Minneapolis Park Hockey

Four individuals with Storm connections will be playing in the Bandy (Russian Hockey) World Championships in Moscow January 24-31. Follow Steve Jecha (Southwest), Jon Kesely (Saint Louis Park), BJ Bayers (Saint Louis Park), and Chris Middlebrook (Washburn) on this incredible journey.

Not sure if this puts me in the same category as the pitcher who served up Bobby Thompson's "Shot Heard Round the World" pitch allowing the NY Giants to win the pennant in 1951...or the goalie that allowed Wayne Gretzky's 800th career goal. I'll take a little infamy where due:

www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/367088

The second paragraph of the article marvels that I will be 47 in April and the oldest player in the A pool tourney.....trust me, my body feels like it has been through a car wreck this week! Lots of advil before and after each game! Robb Stauber is pushing me to lose 20 pounds and train with him for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi Russia.

With Stauber going out injured in the Sweden game, I found myself with one of the best goalie coaches in North America (Stauber) helping me refine my style over the course of the tourney. It paid off as the style change led to big saves in the Kazakh and Canada games. Looks like Stauber's Goalcrease will now need to start offering bandy goalie training!

lifesports.ru/news/11063

The USA played the winner of the "B" pool, Canada, to a game that probably shouldn't have been as close. The USA hit the locker room with a 3-1 lead at halftime  and after an inspiring speech from Coach Chris Halden came out strong....running up the score to 8-1 seven minutes into the second half. Then penalties and other mistakes caused the game to become very close.

St. Louis Park's BJ Bayers and Jon Kesely netted two goals each in the victory.

In the final, Sweden beat Russia in a second overtime to win the World Championships. A great game.

The Russia Times does a great story on our team and improved competitiveness.

USA National Team fell to Kazakhstan 9-5 (5-0) on Wednesday. This was probably our best outing this week. Though we started slow in the first half, the second half was an even game. A lot of fun to be a part of. Again, Saint Louis Park's Jon Kesely came through with a beautiful goal for the USA.

As a result, we finished last in the "A" pool. This was expected as we have never won an "A" pool game. What was different this year is that our team did garner the attention of the other teams in the tournament as it was a very solid group of bandy players with depth in talent. Nothing to hang our heads over!

With our last place finish in the "A" pool, we will play our friends from Canada who won the "B" pool beating Latvia, Hungary, Holland, and Mongolia. This should be a pretty good match. Though there is a huge difference between "A" and "B" pool play, the Canadians will be a challenge as their program and team are greatly improved. Should be fun.

Friday, was our day off. As a result we were able to go out in the evening on Thursday to take in some of Moscow's nightlife. Like life at home, the economy in Russia is struggling and the Moscow nightlife was pretty quiet. We did happen to happen across a bizarre nightclub with some sort of Karaoke thing going on. It was kind of like being on another planet as songs were being sung by the locals in cyrillic (Russia's written language). Dusting off my experience from past Storm out of town tournament team road trips, I belted out a couple of dittys (Haddaway's 'What Is Love?' and INXS' 'Need You Tonight'). Steve Nelson, Chris Preiss, John Kesely, and Jon Arundel did a mean version of Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby'. The locals found us to be entertaining...maybe not the best talent....but entertaining.

Friday morning we took off to Saint Basil's Cathedral and then to Arbat Street to do some shopping. We took a team shot in front of the Cathedral. This cathedral was built in the 1500's. It was and still is one of the most beautiful structures in the world. It is said that Ivan the Terrible, who commissioned the building of the cathedral, poked out the eyes of the architect who built the building in order to prevent him from designing anything like this anywhere else.

A good day off and now we have a little rest to take on Canada!

Today an article on the USA National Team's World Championship trip was printed in the NY Times:www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/sports/olympics/29bandy.html

Having a former NHLer in the Bandy World Championships has garnered a lot of attention from the Swedish press:

CLICK HERE

Imagine stepping on the ice with Ovechkin, Malkin, Datsyuk, Federov, Nabakov, and all of the other top Russian players in the NHL. Imagine you are live on National Russian TV and Eurosport 2.

