Jeremy Smith remembers the laughter he made.
Fast forward to the 2018-19 season, when Smith was still a goalkeeper for the AHL Bridgeport Tigers. The Tigers are a minor league team affiliated with the NHL New York Islanders and the ninth team Smith has played in a minor league. He's getting older, but aside from 10 games in the Colorado Avalanche, his dream of playing in the NHL hasn't been favored by other teams, and the door to the hockey world is closing to him. "I'm like a transparent person in the NHL world, and I've always been the third goalkeeper in the team." He said.
However, it was here that a phone call changed his career and changed the trajectory of his life. The call came from his agent, about an invitation from a team that had sent him an invitation for the new season, and the team was in one of the hottest ice hockey soils at the time.
Beijing, China.
First, The Chinese men's ice must compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics
In the face of this somewhat "nonsensical" offer, Smith's initial reaction was to laugh. "I said to my agent, 'If you're making me laugh, I wish I had a little higher laugh.'" He recalls the situation, "But there was really a two-year contract over there, and they were serious. ”
In fact, the significance of this invitation is extraordinary: the team that came to the door is called Beijing Kunlun Hongxing, which belongs to the mainland ice hockey league dominated by Russian teams, and the real mission of kunlun Hongxing is actually to serve as the main body of the future Chinese men's hockey national team. Their invitation to Smith is not just to play in the KHL as a professional player – he will get a chance to play as the host China's main goalkeeper for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
This situation raised Many Question Marks for Smith: He grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, not Chinese mainland, and as far as he knew, no one from his ancestors had Chinese ancestry.
He was responded: "Don't worry, all we need is for you to qualify for the Olympics." ”
Yes, it's not a joke: in order not to embarrass the team too much at its own Winter Olympics, the Chinese side has been preparing for it for years. In addition to Smith, the naturalized players they brought in included former NHL players Brandon Yip, Jack Kellyos and Spencer Foo. In addition, they have hired ice hockey masters such as Wayne Gretzky, Phil Esposito and Mike Keenan to provide guidance, and have invested heavily in the country's ice hockey infrastructure and player development.
But despite all this effort, The Chinese men's ice team barely qualified for the Olympic Games on their doorstep, as some OFFICIALS ATA fear the team will lose too badly in the face of the Olympic powers with many NHL stars.
But they were eventually allowed to come to the Olympics.
"If a Chinese kid starts to play hockey because he watched our Olympic games, then I think our mission is done."
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Men's Ice Hockey Group Stage Group A, China's men's ice hockey first ball celebration.
Meanwhile, the NHL major leagues announced that they would not let players come to the game.
"In a way, it's a mixed thing. If NHL players from all over the world can come, it will definitely bring more attention to the Olympics, and it is also very cool to be able to play against the strongest players in the world. If they don't come now, we'll have more opportunities to go further in this tournament. Ye Jinguang said.
"We are the one who is not optimistic about the outside world, but if we can win a game against the United States, it is very significant. That would be an incredible achievement. “
Growing up in British Columbia, Canada, the 36-year-old, Mr. Ye has played 174 games in the NHL, most notably for the Phoenix Wolves. After saying goodbye to the NHL, he moved to minor leagues such as AHL and ECHL, and then various overseas hockey tournaments. "If you look at my Elite Prospects homepage, "he" will find that countries with hockey leagues basically have my footprints. “
In 2017, Ye Jinguang, who was playing in the German league, began to contact Kunlun Hongxing. The conditions he received were of the same nature as Smith's: playing in the KHL league with the team first, and then getting the opportunity to represent China at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
"I really didn't expect me to have a chance to play in the Olympics," Ye Jinguang said with a smile, "I know I definitely can't get into the Canadian national team, this is certain." “
Kunlun Hongxing team began playing in the league from the 2016-17 season, and their boss is Yue Xinyu, the billionaire founder of China Environmental Energy Holdings Co., Ltd. Yue Xinyu believes that ice hockey can become the top four hottest events in China, and he believes that the Chinese women's ice hockey team may be expected to impact the Winter Olympic gold medal in the future. But for the Chinese men's team, his attitude is relatively cautious.
