Monthly Archives: April 2017

NBC’s Mike Milbury calls Predators’ P.K. Subban a ‘clown’ for warm-up dance

29 Saturday Apr 2017

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New hockey rule: If you want to get into the groove before a serious game, don’t dance.

Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban.

That, apparently, is the hockey gospel according to NBC hockey analyst Mike Milbury.

Milbury took umbrage Friday night to Nashville Predators D-man P.K. Subban dancing during warm-ups before the Preds’ Stanley Cup Playoffs game against the St. Louis Blues.

He called Subban a clown.

“I know it’s a new day and age and everybody wants to be on Instagram or Twitter,” Milbury said on a pre-game show before the Predators-Blues tilt. “But you’ve got to keep focus. This is a tough game. When I see this I start to think maybe (Predators Head Coach) Peter Laviolette ought to give him a rap on the head and say, ‘Hey, P.K., focus in, we’ve got a game tonight and you don’t have to be a clown out there.'”

Milbury,  the astute hockey mind who, as general manager of the New York Islanders, traded away goalie Roberto Loungo,  defenseman Zdeno Chara, signed All-World bust Alexei Yashin to a $90 million contract and took goalie Rick DiPietro with the first overall pick in the 2000 NHL Draft, added that Subban has “been a clown in the past and we’ve seen him act like a clown but when he’s serious and focused he’s one hell of a player.”

So, Mike, a brother can’t do a little dance in warm-up? I wonder what Jeremy Roenick, your fellow NBC hockey analyst might have said if he was sitting next to you Friday night instead of Keith Jones?

And it’s not like Subban was dancing  during a game, like former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Andre Dupont did in the game that clinched the Stanley Cup for the orange and black against the Boston Bruins in 1974. Few people complained about “The Dupont Shuffle.”

Former NHL forward Alex Kovalev was known to break out into a moonwalk before, during, and after games.

Needless to say, Milbury’s rant didn’t go down too well on social media.

Yo, Mike, how’s this for busting a move on ice?

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‘How You Like Me Now?’ P.K. Subban plays on while Montreal is out of playoffs

23 Sunday Apr 2017

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Let us turn to the hockey sage Kool Moe Dee for the right words while discussing Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban,  the Montreal Canadiens, and the Habs’ first-round exit from the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban.

A song by Dee – or is it Mr. Moe Dee? –  probably best sums up how Subban must have felt after watching the Canadiens – his former employer – burp up a two-game-to-one series lead and suffer a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers Saturday that ousted the Habs from the playoffs:

“How You Like Me Now?”

Last summer, Subban was the poster boy for Montreal’s dysfunction – the Habs’ failure to make the playoffs (seeming to forget that All-World goaltender Carey Price only appeared in 12 games in 2015-16 season due to injury), rumored unrest in the locker room, and the inability of the coach to execute his master plan to lead the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup.

Subban was deemed by the Canadiens’ organ-i-zation to be too flamboyant, too selfish, too headstrong, too irresponsible defensively to be trusted.

So they shipped him to Nashville in June for defenseman Shea Weber in a move that then-Head Coach Michel Therrien proclaimed made the Canadiens “a better team now.”

So how’d it work out?  The Habs fired Therrien in February after the team faded following a 13-1-1 start to the 2016-17 season. Montreal finished atop the National Hockey League’s  Atlantic Conference with a 47-26-9 record and Cup expectations were high, particularly after the trade and Therrien’s dismissal. Then came the Rangers.

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As for the trade participants, Weber had a good year in Montreal, scoring 17 goals and 25 assists in 78 games. Subban had an injury-plagued regular season that limited him to 10 goals and 30 assists in 66 games. Subban played 12 fewer games than Weber but scored 40 points to Weber’s 42.

But the bottom line stat for most fans is that Subban and the Predators are still in the playoffs. Weber and the Canadiens aren’t after making what was sold as a “win now” trade.

While Montreal players head to the golf course, Subban and the Predators face the St. Louis Blues in Round Two of the playoffs.

Nashville’s four-game sweep of the Chicago Blackhawks was so defensively dominant that Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne tallied as many points – 2 – as All-Star snipers Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews , who were the Chicago’s top scorers in the series.

Revenge is as sweet as the ice tea served cold south of the Mason-Dixon line, and Subban fans are basking in Montreal’s playoff misfortune. Cue Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing.”

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Springtime means hockey is in full bloom

15 Saturday Apr 2017

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For a winter sport, ice hockey is pretty darn busy in the spring.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are in full swing; the International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 World Championship is underway in Slovakia; the IIHF’s World Championship kicks off in Paris and Cologne, Germany, May 5; USA Hockey begins evaluating players for the 2018 Winter Olympics women’s hockey team; and National Hockey League teams are making their lists and checking them twice ahead of the 2017 NHL Draft in Chicago in June.

