New Zealand belongs in the KHL!
Does the reader believe we are straying into the realms of fantasy? If so, that is perfectly understandable, but bear with us. For one thing, the League has no shortage of fans in The Land of the Long White Day, and one of their number – Luke Turner, currently the coach of a Kiwi club – recently made a pilgrimage to our Moscow head office.
Luke came to Russia on vacation, but his love of hockey is so strong that he could not pass up the chance to make contact with his fellow professionals. He told of New Zealand’s clubs, who only number five in total but who nonetheless provide high entertainment value, particularly in encounters against Australian opposition, when the trans-Tasman rivalry fuels the passions of the players. Now there is even an international super series – a Champions’ League for the Oceania region – contested by the four teams who finished first and second in the Australian and New Zealand leagues. The inaugural tournament was held in 2012, with the Australians proving the stronger. However, as Luke was at pains to point out, not only did the Aussies have home advantage but they also play by their own rules (two periods instead of three, for example), whereas the next tournament, scheduled for 2016, will be staged in New Zealand, and that means revenge is on the menu.
The clubs are also confident enough to impose a limit on foreigners in the rosters, although, in typically laid-back fashion, any overseas player who stays for 18 months is deemed by the Kiwis to be a fellow countryman.
As for the standard of hockey in the New Zealand League, Luke concedes that there is ample room for improvement, but accompanying his modesty is some justifiable optimism thanks to the arrival of a steady trickle of talented and experienced pros from North America. Incidentally, CSKA’s Canadian fitness coach, Hassan Saeed, is a veteran of both the NHL and the NZ League, having been on the coaching staff at Atlanta and Dunedin Thunder.
New Zealand fans dreaming of having a team in the KHL have even set up a special page on one of the Internet’s social network sites, while the official Facebook page of the NZIHL (New Zealand Ice Hockey League) has over two thousands hockey-lovers engaging in heated discussions on all aspects of the game.
As a memento of the visit, the staff at KHL HQ presented their Southern Hemisphere guest with an official HC Admiral baseball cap. Luke understood the choice of club – the “nearest” KHL team to New Zealand, and also a reference to a NZIHL club, the West Auckland Admirals. This plants in the imagination the delightful but distant prospect of an "Admiral's Derby" between Vladivostok and New Zealand’s largest city. In this seafaring nation, one bit of maritime trivia is known by every schoolboy - if you sail due north from Auckland, the first country you encounter is Russia, so there is no chance of either side getting lost on the way.
Below is a clip of the West Auckland Admirals, in the blue jerseys, in action during last month’s clash with Dunedin Thunder. It was a particularly memorable night for the Admirals’ star forward, Tom Tracy, who recorded six shots on target and every one of them found the net. Maybe our headline is not so fantastic after all.
We will leave the last words to our guest, Luke Turner, who went online to post his reflections on his pilgrimage: “I can genuinely say that Russian people have truly been some of the kindest, loveliest, warmest, most generous people I have ever met. I don't know if I knew what to expect, but what I got was something that I could never have imagined. I really want to come back to this country as soon as possible. It's a beautiful country with beautiful people and I can highly recommend it."
And all thanks to hockey!