In an interview with Hockey News magazine in 2019, he said: "Everyone wants gold medals, but we also need to be realistic." As far as men's hockey is concerned, we need to build a competitive team first, and we can't lose 0-10 on the field. We need to learn to score goals first, and then maybe win. ”
However, in the KHL, Kunlun Hongxing has not yet formed this competitiveness. They played a playoff in their first season, ending up in the first round. After that, until the 2021-22 season was suspended due to the Winter Olympics, they were not able to make it into the playoffs again.
"I think the reason why they wanted to start Kunlun Hongxing was to help the development of ice hockey in China. They don't have a high-level hockey tournament, so they need this opportunity to be specially invited to the KHL league. Smith said.
Kunlun Hongxing's head coach is Mike Keenan, who has many years of experience in NHL coaching, and he has been the coach and general manager of the team since March 2017. He is also an advisor to the team and to the Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey program. In an interview with CGTN, Keenan said he gave the Chinese government some advice on how to create private events and prepare for the Olympic Games for the national team — including not only the selection of domestic players, but also the naturalization of some Chinese players from abroad or foreign players who can meet the residency conditions before the Olympics.
"We have to get some players from all over the world to form a men's hockey team of about 25 people," Keenan said. However, in December 2017, Keenan was relieved of his duties.
After Keenan, several more famous people appeared in the crowd that helped China's ice hockey project. In 2017, NHL star Phil Esposito came to work in China, while legendary golfer Wayne Gretzky was hired as a publicity ambassador for Kunlun Star in 2018. He has stood for Chinese ice hockey many times and tried to help create a local ice hockey school.
In an interview with Xinhua, Gretzky said he was "quite surprised" by the development of ice hockey in China. However, he did not raise everyone's appetite on the issue of The Olympic team.
"From a realistic point of view, what they want to do most is to win the respect of their opponents." Gretzky said.
The formation of the Chinese men's ice hockey team has been planned for many years. The plan has always been dominated by naturalized players, supplemented by a certain number of homegrown players.
Looking at the list of Chinese teams in this tournament, there is one thing you may not immediately notice: 18 of the 25 players were born or raised in North America – and there is a native Russian named Dennis Osipov.
All players are registered players of Beijing Kunlun Hongxing Team. All naturalized players have Chinese names, or use Hanyu Pinyin instead. Kunlun Hongxing referred to these members of the national team born outside Of China as "Chinese and naturalized players".
Smith isn't entirely sure if he has Chinese ancestry, but that doesn't affect his qualification to represent China. "If you want to compete in the Olympics, you have to hold a passport of the country you represent. I checked before and found that at last year's Tokyo Olympics, about 180 athletes competed on behalf of countries other than their birthplace while meeting this condition. ”
According to the rules of the International Ice Federation, ice hockey players can represent the country's national team as long as they stay in a place for more than two years. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced Kunlun Hongxing to move its home stadium from Beijing to the outskirts of Moscow in the 2020 season, the International Ice Federation ruled that the Kunlun Hongxing team's players from North America could qualify for the Olympic Games.
Second, a group of "Chinese" working towards the same goal
"When the pandemic broke out that year, the KHL season was almost over. We were actually in Beijing, but the league told us there was a virus and we had to go to Russia to play the rest of the home and away games. "With the end of the season and the new season approaching soon, due to the difficulty of going abroad, we set up our home stadium on the outskirts of Moscow, and we have played like this for the past two years."
Until this season, most of the main players in the Kunlun Hongxing Squad were still players of North American or Russian origin. In the 2019-20 squad, such as Watke Wolski, Griffin Reinhardt and Derwent Smith Perry. In the 2020-21 season, Kunlun Hongxing's lineup is similar to before.