Auston Matthews leads the Maple Leafs to the playoffs in his rookie year.

And players of color are in the thick of all these events. Of the 16 teams in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, all but four –  the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks – have minority players.

And two of those teams have minority coaches. Sudarshan Maharaj,  a Trinidadian raised in Toronto, is the goaltender coach for the Ducks and Paul Jerrard is an assistant coach for the Flames.

So who is playing in what series? Washington Capitals vs. Toronto Maple Leafs: forward T.J. Oshie for Washington. Forwards Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri for the Leafs.

Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers: forward Mika Zibanejad for the Rangers. Goalies Carey Price and Al Montoya and forward Andreas Martinsen for Montreal.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets: defenseman Trevor Daley for the Penguins. Defenseman Seth Jones and forward Brandon Saad for the Blue Jackets.

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Nashville Predators: Defenseman Johnny Oduya for Chicago. Defenseman P.K. Subban skates for the Preds.

St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild: Forward Chris Stewart and defenseman Matt Dumba for the Wild. Forward Ryan Reaves for St. Louis.

Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks: Defenseman Darnell Nurse and forward Juhjar Khaira for Edmonton. Forward Joel Ward for the Sharks.

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While NHLers battle for the Stanley Cup, teenagers from 10 North American and European nations are fighting for international bragging rights at the IIHF U18 World Championship.

Akil Thomas, a rookie forward with the Niagara Ice Dogs, is playing for Canada. The son of a Canadian career minor league hockey player and a mother from suburban Washington, D.C., Thomas had 21 goals and 27 assists in 61 games for the Ontario Hockey League team.

Forward Akil Thomas joined Team Canada for the IIHF U18 World Championship after his strong rookie season with the OHL’s Niagara Ice Dogs (Photo/Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

He’s joined on Team Canada’s by another major junior rookie, defenseman Jett Woo of the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Woo collected 5 goals and 17 assists in 65 games with the Warriors.

Moose Jaw Warriors defenseman Jett Woo has been making waves at the IIHF U18 World championship with his solid play (Photo/ Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

Team USA’s Tyler Inamoto (Photo/Len Redkoles).

Tyler Inamoto, a defenseman for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program is patrolling the blue line for Team USA in Slovakia.

The 6-foot-2 NHL draft-eligible defenseman skates for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program and is ranked as the 68th-best North American skater by the NHL’s Central Scouting.

Inamoto tallied 2 goals and 9 assists in 42 games for the U.S.’s Under-18 team in 2016-17. He had 2 goals and 5 assists in 17 games for Team USA in the United States Hockey League.

If Inamoto is drafted, the NHL will have to wait. He’s committed to play hockey in the fall for the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

“Inamoto is a predator,” Badgers Head Coach Tony Granato said in November. “He is a physical, hungry, intimidating player. He is a great athlete. He’s big, strong, and has a mean streak…He’ll be a physical impact player right away next year. He’s strong enough already to play a physical game at the college level.”

USA defenseman Tyler Inamoto is ranked as the 68th best draft-eligible North American skater by NHL Central Scouting (Photo/Len Redkoles).

While the Under-18 championship is going on, 16 countries are finalizing their rosters for next month’s IIHF World Championship, a tourney that will feature some NHL players whose teams didn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs or were eliminated in the early rounds.

Team Canada quickly snapped up forward Wayne Simmonds, who led the Philadelphia Flyers‘ in goals with 31 in 82 games.

Team USA named Boston University massive forward Jordan Greenway  to its squad. Greenway, a 2015 Wild second-round draft choice, was a 6-foot-5, 230-pound force in January, powering the U.S. to a Gold Medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.

Greenway scored three goals and five assists in seven games for the U.S. and was the team’s second-leading scorer. Two of his three goals were game-winners. He was BU’s fifth-leading scorer in 2016-17 with 10 goals and 21 assists in 37 games for the Terriers.

Despite his impressive season, Greenway has elected to return to BU for his junior year instead of trying to make the leap to the NHL.

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“I have a great time here with my teammates, and BU has just been great to me,” Greenway told Boston Hockey Blog’s Jonathan Sigal. “I want to win a couple more championships here, so definitely one more year is what I’m going to do.”

I haven’t seen co-host country France’s roster yet for the Worlds, but you can bet that it will include Flyers forward Pierre Edouard Bellemare, who has become one of the best French-born players to skate in the NHL.

