My Hockey Odyssey – part II.

(slovenský preklad pod anglickým textom)

In the first part, I talked about how I became acquainted with Central European Hockey, so for this part, I will describe how I actually started following hockey in the first place. The furthest back I can remember is to 2003, and the British National League (BNL) playoff final between - what became my team - the Coventry Blaze and the Dundee Stars. The game finished 7:6 to Coventry, and they became the playoff champions of the BNL. I had always liked football, and I played rugby at school but there was something about hockey which caught my eye. The speed, the hits, the physicality. It was incredible! I couldn’t tell you who scored the goals, but thinking back to those times, my first group of hockey heroes were a mix of relatively low skilled North Americans and Brits. Names such as Steve Chartrand, Hilton Ruggles and Claude Dumas filled my head as well as that of Ashley Tait, who is still playing to this day for the Sheffield Steelers. Tait was the first player who I called “my favourite”, and I still have a jersey from 2003-2004 with his name emblazoned on the back.

Growing up through my teens, very rarely did I go a weekend without seeing my team play. In the British league, teams usually play on Saturday and Sunday every week, due to midweek games getting very low attendances. We struggle compared to teams like the Nottingham Panthers, Sheffield Steelers and Belfast Giants, who manage to get 6000 or 7000 to most games.
The Coventry Blaze won the “Grand Slam” in 2004-2005, which meant they won the League Championship, the Playoffs and the Challenge Cup. Since the BNL collapsed and the Elite Ice Hockey League took its place in 2004, the Blaze are the only team to achieve that feat. In my time watching the Blaze, they have won the biggest honour, the league championship, four times. Britain is probably the only country in the world where the regular season title is considered more prestigious than winning the playoffs.

There was always something in me which made me more interested in the European style of hockey. I remember in the 2005-2006 season, the Blaze had two Slovakian players on the roster. There was defenceman Pavol Mihálik, who had played in the Extraliga for among others, HC SLOVAN (won the title in 2001-02). In goal, we had also signed Martin Klempa, who has played numerous seasons in the Extraliga. As a young teenager, I always wanted to show my appreciation for my favourite players, and because we sat at the back row of our block in the small Skydome Arena, I decided that I would get a large Slovakia flag and print the names of my two favourite players on it. The joy when I saw the two players notice it was a great feeling, and really made me connect with hockey at the age of thirteen.

The greatest moment I had following the Blaze was in 2010, where they won the league on the road, six hours north, in Edinburgh. I had travelled up that day, and to see outgoing club legend Adam Calder score the overtime winning goal which sealed the championship in the dull, murky, Murrayfield Ice Rink is a memory I’ll never forget.

However, there is a peculiarity to my story. On that very day, when I was watching the Blaze win the championship in Edinburgh, I was wearing a HC SLOVAN Bratislava jersey, with #91 Lipiansky on the back, which makes it all the better that Lipiansky will now be playing in the KHL for HC Slovan!

So that’s my journey through hockey over the last decade. Now I look forward to the next decade, where hopefully we will see success for HC Slovan!

by Jon Rowson, www.velvethockey.blogspot.co.uk

Ako som sa vôbec dostal k hokeju? Najrannejšiu spomienku akú si viem vybaviť mám z roku 2003 z finále BNL (Britská národná liga) medzi Dundee Stars a Coventry Blaze, ktorým som vtedy začal fandiť. Coventry vyhrali 7:6 a stali sa majstrami BNL. Odjakživa som mal rád futbal a na škole som hral aj rugby, ale na tom hokejovom zápase ma niečo fascinovalo. Tá rýchlosť, zrážky, tá bojovnosť v pravom slova zmysle – prišlo mi to úžasné. Neviem už kto vtedy skórval, ale keď sa zaspomínam, tak moji prvý obľúbenci boli zväčša nie príliš technicky vyspelí američania, alebo briti. Moju myseľ opantali mená ako Steve Chartrand, Hilton Ruggles, Claude Dumas a tiež Ashley Tait, kotrý hráva až doteraz – momentálne pre Sheffield Steelers. Tait bol môj prvý “najobľúbenejší” hráč a stále mám jeho dres zo sezóny 2003-04.

Počas strednej som veľmi zriedka vynechal víkendový zápas môjho tímu. V BNL sa zvyčajne hráva v sobotu a v nedeľu, lebo počas týždňa sú slabé návštevy. U nás sú navštevy skomné v porovnaní s Nottingham Panthers, Sheffield Steelers a Belfast Giants, ktorí majú bežne návštevnosť 6 až 7 tisíc ľudí na väčšinu zápasov.

Coventry Blaze vyhrali v sezóne 2004-05 tzv. “Grand Slam” čo znamená základnú časť, play off aj pohár. Keďže BNL následne skončila a nahradila ju EIHL (Elite Ice Hockey League), znamená to že sú jediní komu sa to podarilo. V tých časoch vyhrali Blaze základnú časť 4 krát a zaujímavosťou je že Briánia je asi jediná krajina, kde je výťazstvo v základnej časti cenené viac ako víťazstvo v play off!

Vždy ma čosi lákalo na európskom štýle hokeja. Spomínam si na sezónu 2005-06 keď Blaze získali dvoch hráčov zo Slovenska. Boli to obranca Pavol Mihálik, ktorý v roku 2002 vyhral so Slovanom titul a brankár Martin Klempa, ktorý má tiež odohratých mnoho sezón v slovenskej Extralige. Ako mladý chalan som vždy chcel ukázať môj zanietenie a fandenie, a keďže sme sedávali v poslednom rade rozhodol som sa zaobstarať si veľkú vlajku Slovenska a namaľovať mená mojich najobľúbenejších hráčov na ňu. Moja radosť z ich reakcie na to bola neopísateľná a ešte viac prehĺbila moje zanietenie pre hokej vo veku trinásť rokov.

Najkrajší moment z mojej éry fandenia Coventry Blaze prišiel v roku 2010, keď Blaze vyhrali ligu (základnú časť) “vonku” v zápase s Edinburghom. V ten deň sme sa terigali 6 hodín na sever, aby sme zažili ako odchádzajúca legenda klubu Adam Calder dal víťazný gól v predĺžení šedej a pochmúrnej hale Murrayfield. Na ten moment nikdy nezabudnem a dnes mi ho pripomína ešte jedna zaujímavosť a to, že v ten deň som mal na sebe dres Slovana Bratislava s číslom 91 a menom Lipiansky na chrbte. Čo chvíľa budem mať možnosť sledovať jeho účinkovanie v KHL v drese Slovana čo ma vesmierne teší.

Takže taká bola moja “cesta” hokejom za poslednú dekádu a už sa teším na tú ďalšiu, kde dúfam v úspech pre HC Slovan v KHL!

Preklad: Miko Kosorín