Both of the above seasons have been affected by the epidemic, and Kunlun Hongxing has to move to Russia to play. But it is precisely because of the spread of the epidemic that China once did not want to let local players go to Russia. It wasn't until this season that these players from Chinese mainland were able to report to Kunlun Hongxing.
According to Smith, kunlun Hongxing has as many as 50 players participating in this year's pre-season training camp, which is actually the olympic training camp for the national team, and everyone has to attend two full training classes a day. Many of the homegrown players have had experience playing in VHL minor leagues (presumably equivalent to KHL's development league games), but the talent gap is still obvious. Smith said that although these Chinese players have honed some technical ability in the minor leagues, the transition from VHL to KHL is still a "very large leap" for them.
"They came to our boot camp in July, and it was as if they had been training in a technical area for a year and a half somewhere. Their old camp is the training gym used during the Olympic Games, and they actually carry out various basic sliding and technical training every day. After coming to us, they are facing a big gap, which is very difficult. ”
In addition to the lack of experience, the language barrier is also a problem that needs to be overcome. Some of the homegrown players from Chinese mainland don't speak English and Russian, but the team's preparations are basically held in both languages. They are led by Italian coach Zanata, including former NHL star Alexei Kovalev. The Kunlun Hongxing players who could only understand the Chinese needed to communicate with the coaches with the help of three interpreters hired by the team, and in some cases, some teammates who could cope with bilingual communication could also help.
"I probably have three or four teammates who can communicate in both Chinese and English, so when the coach speaks, other people can sit next to them and ask what the coach means. In addition, coaches will also use some view class teaching to mention everyone, and some coaches are still very good at this. ”
He said that although the learning process is very long, the local players are already slowly learning something. "You can see that once these players have an understanding of those concepts and systems, they can start on the road."
However, the language barrier also exists on the field, and it turns out that this problem is not small for Smith: as the team's goalkeeper, he needs to speak up to communicate with his teammates and direct their positions.
'We have a defender from Russia, a homegrown defender from China, and players from Canada and the United States, and it's a hodgepodge." "I'll try to speak Chinese to him when the homegrown defender comes on, and I'll try to speak Russian to my Russian teammates," he said. I don't just have to understand what tactics we play, but I also have to think about who the player who executes the tactics is and what language to speak to him. My brain has to keep running on the field. ”
As the season progressed, the players finally gradually formed a stable synergy on and off the field. Ye Jinguang said that they need to use the spirit of hard work to make up for the gap in ability.
'We have to play according to our own system, we have to be defensive, actively interfere with the opponent's shots, and hope to seize the opportunities that arise when the opponent makes mistakes." Ye Jinguang said, "We must spell it out and work hard to the greatest extent." Obviously, we're not as talented as the other teams, but our players know each other well and have been playing together for years, and we're going to take advantage of that. ”
Now, now that they know the team has been allowed to participate in the Olympics, it is enough to have such a mentality.
"I don't want to call certain statements shaming, I understand why they come from. But it's still sad after all. Ye Jinguang said.
In September 2021, FIA President Luke Tadeff publicly said something that many people have talked about in private: as the "last seed" of the 12 teams in the Winter Olympics, the Chinese men's ice team, which ranks only 32nd in the world, may be played by the strong teams with NHL players.
During the Winter Olympics, the Chinese team will be divided into three top teams from the United States, Canada and Germany. Normally, the leaders of these teams will be ice superstars such as Connor Mc David, Leon Deleseter and Oston Matthews. Compared with the two, the bloodbath of several big scores is basically inevitable.
"It's not a good thing for both China and for hockey to see a team lose 0-15 like that." It can be said that Tadif's words are tantamount to publicly questioning that "the competitive ability of the Chinese team is not enough to cope with Olympic-level events".
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Men's Hockey Group Stage A, Chinese men's ice hockey celebrated Wang Taylor's goal.