Well, this was the situation we found ourselves in on Wednesday night. In an earlier blog post I mentioned that the Russian players make between $100k to $500k to play the game of bandy (in Russia, it is called 'Russian Hockey'). I have been corrected.....some of the top players we went up against are currently making in the $1,000,000 range. We have a bunch of players playing in Sweden who receive an apartment, a per diem, and perhaps a part time job to help pay for food, but that's about it.

On to the game....before one could even blink, the Russians were on a roll. I am just so happy that there was not a red light behind my net like there is in hockey....as even SPF 60 sunblock wouldn't have prevented the sunburn I would have received! The Russians overwhelmed us early and often, going into the locker room at halftime (45 minutes) with a 15-3 lead. There I was, on Russian national TV, getting scored on again and again! Too much fun! The second half allowed the Russians to tone down their play as they knew they had easily put this one away. The final, Russia 19 - USA 5. The Russians were so dominant, that had they wished to score 40 or more goals, it could have been done. They are just that good. Saint Louis Park's John Kesely netted two goals against the Russians. I am happy they don't track goalie save percentages in bandy!

Post game, I was asked to attend the press conference with the dozens of journalists in attendance at the games. I decided to wear a Russian jersey to the press conference and let the media know that I am one of the Russian team's biggest fans. They ate it up. They asked my thoughts on the game and I let them know that it was an honor to be on the ice with such incredible athletes that have always shown great sportsmanship.

Earlier in the day, the team went to Old Arbat Street in Moscow. This is a 500 year old, six block long, block that shows great Russian architecture, shops, and restaurants. Fun to get out and not as cold as yesterday.

Another interesting day living the dream.......steve jecha

Tuesday morning we got up and took off to Red Square. Red Square was the nerve center for Communist Russia. Today it is set up for tourism....which seems a lot better than using it to parade tanks and missiles.

We didn't take a look at the temperature and when we got there, it felt pretty cold - we were to find out later, that it was -32F with a nice gust of wind blowing throw the square.

Our time there was short. We took in the hockey rink set in the middle of the square, Lenin's tomb, and marvelled at St. Basil's Cathedral. When you think of an image of Russia - Saint Basil's Cathedral is what you see. There is no other building like this. Built in the 1500's to commemorate the Russian victory and capture of the city of Kazan it is quite an impressive site.

We rode the Moscow subway back to our hotel which was a fun experience.

Our tourism was pretty quick, as we realized that wandering around in these temperatures probably isn't too smart.

On to our next bandy game - The Finns. Finland has a solid team and competes - but usually loses - with the Swedes and the Russians. Once again, we showed that we could play a decent half of bandy - entering the locker room down 3-2 at halftime. The second half was not the same as our guys seemed exhausted and careless - combined with the Finns pressing us hard. Final - 13-2.  At the press conference after the game, the media was surprised to find out that our players are not professionals...as virtually all of the other "A" pool teams have professionals. We are just here living the dream!

Hopefully, we can regroup to take on and give the Russian on decent battle on Wednesday!

stevejecha

We now have two games behind us. Our first two full days here have been strictly business. Waking up, eating, hanging around at the hotel, going to the rink, getting beat up on!

On Sunday evening we had our first match against Norway. This was a match that we felt we had a chance to take as the Norwegians typically come in a close fifth in the "A" pool. It wasn't meant to be. At halftime, we played them to a 2-2 tie. Entering the second half, we jumped into the lead with an early goal. But then, we had a 15 minute lapse where we let the Norwegians go to work on us. By the end of the game it was a 10-5 win for the Norwegians. It became immediately apparent, that our 60 minute games that we play in the USA left us ill prepared for a 90 minute game at this high level of play. Our guys tired and our defense lapsed. Nothing to feel shame about. I played nets and got to have a lot of fun.

On Monday, it was time to go up against the defending World Champions, Sweden. For our other goalie, Robb Stauber, he would be having his first ever International bandy start --- against the best in the world. He had taken on the Swedes in the World Hockey Championships in 1989. Robb got introduced early to a few rockets off of the Swedish sticks - with the new composite sticks, the top players in the world can shoot the ball at 120-140 mph. The shots were wide or over the net! Robb played great throughout the first half and we entered the locker room behind 2-6. Stauber continued to see a barrage of shots into the second half....but it was a tricky flip shot over a defensive wall that did Stauber in at the 70 minute mark....as he jumped up to deflect the ball over the top of the net (which is about 7 feet tall), he came down on his shoulder....an old hockey injury returned as he popped his shoulder out and had to leave the game. The score was 3-11. I came in for the final twenty minutes and we left the ice with a 6-14 loss. Again, nothing to hang our heads over as we scored more goals than we have scored cumutively in all World Championships since the 80's against the Swedes. Saint Louis Park's Jon Kesely and BJ Bayers both scored goals in the game with Sweden.

