Exclusive | Rangers Mike Sullivan tells The Post about Team USAs Winter Olympics quest and the conversation theyre in

Just under four years removed from his NHL playing career, Mike Sullivan made his Olympic debut as an assistant coach for the U.S.men’s hockey team in Turin, Italy, at the 2006 Winter Games.He was 37 and in the midst of his first NHL head coaching gig with his home team, the Boston Bruins.Sullivan was closer to his time as a player than he was to an established coaching career, but then-Team USA GM Don Waddell cited his “knowledge and passion” of the game for why he was added to the coaching staff.Led by Peter Laviolette, Team USA finished in eighth place and won just one game in that Olympic tournament.As Sullivan prepares to return to Italy — this time as the U.S.

bench boss — for the Milan Cortina Winter Games, the now-Rangers head coach had a clear favorite memory from his first Olympic experience.“The games were great, exciting and all of that, but it was such a privilege to be able to stay in the Olympic Village,” Sullivan told The Post from inside his office at MSG Training Center.“And you go to the cafeteria and they have these long tables with the flags of the respective countries on the tables.

All the American athletes and coaches would sit at the American flags, and Canada would sit at their tables, and Germany would sit at their tables.So to have the opportunity to go in there and grab something to eat, you could go have lunch and maybe you’re sitting next to a bobsledder, or, you know, a downhill skier, and you strike up a conversation.

I found that to be fascinating and just really rewarding, and it makes you realize that when you go over there, that you’re part of a team that’s bigger than your sport.“A lot of these other respective sports, they train and prepare for years for the opportunity that’s there.Hockey is a little bit of a different dynamic.

We’re participating in the NHL, right? And then we go over as a team, and obviously that’s a unique experience to represent your country and all of those things.That w...