Since 2006, hosts of the Winter Olympics have automatically qualified for ice hockey at the Olympic Games, but this is not a formal rule. Tadif said the strength of Chinese men's ice hockey needs to be assessed, and norway, which was originally replaced by China, may be replaced.
As soon as these words came out, the kunlun Hongxing team members were not only shocked, but also full of tension. Ye Jinguang said: "Such words are really hurtful, we have been preparing for this grand event for five or six years, we have walked a long road, and now when we are only one step away from the Olympic Games, some people question that we can't play the Olympic Games at all, and we can't swallow this breath." “
Smith cites the performance of flyer Usain Bolt at the Summer Olympics as an example: There is always one person who will fall to the last place, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve to be Olympic players.
"If you say to people who have been training for the Olympics for seven or eight years that they can't go to the Olympics, and the reason is that they are not strong enough... I'm sorry, but this is definitely not unsportsmanlike. “
In November last year, the International Ice Federation cast a vote of confidence on the Chinese side. But it also comes with a warning: the International Ice Federation and the Chinese Ice Association will send people to Russia to watch two Kunlun Hongxing matches, before the former reconvenes the committee members and "discusses the next move on the matter."
The strength of this year's Kunlun Hongxing team is indeed relatively weak. Before the KHL League was suspended due to the Winter Olympics (the playoffs will be played directly according to the current ranking after the Olympics), Kunlun Hongxing's record was 9 wins, 32 losses and 7 draws, and a total of 198 goals were conceded in 48 games, a full 48 more than the team that conceded the second most goals in the league.
"If you've ever seen the leaderboard, we really only came in last. We sometimes seemed to struggle to keep the team cohesive for a full three quarters. But in a lot of the games early in the season, we actually lost a goal, and we weren't broken. Ye Jinguang said, "Of course, we have indeed lost a few big scores, but this is only because of lack of experience." “
On November 15, Kunlun Hongxing ushered in the test of the Khabarovsk Tigers. The game was basically a preview of their preparations for the Winter Olympics.
"It's fair to say, and the audience watching this rehearsal is very picky." Smith quipped.
"We're nervous because everybody's got through the gas beforehand, and if we don't win these two games, we may not be able to get into the Olympics." Smith said, "We have been preparing for five years, and if we can't win, everything may be in vain." ”
At the start of the game, the future Chinese national team seemed to have no chance: although Kunlun Hongxing was only one goal behind at the end of the first quarter, by the time the second quarter was 12 minutes left, the score on the court suddenly became 0-4.
"The situation is very tense, and the opposite side seems to play how to have, and several times they have played a cooperation that they usually can't play." I can only feel that our situation is very difficult. "I thought to myself, we must never concede a goal again — and then we did." ”
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Men's Hockey Group A China vs Germany.
What happened later was this: Kunlun Hongxing not only defended the goal, but also pulled two goals in a row before the end of the second quarter, and scored two more goals in the third quarter in a wild attack, equalizing the score in one fell swoop, and did not regret losing until overtime. "We fought side by side like heroes to the end," Ye said, "this game can show the FIA that we have the ability to reverse the disadvantage and also have the ability to compete with the opponent." ”
After that, Kunlun Hongxing participated in the second "rehearsal match", and the result was still lost, but it was also a defeat: against the veteran powerhouse Omsk Pioneer, Kunlun Hongxing was tightly fighting with the opponent all the time, and the Vanguard team only changed the score from 2-1 to 4-1 with two goals in the last five minutes, and locked in the victory without any danger.
In the following weeks, kunlun hongxing's team members have been repeatedly refreshing various news and looking forward to getting good news. "We've heard some rumors and they always seem to go around in circles on this issue." Smith said, "I think they seem to be worried that Chinese ice hockey has a team that can compete, and I don't know if they can learn something from the struggle of our Kunlun Hongxing and even the Chinese team." They spent five years building this professional team to qualify them for the Winter Olympics. “
The end result: the International Ice Federation once again reiterated that Chinese men's ice players are eligible to participate in the Winter Olympics as hosts (sorry, Norwegian).
