At an imposing 6-foot-5, there’s plenty to like about Blake Wheeler’s game. He’s a top-line talent for the Winnipeg Jets, a player capable of playing both wing positions, and one that can score just as many pretty goals as dirty ones. He’s also going to Sochi as a representation of Team USA over more popular names such as Bobby Ryan and even New York’s Kyle Okposo.

“It’s a huge honor no doubt about it,” Wheeler said after Saturday’s game in Boston, a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the B’s. “It was a great day and I feel honored to be a part of the group.”

It was a group selected by perhaps the closest thing USA Hockey has to ‘12 Angry Men’, with the group’s vocal presence seemingly led by Brian Burke, the longtime NHL executive and Rhode Island native. Burke, now with the Calgary Flames, was in Boston yesterday, watching the Jets-Bruins game from high above the ice in the TD Garden press box. He didn’t stay for the whole game, but didn’t seem too pleased with the Bruins’ first goal, which began with Wheeler getting outmuscled for a loose puck by the Bruins’ 5-foot-9 defensemen, Torey Krug.

‘Soft’ was the word overheard.

But one bad play or game can’t be the determining factor for a player’s Olympic hopes, even if Wheeler’s going to find himself under a major microscope given the Ryan snub. Especially when the 27-year-old Wheeler’s found himself in such a competition all year long.

“I knew I was right on the bubble either way. I knew that it was going to come down to one of the final couple guys,” Wheeler, who didn’t make the team in 2010, said. “I think there were 9 or 10 returning forwards on the team so I was going to be one of the last few on or one of the last few off.

“I guess that speaks to the strength of USA hockey now, they have a lot of really good players on the team and a lot of really good players that definitely could have been on the team and weren’t,” he said, reaffirming, “I guess that just speaks to how good USA hockey has become.”

Just what gave Wheeler -- even with a zero-goal month of November -- a leg up on the rest?

“Probably my ability to skate. The size and speed factor with the big ice, having that extra couple feet, that width, I don’t think you can ever discount having speed on that so I think that worked in my favor,” Wheeler said when pressed about what earned him the spot. “From there I guess I can’t really speculate to what other factors played into it, I think that definitely helped me.”

There’s no doubt that a white-hot month of December that saw the Minnesota native tally 10 goals in 14 games, but what really put him ahead of Ryan, a member of the 2010 group that won Silver and four-time 30-goal scorer (a scoring plateau Wheeler has never hit)?

Versatility, you’d think. Versatility, Wheeler thinks.

See, it wasn’t too long ago when Wheeler was a complementary piece on the Bruins, a role he (for the most part) fulfilled admirably during his tenure in the Hub, striking with 50 goals and 110 points in 221 games with the club.

One of Wheeler’s best attributes during his limited time in Boston -- he was traded to Atlanta in 2011, halfway through his third year in the NHL -- was his ability to move up or down the lineup based on an injury, slump, or whatever else was thrown Julien’s way.

In Boston, Wheeler was never thee guy. He was just a guy. It worked.

“I was just happy as all hell to make this team in Boston so I wasn’t really looking at the lineup to see where I was playing,” Wheeler admitted to me yesterday. “To relate that to the US team I think it’s the same thing, I’m just thrilled to be a part of it. Wherever they put me in the lineup I’m going to be thrilled to do whatever I can to help this team win. So I think the ability to move up and down the lineup probably helped influence my position with the team.”

Maybe he’s right. It certainly looks like he’s right, anyways.

I don’t think that there’s a sane person out there that can dispute Ryan’s talent as a hockey player and a true game-changer. But if Wheeler’s going to log minutes on Team USA’s bottom six (or even on the fourth line as alluded to by Pittsburgh coach and Team USA bench boss Dan Bylsma), is it almost better if Wheeler’s in that role?

Either way, No. 26 in Winnipeg knows that there’s pressure no matter his spot in the lineup.

“I think the standard has been set,” noted Wheeler, who has 15 goals in 44 games this year, said. “That team went in with high standards for itself but on the outside I don’t think a lot of people had as high of standards for that team so I think internally they went in with a lot of confidence and I think they are carrying a lot of confidence over from the success they had in Vancouver.”

For Team USA, the standards have been set. But for Wheeler, with Ryan home, the statement will have to be made when the puck drops on Sochi ice.

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