Team USA teammates as well."
"The hockey part is going to take care of itself," Commesso said. "I'm going to work as hard as I can when I'm at the rink and stuff like that, but my dad has been telling me, my parents have been telling me that it's the Olympics and it's just a great lifelong experience. I'm really going to soak everything in and really just enjoy everything. You never know when you're going to get another opportunity to make the Olympics and play again. I'm very fortunate that I get the opportunity to do so."