Third, the goal is not only to play the Olympic Games, but also a larger pattern
"In fact, it was a good experience for us. Although it is a bit nerve-wracking, I hope that this event will make us feel more about the taste of the Olympic Games. Ye Jinguang commented.
By December, the team's expectations for the Olympics had suddenly changed dramatically: the NHL had officially announced during this period that it would not send any active players to the Olympics due to changes to the regular season schedule due to the suspension of the COVID-19 pandemic, which would clash with the Winter Olympics. Smith said: "I was a little shocked because I thought it wouldn't be a problem. At that time, they stipulated in the collective agreement that players could participate in the Winter Olympics, and I thought that the dust had settled. ”
Overnight, the Chinese men's ice team seems to be no longer the weak brigade that is bound to be "deceived" at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the decline in the overall talent of competitors has given the Chinese team at least the capital to fight.
in case of...... Can they win one or two?
"The players who can come here will still be very good, we are not facing a grassroots game, nor an amateur player in the Beer League. We still have to face a high level of ice hockey. "But there's always a big gap between a superstar like Dreiseter and a small league first-line player." ”
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Men's Hockey Group Stage A Stand.
To understand what this moment means for Chinese men's ice, you must understand Chinese ice hockey culture.
"Ice hockey is something completely new in China, a country with thousands of years of civilization, but opening up to the outside world and embracing new things is only a matter of recent decades." "Now that the NBA craze has swept across the country, you'll see Chinese wearing NBA Warriors clothes everywhere," Smith said. ”
Smith also said that the reason why ice hockey is difficult to promote in China is to some extent the same problem it encounters in the United States: in addition to being conceptually not very close to daily life, the equipment and corresponding expenses required for "entering the pit" are also relatively expensive. "Ice hockey is not a sport that can be played with a single case and a few rackets." Smith gave the example of table tennis, another national sport in China.
The NHL showed interest in the Chinese market around 2014 and held a number of Chinese races in 2017 and 2018, with footprints in Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai. The NHL has also discussed whether to establish a subsidiary office somewhere in China.
"We have noted the importance of helping China build a grand national hockey program and pledged to support China's efforts." NHL President Gary Bateman said in 2017. He also added that the NHL's commitment to effectiveness will remain even after the Olympics.
Vice President Bill Dali said the Beijing Organising Committee was "obviously not very happy" about the NHL's withdrawal, but believed that "this will not damage our ability to participate in international events in the future." ”
Ye Jinguang said: "NHL tickets are often sold out, but the audience for Chinese ice hockey is still very small. Although more and more people like hockey, there are still fewer at present. ”
But Ye Jinguang is still excited about the role of the Olympic Games in stimulating the growth of the number of hockey audiences. He doesn't expect the Chinese team to actually create any so-called "miracle on the ice" — though he certainly doesn't mind if he can be a part of it — but for Ye Jinguang himself, the final score is not as important as the subsequent development of Chinese ice hockey.
"The goal of Chinese ice hockey is not just to play an Olympic Games, but also to have a bigger picture: to have a good platform to play the sport you love, which is definitely a good thing." So let's get hockey up. Chinese hockey is likely to have an exciting future," he said, "and it's a great honor for me to be responsible for introducing the sport to people who don't know what hockey is." ”
Considering the incredible experiences that the Chinese men's ice hockey team has experienced on the journey to the Winter Olympics, making this team appear on the Olympic hockey arena is a victory in itself.
Smith said: "If there are Chinese children who start to touch ice hockey because they watched our Olympic games, then I think our task is completed." ”
On February 12, the second game of the group stage of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese men's ice team lost 2-3 to the German team, scoring the first goal in the history of the Chinese men's ice team, and the tenacious scene was moving. They really did.
文 | Greg Wyshynski（ESPN）
Compile the | Zhou Shijie