Publisher Colin Hastings of Bangkok’s Big Chilli magazine recently sat down with Scott Murray to discuss the history of ice hockey in Thailand: https://vimeo.com/549208900?fbclid=IwAR0TfccUidLiBF4hGtdIx3HcuCvy6he3ZxiALp40Kt0mgNHNXqlhhUP3wLU
Author: Scott Murray
Bangkokin kiekkotähdet
Janne K, the darling of the Finnish media: Helsingin Sanomat.
Sad Day for Asian Hockey
Sad to report the passing of Rolf Beutel, a fixture on the Asian ice hockey scene for the past two decades.
Rolf played at the University of Denver and was an exceptional player and teammate.
Our condolences go out to his family at this sad and unfortunate time.
We won’t forget you, Rolf.
Canada Day 2019: Summer Fest – CanCham Thailand
Canada Day Summer Fest is taking place Saturday June 15th! Please join CanCham Thailand in celebrating Canada Day 2019. CanCham Thailand is hard at work to make this year’s celebrations the most festive Canadian event yet.
Escape the hustle of the city and relax with a cold Canadian craft beer or Caesar and authentic Canadian food alongside activities for all ages! With Real Canadian BBQ, Burgers and Hotdogs, Poutine, and S’mores by the campfire you’ll feel as if you’re right in Canada. Reignite your love of Canada’s national sport and cheer on your CanCham Thailand hockey team at our annual ball hockey game. Jump for joy in the bouncy castle, test your luck with some great raffle prizes or sit back and enjoy our three live bands and DJ.
Team Canada Tops The World 6-4 in Charity Game
Team Canada defeated the World Team 6-4 in a charity hockey game held in early January at “The Rink”, located on the 7th floor of the Central Grand Rama IX shopping centre. Team Canada was composed of Canadian expats based in Thailand, plus three visiting Canadian MPs (Patrick Brown – Barrie, Andrew Saxton – North Vancouver, & Randy Hoback – Prince Albert), and ex-Trustee Justin Heran from Simcoe County. The World team was a collection of American, Czech, English, Finnish, German, and Swedish players. It was also boosted by the addition of Chicago Black Hawk defenseman, Johnny Oduya, who soon after the game flew back to North America to participate in the abbreviated NHL season.
Team Canada was in tough for this game because the World squad featured the Flying Farangs top line of Swede Henrik Olofsson, Czech Jurg Dudler, Thai national Tewin “Thor” Chartsuwan plus defensemen Oduya and Swiss national Remo Nyffenegger. This line had led the Farangs to their first ever Land of Smiles tournament victory back in October.
Philip Calvert, Canada’s new ambassador to Thailand, dropped the puck for the ceremonial face-off between Flying Farang co-captain and outgoing TCCC board member Todd Switzer and World Team captain Oduya. The TCCC was also represented by board members Derek van Pelt and John Casella and advisor and Flying Farang co-captain Geoff McIntyre.
Marc Spiegel, the President of the Thai-Finnish Chamber of Commerce, was the MC for the evening and handled the introductions in both Thai and English. Attending the game were Thai Senator Tassana Boontong, The President of Thailand-Canada Parliamentarian Friendship Group and MP Udomlak Pengnorapat, the vice-president of that organization.
The Canadian team jumped out to an early lead in the game and hung on with some stellar goaltending from Lance Parker, who had done yeoman’s work to help promote the game. Canadian MP Patrick Brown dominated play when he was on the ice. The World Team fought back to within one goal through the determined effort of Oduya, and the strong goaltending of Czech Ambassador Victor Grepl but in the end the Canadian bench proved too strong for the World Team and Thai goalie Pattarapol “Dream” Ungkulpattanasuk, playing for Team Canada, made a number of sensational saves in the third stanza to seal the win for the Canadian team for the second year running.
Organizer Scott Murray said, “We had an active NHL player, the Canadian ambassador to drop the puck, three serving Canadian MPs playing, and a Thai senator and MP in attendance, what more could you want? Referees Sakchai Chinanuvatana and Mike Lashbrook also did a great job of maintaining order in the game when it looked like things might get out of hand.”
The game raised Bt58,474 for the Thai Red Cross. This was the third charity game to help the Red Cross, the first was in January 2005 to benefit tsunami victims, and the second was last year to benefit Bangkok flood victims.
Senior Citizen denies Flying Farangs third crown in 5 years
The Bangkok Flying Farangs were trying to win their third City of Angels crown in five years; all that was stopping them was a 62-year-old goalie – and he did. The keeper for the all-Finnish team, Ukkometsot, Mika Rantanen, which had flown in from Helsinki, stoned the Farangs in the final match as the visiting Finns won the first tournament to be played at the new arena, The Rink, located on the 7th floor of the Central Grand Rama IX shopping mall.