Pierre Edouard Bellemare is pumped about World Championship being in his home country, France.

A late bloomer, the 32-year-old defensive specialist tallied 4 goals and 4 assists in 82 games. The Flyers liked Bellemare’s grit and grace enough that they re-signed him for two years at $1.45 million per year and added him to the team’s leadership, making him an assistant team captain.

He’s as pumped about the prospect of playing in his home country during the World Championship as he was getting the new contract and the ‘A’ from the Flyers. France, whose men’s team is ranked 14th in the world, opens the tournament May 6 against Norway in Paris.

“I think it’s going to be incredible,” Bellemare, a member of the French national team since 2004, told IIHF’s Lucas Akryod. “It is the first Worlds in France. I hope we will get a lot of fans for all the games, and that hockey will continue to develop in France.

And let’s not forget women’s international hockey. USA Hockey recently invited 42 players – including all 23 members of the 2017 Gold Medal-winning world championship team – for a selection camp April 30 to May 4 in suburban Tampa, Florida.

Kelsey Koelzer (Photo/Nancie Battaglia)

The camp is a prelude to developing  a final U.S. a roster for the 2018 Winter Games in PyeyongChang, South Korea.

Kelsey Koelzer, a senior defenseman for Princeton University and the 2016 first overall pick of the

National Women’s Hockey League (by the New York Riveters), is a selection camp invitee. She tallied 8 goals and 23 assists in 33 games for the Tigers.

Hockey’s busy spring rolls into summer when the brain trusts from the NHL’s 30 teams convene inside Chicago’s United Center for the draft June 23-24.

The NHL’s Central Scouting released its final player rankings earlier this month and there are several players of color to watch in addition to Inamoto.

There’s Nick Suzuki, a 5-foot-10 center for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. Central Scouting ranks the London, Ontario, Canada native as the 10th-best North American skater. He was the Attack’s second-leading scorer with 45 goals and 51 assists in 65 games.

Owen Sound’s Nick Suzuki is ranked as the 10th-best North American skater eligible for the 2017 NHL Draft (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

Then there’s Jason Robertson, a 6-foot-2 left wing for the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs. Central Scouting ranks the Michigan native as the 14th-best North American skater. He led the Frontenacs in scoring in 2016-17 with 42 goals and 39 assists in 68 games.

Kingston Frontenacs left wing Jason Robertson jumped from 34th in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings to 14th in its final listing before June’s NHL Draft (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Pierre-Olivier Joseph, a defenseman for the Charlottetown Islanders of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He’s ranked as the 27th-best North American skater by Central Scouting.

The 6-foot-2, 161-pound 18-year-old notched 6 goals and 33 assists in 62 games for the Charlottetown.

Joseph is the younger brother of forward Mathieu Joseph,  a  sniper for the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs and a 2015 fourth-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He signed an entry level contract with the ‘Bolts prior to playing for Canada in the 2017 World Juniors.

Another potential 2017 draftee is Cole Purboo, a forward for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League. He’s ranked as the 189th-best North American skater. The 6-foot-3 Oakville, Ontario, Canada native scored 11 goals and 6 assists in 68 games for the Spitfires.

“I was hoping (to be) a little higher, but it’s alright,” Purboo told The Windsor Star last week of his Central Scouting rank. “It’s just people making a list…The same thing happened with the OHL draft. I don’t pay too much attention to them.”

 

Cole Purboo of the Windsor Spitfires (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

Standing on the outside of top North American skaters on Central Scouting’s list is Elijah Roberts, a defenseman for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.

Elijah Roberts of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).

The 5-foot-8, 159-pound blue-liner, slipped from  208th in Central Scouting’s midterm list. He scored 4 goals and 14 assists in 65 games with the Rangers in 2016-17.

He’s considered undersized by today’s NHL standards, but his height hasn’t stopped him from excelling on ice. He was a major contributor for Team Canada in the World Under-17 hockey challenge.

“He’s a fast skater, very mobile, very aggressive on the ice,” one scout told Canada’s Sportsnet. “He’s been aggressive at the OHL level, too. He’s just a good kid; he skates hard and he works hard.”

Some NHL teams have drafted small D-men. The Vancouver Canucks took Jordan Subban, P.K. Subban’s 5-foot-9 younger brother, in the fourth round in 2013.

The diminutive defenseman was the sixth-leading scorer for the Utica Comets, the Canucks’ American Hockey League farm team, in 2016-17 with 16 goals and 20 assists in 64 games.

 

Black players on NHL teams? The list is long

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

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A reader recently asked me if the New York Islanders had any other black players skate for them besides forward Josh Ho-Sang, a late-season call-up from the minor leagues, and former goaltender-turned-broadcaster Kevin Weekes.