Stauber was hustled to the post game press conference where he was asked about how he compared playing in the NHL to playing the best bandy players in the World....he stated, "The yellow jerseys (Sweden) were a lot faster and the nets were a lot bigger compared to when I played the Swedes in 89 in the World Championships. Frankly, playing bandy goalie at this level is a lot harder than playing hockey goalie."

stevejecha

We made it to Moscow! Travelling was perfect and uneventful....but long, arriving at Minneapolis Airport at 1:00pm, leaving at 3:25pm and flying for 8 hours to Amsterdam. Another two hour layover and then a three hour flight to Moscow. We arrived in Moscow at 3:00pm their time....6:00am Minneapolis time.

Once we cleared customs, we boarded our bus and sat in Saturday afternon Moscow traffic for two hours. We went straight to the rink and had an hour practice....ending at 7:00pm. We then sat for photos for our tournament credential pass.

Finally.....we made it to the hotel at 8:00pm. Checked in, had dinner. Halfway through dinner I felt myself going a little rubbery after being up for 22+ hours. Time to hit the hay. 9:30pm, lights out.

Its now 2:35am, Sunday. Wide awake! Yes, the joys of flying nine time zones away. The body can't figure out when to be awake or asleep. We have Norway tonight at 8:00pm. For those who have a deluxe cable package, all of our games will be broadcast on Eurosport 2 (may not be live, but will be delayed broadcast if not live).

The Team leaves on January 22nd. Follow the team and players with Storm connections (Steve Jecha, Southwest's President; Jon Kesely and BJ Bayers, St. Louis Park; and Coach Chris Middlebrook, Washburn).

Well, its one day until our team jumps on a plane and heads to Moscow. The flight will arrive in Amsterdam on Saturday morning and then on to Moscow, arriving at 3:00pm. A long day of travelling! St. Louis Park's Jon Kesely and BJ Bayers took off last week and went to Stockholm for a week to train with a Swedish bandy team and to take in Stockholm. They will be meeting us in Moscow.

So what is the USA team up against? This is the first time the USA has been placed in the "A" pool of the tournament in five years. The "A" pool is the crem de la crem of the bandy world.

The favorites in the "A" pool are clearly Sweden and Russia. With the exception of the Finland Miracle of 2004, Sweden or Russia have won every other  World Championships.

Just how good are these guys? Let's put it this way. In both Sweden and Russia, you are born and grow up in either a hockey town or a bandy town. You have seen Ovechkin, Federov, Lidstrom, or Backstrom dominate in the NHL.....well, they were born in hockey towns. Those Swedes and Russians we will be up against were born in bandy towns.

They are professionals. Though they do not make what hockey players make, these players all play professionally and have contracts that pay in the range of $100,000 to $500,000 per year.

The USA.....we are hobbyists. A bunch of guys that just love to skate and played Division I and III college hockey. We have our first NHLer in Robb Stauber joining our team and sharing the goaltending duties with me.

So, here are the games to watch for the USA.....our first game against Norway may be our best opportunity to win a game. We have always won the "B" pool of the World Championships, but have never won a single game in "A" pool play since we began competing in 1981. Our final game against Kazakhstan will be a long shot, but we have a chance with the right breaks.

This is the best team we have ever put on the ice. Over half of the team has played in the Swedish AllSvensken or Division I levels in the past two years. I am the oldest player in the tournament....with most of the teams average age being in the mid-twenties. As a goalie, I can get away with my age.....but this officially will be my last hurrah as the knees and hips kinda hurt after each training session and game! Note to self - bring lots of Advil to Moscow.

My next post will appear Saturday after we arrive in Moscow and get settled. You will be able to get information on the Championships directly at the following website: http://bandy2010.ru/