Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Asians and Hockey

First, a bit about the Finals: yay, I'm glad we're going to see that Red Wings-Penguins final. (Sorry to anybody who isn't so happy, you know who you are.) My doubts about Detroit persist, though. I can see Pittsburgh winning it all.

In other hockey news, a friend of mine was happy today because her husband's team won a hockey tournament. This was a tournament for Asian teams only, meaning Canadians of Asian descent. And it was the 19th year they held this tournament.

I told her I didn't know what was more surprising: that Asians play hockey at all, or that they are on the 19th anniversary of their league.

Ever seen a Chinese hockey player? I haven't. Other than my friend's husband, and technically speaking I haven't seen him actually playing hockey. The only NHLer I could of that was Asian was Paul Kariya and I think he was only half-Japanese.

I wonder if their goaltenders are half-Chinese, half-French Canadian. Because frankly if you expect to have any success at all, you have to have a French-Canadian goalie.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

enough hockey news - Boston Celtics won last night - woohoo!

N.

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

You're such an American.

Anonymous said...

Larry Kwong was the first Asian, i.e. Chinese-Canadian, to play in the NHL. In 1946, the NY Rangers signed Kwong and he played one shift on March 13, 1948, against the Montreal Canadiens.