The quick answer is yes: forward Kyle Okposo, who was taken by the Isles with the seventh overall pick in the 2006 National Hockey League Draft, played for the team until he joined the Buffalo Sabres for the 2016-17 season.

Christopher Gibson, a black goaltender from Finland, who appeared in four games last season, and three other players also had stints on Long Island  over the years.

The reader’s question made me realize that a lot of hockey fans,  especially newer ones, may not know that their favorite teams have had several black players on their rosters over the decades.

Every NHL team has had at least two black or biracial players on their rosters. The Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, and New York Rangers have had 12 black players don their jerseys.

Few folks remember that  about 25 percent of 2010-11 roster of the Atlanta Thrashers – now the Winnipeg Jets – was black: Forwards Evander Kane, Anthony Stewart and Nigel Dawes and defensemen Dustin Byfuglien and Johnny Oduya.

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Many of the players hail from traditional hockey areas like Toronto  or St. Paul, Minnesota.  But they also were born in non-traditional hockey places like Zaria, Nigeria,  Kingston, Jamaica,  Port-au-Prince, Haiti,  and Los Angeles, California.

The players run the gamut from those who’ve enjoyed long and Hockey Hall of Fame-worthy careers like Los Angeles Kings forward Jarome Iginla, and retired Oilers goaltending great Grant Fuhr to pugilists like forwards Val James and Donald Brashear to relative newbies like Ho-Sang.

Here’s a list of NHL teams and black players. Abbreviations: C=center, D=defense, G=goaltender, LW=left wing, RW=right wing.

ANAHEIM DUCKS: Emerson Etem, RW; Devante Smith-Pelley, RW; Chris Stewart, RW; Ray Emery, G.

ARIZONA COYOTES/WINNIPEG JETS: Anthony Duclair, LW; Jason Doig, D; Nigel Dawes, LW; Steven Fletcher, LW; Georges Laraque,  RW; Craig Martin, RW; Kenndal McArdle, LW; Eldon “Pokey” Reddick, G; Bill Riley, RW.

BOSTON BRUINS: Jarome Iginla,  Willie O’Ree, LW;  Graeme Townshend, RW; Malcolm Subban, G; Darren Banks,  LW; Anson Carter, RW; Ray Neufeld, RW; Nathan Robinson, C; Sean Brown, D;  Sandy McCarthy, RW.

BUFFALO SABRES: Val James, LW; Tony McKegney, LW; Evander Kane, LW; Mike Grier, RW; Justin Bailey, RW; Nick Baptiste, RW; Grant Fuhr, G;  Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, D; Rumun Ndur, D; Sean McMorrow, LW; Kyle Okposo, RW; Chris Stewart, RW.

CALGARY FLAMES: Akim Aliu, RW; Jarome Iginla, RW; Fred Brathwaite, G: Grant Fuhr, G; Nigel Dawes, LW; Olivier Kylington, D; Tyrone Garner, G.

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CAROLINA HURRICANES/HARTFORD WHALERS: Sandy McCarthy, RW; Anson Carter, RW; Kevin Weekes, G, Ray Neufeld, RW; Derek Joslin, D; Anthony Stewart, RW.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS: Tony McKegney;  Dirk Graham, RW; Johnny Oduya, D; Dustin Byfuglien, D;  Ray Emery, G; Trevor Daley, D; Jamal Mayers, RW.

COLORADO AVALANCHE/QUEBEC NORDIQUES: Reggie Savage, C; Chris Stewart, RW; Jarome Iginla; Tony McKegney;  Greg Mauldin, C; Bernie Saunders, LW; Peter Worrell, LW; Shawn Belle, D; Andreas Martinsen, LW.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS: Fred Brathwaite, Anson Carter, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, Seth Jones, D; Greg Mauldin.

DALLAS STARS/MINNESOTA NORTH STARS: Johnny Oduya, Chris Stewart, Trevor Daley, D; Gemel Smith, C; Maxime Fortunus, D.

DETROIT RED WINGS: Tony McKegney, Nathan Robinson,  Brian Johnson, RW.

EDMONTON OILERS:  Anson Carter,Grant Fuhr, Fred Brathwaite, Sean Brown, Mike Grier, Georges Laraque;  Joaquin Gage, G; Theo Peckham, D; Shawn Belle ; Mark Fraser D, Mike; Darnell Nurse, D; Eldon “Pokey” Reddick, G.

FLORIDA PANTHERS: Kevin Weekes, Eldon “Pokey” Reddick,  Peter Worrell, Anthony Stewart, Craig Martin, Kenndal McArdle, Eldon “Pokey” Reddick.

