The Winter Olympics 2010 is less that 2 weeks away, and …well, we all know that Canada’s men and Canada’s women hockey teams will earn the Gold medals!

Yeah.

Oh, you say the UGLY Chinese Canadian is biased in making that prediction?

Damn.

It’s hard to contain our enthusiasm and be discrete when you talk about our nation’s sport, eh?

One of the thoughts often bantered around in the banana community, is … “we all played street hockey and stuff as kids… ice hockey as young adults… where are the  ‘H’-'E’-double hockey sticks are the Asian-Canadian hockey players in the NHL?”

Asian-Canadian Hockey guys

Here is an unofficial list of some Asian-Canadian hockey players.

Proud to also state that they’re all bananas too.

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Larry Kwong

Canada’s first Asian-Canadian hockey player was Larry Kwong.

First to play in the NHL 1947-48 New Your Rangers  – debuted on March 13, 1948 (Rangers at Montreal Canadiens)

Here’s our earlier blog post on Larry, “Larry Kwong, the Chinese Canadian Doodle bug”

http://rangers.nhl.com/club/atrplayer.htm?id=8447254
http://rangers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=493518

There is now a campaign to induct Larry Kwong into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame.  Please join this Facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=50177632975&ref=nf

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And some more historic facts on Asian-Canadians and professional hockey, from our friend Jim WC:

Mike Wong

Mike Wong played for the 1975-76 Detroit Red Wings. He  played 22 Games, had  1 goal, 1 assist, and 12 penalty Minutes

Here are his stats:
http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1975/75077.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Wong

Richard Park

Richard Park – currently active Asian NHL player
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Park
http://www.nyiforlife.com/2008/04/2008-nyiforlifecom-islander-of-year.html

Peter Ing

Goalie – played for the Toronto Maple leafs, and was named National Hockey League Rookie of the Month in December 1990.

Winner, (Toronto Maple Leafs) Molson Cup, 1990-91

Peter last heard was working at a Niagara Casino as Director of Marketing
http://www.hockeygoalies.org/bio/ing.html

Jim Paek

One of the most accomplished of them all Jim Paek, 1st Asian hockey player has two stanley cup rings his Pittsburgh Penguin jersey hangs in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He is still active – coaching minor league hockey in the AHL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Paek

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And of recent, we now have,

Brandon Yip

Brandon was drafted into Colorado Avalanches last December (2009).

Apparently the Avalanches have the youngest team in the NHL… with player Matt Duchene just turning 19 a few weeks ago, and the oldest is Adam Foote at 38.

This poster was forwarded to me today:

the Young Guns in the poster are Brandon Yip (24)-RW, TJ Galiardi-LW (21), Ryan Wilson-D (22),  Matt Duchene-C(19), Ryan O’Reilly-C (18!), and David Jones-RW(25)

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Asians in the minor leagues

(also see attached article on Yutaka Fukufuji, LA King’s Goalie of the future…) plus…
The Montreal Canadiens took Japanese forward Hiroyuki Miura 260th overall in the 1992 Entry Draft. Miura’s North American hockey career consisted of six games with the old Wheeling Thunder of the ECHL during the 1992-93 season. In 2004, the Los Angeles Kings selected former Kokudo and Japanese national team goaltender Yutaka Fukufuji.

Seeing the name of the draftee, NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Jim Gregory, who announced the pick from the podium, paused and said: “Wow.” Struggling a bit with the pronunciation of the Fukufuji’s name, Gregory got through it and said, “Thank you, Los Angeles. Great pick.” Signed by the Kings last summer, the soon-to-be 24-year-old Fukufuji split the 2005-2006 season between the Reading Royals of the ECHL (29 games played) and the American Hockey League’s Manchester Monarchs, for whom he suited up twice.

Hockey with a Japanese accent

While far from an international powerhouse, Japan’s professional hockey history goes back nearly as far as that in many European countries. For instance, the Furukawa Denko professional team was established in 1925, and later became a founding member of the Japanese Ice Hockey League (JIHL) in 1966. The team is now called the Nikko Kobe Ice Bucks.

In most of Japan, hockey is a minor sport. Although the game’s strategies and customs seem well-suited to traditional Japanese culture — which places strong emphasis on structured rituals, respect for hierarchy, devotion to the collective and intense self-discipline — hockey trails far behind baseball and soccer.

But, there are pockets of strong hockey support. Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido, has a climate much like northern New England or parts of Ontario, with cold, snowy winters. There, from the grade-school level up, young players have access to organized hockey leagues. As a result, a disproportionate number of Japanese pro players — including Fukufuji — come from Hokkaido.

“I started playing about third grade,” Fukufuji told ECHL.com “I was taller than the other kids, so naturally they made me a goaltender.”

For 37 years, the JIHL was the top hockey league in Asia. Much like Japanese pro baseball, all of the hockey teams were owned and run by companies. The company lent its name to the team and viewed it as a form of advertising and public relations. The hockey clubs were not in and of themselves designed to be profitable, so losing teams rarely invested much money in improving their talent pipelines.

As a result, only three teams the league, which usually consisted of six to eight clubs, ever won the Japanese championship. The top teams were 13-time champion Kukudo Bunnies of Tokyo (featuring a decidedly non-threatening cartoon rabbit as their logo), the Seibu Tetsudo Lions, and Hokkaido-based Shin Oji Paper (sometimes called the Oji Eagles). Another Hokkaido-based club, Jujo Paper Ice Hockey (later renamed the Nippon Paper Cranes) was a JIHL mainstay.

While the majority of players in the JIHL were native Japanese, the top players in the league have traditionally been non-Japanese foreign players, like longtime NHLer John Tucker, former Bruins and Avalanche center Joel Prpic (who is still a top player on Kokudo) and ex-Flyers and Penguins defenseman Corey Foster.

The top teams have also relied heavily on a nucleus of Japanese-Canadians and Japanese-Americans who returned to their ancestral home land to play hockey. Notable examples include former Philadelphia Flyers’ draft pick and NHL assistant coach Steve Tsujiura, onetime Saskatoon Blades junior standout Ryan Fujita, former college hockey star and ECHLer Darcy Mitani, Edmonton native Chris Yule, longtime Seibu and Japanese national team goaltender Dusty Imoo (now with Oji) and former Montreal Canadiens second-round pick Ryan Kuwabara. Many of these players have suited up at one time or another for Team Japan, which is coached by a Canadian, Mike Mahon.

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Hockey is growing in Asian countries – there are league plays between China, Korea and Japan.

We’ll see more Asian players in International tournaments and NHL drafts in the future.