Jean Perron and Israeli men's hockey team
Jun 17, 2005 19:16:54 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2005 19:16:54 GMT -5
www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/shownews.jsp?content=h061723A
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) - Jean Perron can still hardly believe what the Israeli men's hockey team has accomplished under his watch as head coach.
Two months ago his club earned an unlikely promotion to the IIHF's Division One, a notch behind Canada and the rest of the elite hockey-playing countries, by winning gold in the Division Two world championship.
"We had help from the stars," Perron said Friday. "It's incredible what those guys did."
Now he's looking for ways to keep the Middle Eastern country with just one ice rink and little pedigree in the sport competitive among second-tier hockey nations like Lithuania, France and Japan at next year's competition.
Those national teams are filled with players in professional hockey; Israel can ice less than a handful of pros and college players.
That's why Perron and other Israeli hockey officials were in Mississauga on Friday, running a one-day tryout camp for both the senior and junior teams.
Nearly 40 North American players with ties to Israel, mostly Canadian, tore up the ice trying to impress Perron and Peter Ihnacak, a former Toronto Maple Leafs winger who helped with the evaluations.
Finding more talent is just one of the many daunting challenges facing the Ice Hockey Federation of Israel in the year ahead.
"If you don't have a passion for coaching you don't get involved with a time like this because you can see so many roadblocks, you say 'Yikes,"' said Perron, who coached the Montreal Canadiens to a Stanley Cup in 1986.
"These guys play for the passion of the game, like me, I coach for the passion of the game. My experience helps us know where we have to focus to be successful."
The program's needs are obvious, with more ice the top priority.
Israel has just one ice rink - the Canada Centre in Metullah, some 200 kilometres away from the majority of the population and within walking distance of a hostile border with Lebanon - which makes practice time and game action scarce. Team officials are hoping to announce plans for a new rink in the Tel Aviv area during a second tryout camp, July 31-Aug. 6 in Israel, when the senior squad will be presented with championship rings.
Not only would a second rink help grow the game, it would allow Israel-based players to spend more time practising Perron's defensive system while developing cohesiveness and chemistry on the ice.
"The system we used was successful so we're not going to change it," Perron said. "Offence you can't teach - you either have it or you don't. Defence is the main element we have to stress."
Making cohesiveness even more challenging is that the program is split in two, with Canadian and Israeli branches running concurrently. Alan Maislin, a Montreal trucking executive, is the federation's chairman and takes care of things on this side of the Atlantic while Sergei Matin, the president, takes care of things on the other.
"It's a challenge," said Perron. "No other country works this way."
Of course no other country has to.
Without people like Maislin, who asked Perron to run a coaching clinic in Israel and then to take over the junior and senior teams when the players loved him, and Peter Friedmann, owner of the Ontario Junior A Georgetown Raiders who runs the junior team and funded Friday's camp, the success wouldn't be possible.
"They care so much about this," Perron said of Maislin and Friedmann. "They're so proud of their country."
A big lift would be the return of Max Birbraer to the national team.
Born in Kazakhstan and a childhood linemate of Leafs forward Nik Antropov, Birbraer moved to Israel at 15 and in 2000 became the first Israeli drafted by an NHL club when the New Jersey Devils chose him in the third round.
He spent four years with the Israeli national team, joining the senior club at 16, but wasn't available last year because his San Diego Gulls went deep into the ECHL playoffs.
Birbraer is a free agent right now and after attending four NHL camps, isn't sure whether he's going to get another shot at becoming the first Israeli NHLer once the lockout ends.
"I'm looking at Europe now," Birbraer said. "That would make me more eligible to play because their seasons start and end earlier. I'm going to try as hard as I can, even the team I sign with, I'm going to tell them that's my goal."
With Birbraer skating with Canadian brothers Oren and Alon Eizenmann, Perron would feel better about his team's chances. Oren stars for RPI in the NCAA while Alon plays professionally in France.
"With him we'd have as good a first line as anyone in Division One," said Perron.
"I'm not afraid. This year, a bunch of guys from Canada and a bunch of guys from Israel got together and worked hard and believed in themselves.
"We took advantage of all the breaks we had, played disciplined and we won the gold.
