As we all expected, so far Canada has been the top dogs at the 2016 World Hockey Championships in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, with an impressive 5-1 win over those evil buggers from the south (USA) and an easy 7-1 victory over Hungary on Sunday (the time that this was written, as I’m currently on vacation and about to leave the country).
Like I said, that’s expected, as Canada, even with their ‘C’ squad (maybe ‘D’ squad), has a great chance at winning the tournament as this wonderful country produces the best players in the world, whether it be from a scoring standpoint, defensively or physically.
However, Canadian hockey players (or at least Canadian-bred, born and raised) are making an impact elsewhere throughout the 2016 tournament, with as many as 12 players of Canadian origin scattered amongst teams such as France, Germany, Hungary and Kazakhstan.
Players such as the 41-year-old Frank Banham (Calahoo, AB), who plays for Hungary alongside fellow Canadian expats Andrew Sarauer (Outlook, SK) and Kalvin Sagert (Abbotsford, BC), or former Canadian World Junior team members Nigel Dawes (Winnipeg, MB) and Dustin Boyd (Winnipeg, MB), both of whom suit up for Kazakhstan.
Up until recently, even the head coaches of some of the smaller nations have been Canadian, with Latvia previously with the likes of Ted Nolan (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) coaching the Latvian team and Glen Hanlon (Brandon, MB) previously coaching Slovakia, Switzerland and Belarus.
Hockey is clearly Canada’s game, but it’s nice to see that Canadians who have no chance of representing their own country internationally have decided to part ways with their Canadian passport in order to help promote hockey elsewhere.
In fact, the very same thing is happening with Team Â鶹´«Ã½AV Korea.
While they may not be at the 2016 World Championships, the Â鶹´«Ã½AV Koreans will be at the 2018 Winter Olympics as the host nation, and have made strides internationally, moving to the 23rd ranking in the world thanks to picking up Michael Swift (Peterborough, ON), Eric Regan (Ajax,ON), Bryan Young (Ennismore, ON) and Brock Radunske (Kitchener, ON), all of whom play in the Asia League with Â鶹´«Ã½AV Korean teams known as High 1, Anyang Halla and Daemyung Sangmu.
Some people might scoff at the fact that Canadian-born players are playing on other international hockey teams, joking that they can’t make Team Canada (they can’t, of course) and that all they’re doing is taking the spot of a deserving local player of whatever country they’re playing for.
The fact of the matter is, however, by playing for Â鶹´«Ã½AV Korea, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Hungary, etc., they’re not only helping the sport grow; they’re also helping other players get noticed, whether it be by high level European clubs or NHL teams (without Alan Letang, Geoff Waugh and Kenny MacAulay I highly doubt the Colorado Avalanche would have found Croatian Borna Rendulic).
So in the end, it’s wonderful that Canadians are playing internationally with smaller countries. Without that, hockey development and promotion worldwide would be down significantly.