The favourite going into the 35-and-over tourney was the Hong Kong Tigers who had a slew of relatively young forwards (aged 35-39), who skated rings around the opposition in the early matches, making mincemeat of their opposition. But like the Farangs, the Tigers fell victim to the wily Finnish keeper in the semi-final exiting the tourney without the Cup they so eagerly coveted. The Farangs beat the Kuala Lumpur Cobras in their semi-final game to set up the final match against Ukkometsot.
Flying Farang goalie Jason Cotsmire had a brilliant tourney except for a brief 5-minute span at the start of the final game when Ukkometsot scored three quick goals on him. It was erringly similar to the 5-minute breakdown the New Jersey Devils suffered in period one of game 6 of the Stanley Cup final when Steve Bernier took a five minute major boarding penalty and the LA Kings scored three power-play goals. The Farangs did call a time out after the Finns’ three quick goals, but like the Devils were never able to gain the momentum, losing the final by the same score the Devils did, 6-1.
The 15-team tourney was divided into three four-team divisions and one three-team division, with each team playing the other teams in its division before being re-seeded according to their records. Bangkok entered two other teams in the tourney and the second-seeded Bangkok team reached the semi-final of the consolation championship, while the third Bangkok team, composed – ironically – mostly of Finns, saw an early exit from the tourney as they were unable to muster much scoring power.
The highest-profile player in the tourney was Jay North, who had flown in from Texas to play for the Singapore Hawkers (Singapore like Bangkok, entered three teams in the tourney). North, a Minnesota high-school stand-out, was selected 63rd overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1980 entry draft, ahead of future NHL stars like Jari Kurri, Bernie Nicholls, Steve Larmer, Steve Kasper, Hakan Loob & Andy Moog. His NHL career never did pan out, but people still talk about the way he dazzled the crowd in his high school days.
All the matches on the final day were televised live on Thai TV and the rink was a beehive of journalistic activity with cameramen, photographers and writers everywhere. Tournament organizer Scott Whitcomb and his team at Jogsports did an outstanding job of running the event. And the Rink, which was still trying to air out its kinks was able to withstand the heavy schedule of morning to late-night matches despite Bangkok’s heavy humidity.
Johnny Oduya has chosen the unconvential NHL lockout route: Thailand – by Justin Bourne
I recently received a great message from Jason Cotsmire, a Long Island, NY native who now lives in Bangkok, Thailand, about a rather interesting sighting at his local arena these days: Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya.
It turns out that while other NHL players are trying to stay sharp by playing in a variety of European Leagues, Oduya wanted to take a little vacation, but still keep his skills sharp “ Thailand was his solution. Here’s how Oduya’s participation there came to pass, from Cotsmire:
It was totally out of the blue and something I never would have believed, but I got it directly from his best buddy who joined him on the trip. Apparently they were celebrating his buddy’s birthday when the subject of the lockout came up and Johnny mentioned that if it kept on going, he was heading to Thailand for a vacation. [name redacted] told him he should check out if there was hockey there so he could still get some skates in and stay in shape slightly kidding. Johnny picked up his iPhone did a quick search and came upon www.flyingfarang.com. Not only was there hockey here but he was going to be here during the dates of our annual tournament.
The tournament Cotsmire is referring to is The Land of Smiles ice hockey classic, “an annual mens league competition held in Bangkok to help raise money for hockey in Thailand and slum kids/communities in Bangkok through The Mercy Center.”
It was originally a four-team event that’s in its 18th version, and now features 60 men’s league teams from around the world. There’s a “rec” division “ good players, with an emphasis on the beer and fun “ and an “open” division, for those who think they still may have a pro shot.
Something else cool to note: this year Vesa Toskala participated in the event as a forward with a Finnish team, and previous tournaments have seen Troy Crowder and Neal Broten get involved.
More on the tournament from Jason before we resume:
Over the years, we have had teams consistently attend from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and the UAE. Most of these teams are made up of expat Canadians/Americans and Europeans currently living/working in those respective countries. Additionally as the tournament became more well known, we’ve had teams from Russia, Switzerland, Finland, Serbia, Latvia, Canada and the USA come out and join us as wel
Back to Oduya’s story, and how he ended up following through:
He contacted the organizer of the tournament and things just went into full affect from there. When we first heard he was coming, many of the guys in Bangkok figured that one of our Swedish guys knew him or knew someone that knew him. Nope, turns out it was just totally by circumstance that it all came together. Johnny arrived Friday morning in Bangkok, went to a seaside resort for a few days and we had a small morning skate with him on the Monday of the tournament week followed by Tuesday night shinny before the tourney to get him accustomed to his new teammates. Let’s just say it was a surreal experience to be playing with a current NHLer. Of course Johnny played with our Open Division Bangkok team and led them to the Championship of our own tournament for the first time ever.