"Now the guys are going to get a ring. Can you imagine?"
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. (CP) - Jean Perron can still hardly believe what the Israeli men's hockey team has accomplished under his watch as head coach.
Two months ago his club earned an unlikely promotion to the IIHF's Division One, a notch behind Canada and the rest of the elite hockey-playing countries, by winning gold in the Division Two world championship.
"We had help from the stars," Perron said Friday. "It's incredible what those guys did."
Now he's looking for ways to keep the Middle Eastern country with just one ice rink and little pedigree in the sport competitive among second-tier hockey nations like Lithuania, France and Japan at next year's competition.
Those national teams are filled with players in professional hockey; Israel can ice less than a handful of pros and college players.
That's why Perron and other Israeli hockey officials were in Mississauga on Friday, running a one-day tryout camp for both the senior and junior teams.
Nearly 40 North American players with ties to Israel, mostly Canadian, tore up the ice trying to impress Perron and Peter Ihnacak, a former Toronto Maple Leafs winger who helped with the evaluations.
Finding more talent is just one of the many daunting challenges facing the Ice Hockey Federation of Israel in the year ahead.
"If you don't have a passion for coaching you don't get involved with a time like this because you can see so many roadblocks, you say 'Yikes,"' said Perron, who coached the Montreal Canadiens to a Stanley Cup in 1986.
"These guys play for the passion of the game, like me, I coach for the passion of the game. My experience helps us know where we have to focus to be successful."
The program's needs are obvious, with more ice the top priority.
Israel has just one ice rink - the Canada Centre in Metullah, some 200 kilometres away from the majority of the population and within walking distance of a hostile border with Lebanon - which makes practice time and game action scarce. Team officials are hoping to announce plans for a new rink in the Tel Aviv area during a second tryout camp, July 31-Aug. 6 in Israel, when the senior squad will be presented with championship rings.
Not only would a second rink help grow the game, it would allow Israel-based players to spend more time practising Perron's defensive system while developing cohesiveness and chemistry on the ice.
"The system we used was successful so we're not going to change it," Perron said. "Offence you can't teach - you either have it or you don't. Defence is the main element we have to stress."
Making cohesiveness even more challenging is that the program is split in two, with Canadian and Israeli branches running concurrently. Alan Maislin, a Montreal trucking executive, is the federation's chairman and takes care of things on this side of the Atlantic while Sergei Matin, the president, takes care of things on the other.
"It's a challenge," said Perron. "No other country works this way."
Of course no other country has to.
Without people like Maislin, who asked Perron to run a coaching clinic in Israel and then to take over the junior and senior teams when the players loved him, and Peter Friedmann, owner of the Ontario Junior A Georgetown Raiders who runs the junior team and funded Friday's camp, the success wouldn't be possible.
"They care so much about this," Perron said of Maislin and Friedmann. "They're so proud of their country."
A big lift would be the return of Max Birbraer to the national team.
Born in Kazakhstan and a childhood linemate of Leafs forward Nik Antropov, Birbraer moved to Israel at 15 and in 2000 became the first Israeli drafted by an NHL club when the New Jersey Devils chose him in the third round.
He spent four years with the Israeli national team, joining the senior club at 16, but wasn't available last year because his San Diego Gulls went deep into the ECHL playoffs.
Birbraer is a free agent right now and after attending four NHL camps, isn't sure whether he's going to get another shot at becoming the first Israeli NHLer once the lockout ends.
"I'm looking at Europe now," Birbraer said. "That would make me more eligible to play because their seasons start and end earlier. I'm going to try as hard as I can, even the team I sign with, I'm going to tell them that's my goal."
With Birbraer skating with Canadian brothers Oren and Alon Eizenmann, Perron would feel better about his team's chances. Oren stars for RPI in the NCAA while Alon plays professionally in France.
"With him we'd have as good a first line as anyone in Division One," said Perron.
"I'm not afraid. This year, a bunch of guys from Canada and a bunch of guys from Israel got together and worked hard and believed in themselves.
"We took advantage of all the breaks we had, played disciplined and we won the gold.
"Now the guys are going to get a ring. Can you imagine?"