Here’s the winning squad:
Oduya gave some quotes to the Bangkok Post about his experience there.
On the vacation destination that is Thailand:
“I wanted to come back to Thailand for a while. It is a big holiday spot for Swedish people to go when it gets colder back home.”
On the event, from the Bangkok Post:
“I didn’t know if it would be a good idea but once we started looking into it a bit more we got more excited. I didn’t know that it would end up anything like this, this is a much bigger venue than anything I thought I would be part of.”
“The facilities here are unbelievable for being in a mall in a tropical paradise,” he said with a chuckle at the rink at Rama IX.
And finally from the Bangkok Post, on surprising people:
“In the beginning, the first day, I showed up to practice and it was more like ‘oh you are here, we didn’t really think you were going to show up’,” he said. “They thought it was all talk. I hope they think it’s been fun and as long as everybody has a good time I’m happy with that.”
To me, this is perfection. It’s just the ideal way to use the lockout “ see somewhere new, do something cool, make an effort to stay on your skates and not get too rusty. And in the middle of your career, it’s not the worst thing in the world to let your body heal up with a nice break from seriously competitive hockey, especially if the NHL resumes play sometime this season.
Oduya Leads Farangs to Victory in Bangkok Tourney
Johnny Oduya of the Chicago Black Hawks, currently locked out over a revenue sharing dispute between the National Hockey League owners and players, took advantage of his spare time to lead Bangkokís Flying Farangs to do something theyíve never done before, win their own tournament.
The four-division, 36-team, 18th annual Land of Smiles tourney was labelled an instant classic with the Farangs defeating the Abu Dhabi Storm 2-1 in a very close final game to win the international open division. Bangkok captain Geoff McIntyre provided most of the final-game dramatics, assisting on Rob Taylorís tying goal, after Abu Dhabi jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, and then scoring the winning goal himself. McIntyre didnít make it easy for his team though taking a minor penalty with just over two minutes to go; the pro-Bangkok crowd was on pins and needles as the clocked ticked down to the Flying Farangsí first home championship. Netminder Dean Tzembelikos, who flew in from Hong Kong for the tourney, provided crucial saves for the Farangs at key times to earn the win. And veteran Robert Voisine, also played an important tormenting opposing netminders so Farang forwards could better put in the blasts coming from their stellar defensemen on the points.
Thai National star Tewin ìThorî Chartsuwan skated on the Farangs top line with Swiss speedster Jurg Dolder and Swedish ace Henrik Olofsson. Likit Neimwan-Andersson, the only Thai to ever play professional ice hockey, teamed up with Oduya on defense. Likit had played with Oduyaís brother Freddy (now deceased) years earlier in Sweden, and was one of the few players on the team who could handle Oduyaís rocket-hard passes.
The ìPitstopî team from Latvia defeated the Singapore Manimals to win the International Menís Tier Two division (the Flying Farangsí second squad came within a goal of reaching their final as well, losing in a semi-final shoot-out to the Latvian team).
The Hong Kong Hitmen trumped the Abu Dhabi Theebs to win the Asian Division and the Abu Dhabit Storm beat the Bangkok C Galís to take home the womenís division honours.
Also competing in the tournament for the Finnish team Jellonas was Vesa Toskala, the former number one goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now retired, Toskala also played for San Jose, Anaheim and Calgary in his NHL career. Toskala holds the San Jose record for most points by a goalie in a game (2), he was also traded to Anaheim with Jason Blake for former Conn Smythe trophy winner (MVP in the playoffs), Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Oduya was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers (who became the Winnipeg Jets) from the New Jersey Devils on 4 February 2010 along with Niclas Bergfors, Patrice Cormier and a 1st round draft pick for Anssi Salmela and Ilya Kovalchuk. On 10 March 2010; Kovalchuk went on to sign the most expensive contract in NHL history – US$102 million spread over 17 years. Oduya was later dealt to Chicago on February 27 of this year for a 2nd and 3rd round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. He is scheduled to make US$4 million this year (if the NHL resumes play), and he plays on defense with former James Norris trophy winner (best defenseman in the NHL) Duncan Keith and his co-Olympic gold-medal winning teammate Brent Seabrooke.
The Land of Smiles tourney took place over five days at ìThe Rinkî, Grand Central Rama IX Mall and the Imperial Samrong Ice Arena. The Zamboni at Samrong broke down early in the tournament and panic set in quickly, because when the machine broke it left a large and deep rut in the ice, so dangerous that the Canadian Hackers team threaten to leave for safety concerns. Quick thinking by Flying Farang Mike Swager saved the day, as after packing the whole with some loose ice, he grabbed a fire extinguisher and hosed the rut shut earning the nickname ìThe Extinguisherî (photos by Naz Brown).