LOS ANGELES KINGS: Grant Fuhr, Jarome Iginla, Anson Carter  Mike Marson, LW; Wayne Simmonds, RW; Nathan LaFayette, C.

MINNESOTA WILD: Chris Stewart, Joel Ward, Shawn Belle; Robbie Earl, LW.

MONTREAL CANADIENS: Georges Laraque, Shawn Belle, Andreas Martinsen P.K Subban, D; Donald Brashear, D; Devante Smith-Pelly, RW;  Steven Fletcher, LW/D; Francis Bouillon, D; Nigel Dawes, LW.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS: Seth Jones, Francis Bouillon, P.K. Subban; Joel Ward, RW.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS: Devante Smith-Pelly, Kevin Weekes, Sean Brown, Mark Fraser, Johnny Oduya; Bryce Salvador, D; Claude Vilgrain, RW.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS: Josh Ho-Sang, Kyle Okposo, Kevin Weekes, Graeme Townshend, Christopher Gibson, Justin Johnson, Greg Mauldin.

NEW YORK RANGERS: Anthony Duclair, Sandy McCarthy, Nathan LaFayette,  Donald Brashear, Nigel Dawes, Anson Carter, Kevin Weekes, Andre Deveaux, Jason Doig, Emerson Etem, Tony McKegney,  Rumun Ndur.

Ottawa Senators: Ray Emery, Graeme Townshend.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS: Wayne Simmonds, Ray Emery, Claude Vilgrain, Donald Brashear, Sandy McCarthy; Pierre Edouard-Bellemare, LW.

Left to right: Philadelphia Flyers forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Wayne Simmonds with Willie O’Ree and former Flyer goalie Ray Emery (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers).

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS: Trevor Daley, Georges Laraque, Jarome Iginla, Darren Lowe, RW.

ST. LOUIS BLUES: Ryan Reaves, Grant Fuhr, Chris Stewart, Jamal Mayers, Fred Brathwaite, Nathan LaFayette, Tony McKegney, Bryce Salvador; Ryan Reaves, RW; Chris Beckford-Tseu, G.

SAN JOSE SHARKS: Joel Ward, Mike Grier, Derek Joslin, Jamal Mayers, Mike McHugh, LW;  Dale Craigwell, C.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING: J.T. Brown, Kevin Weekes, Mike Grier; RW; Gerald Coleman, G.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS: Mark Fraser, Grant Fuhr, Val James, Robbie Earl, John Craighead, RW;  Andre Deveaux, C.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Anson Carter, Donald Brashear, Nathan LaFayette, Emerson Etem, Derek Joslin, Claude Vilgrain, Kevin Weekes,  Jordan Subban, D; Darren Archibald,  RW.

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ryan Reaves, Malcolm Subban, Keegan Kolesar.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS: Mike Marson, Bill Riley, Reggie Savage, Anson Carter, Donald Brashear, Jason Doig, Joel Ward.

WINNIPEG JETS/ATLANTA THRASHERS: Dustin Byfuglien, Evander Kane, Johnny Oduya, Rumun Ndur, Nigel Dawes, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, Anthony Stewart.

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She’s got Seoul: Toronto’s Danelle Im scores for South Korea’s women’s hockey team

04 Tuesday Apr 2017

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Danelle Im first thought it was one of those Internet scams, you know, like when the prince from some faraway land sends you a too-good-to-be-true email promising to share his vast stolen fortune if you help him recover it by supplying your bank card or social security numbers.

Danelle Im (Photo/Alex D’Addese).

When Im, a Toronto native, got a message in 2012 inquiring whether she’d be interested in playing hockey for South Korea in the 2018 Winter Olympics, she was a tad skeptical.

Lucky for the 2018 Winter Games host country,  Im did her homework and the former Ryerson University forward joined South Korea’s women’s national team.

She scored a goal Sunday, helping to power South Korea to a 5-1 win over Slovenia in the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship Division II Group A tournament in South Korea.

“Being handed this opportunity – it’s literally been given to me – is extremely humbling,” Im told Ryerson’s Eyeopener in February. “That’s why I want to put up my best effort. This is a gift.”

Her tally was an even-strength goal that came in the third period and extended South Korea’s lead to 4-1.

Im, who recently  finished her first and only season at Toronto’s Ryerson, was one of several hockey players with Korean-sounding last names and living in North America who received invites to help the Asian nation quickly build Olympic-level women’s and men’s ice hockey from teams almost from scratch.

South Korea’s method for filling its Olympic hockey roster isn’t unusual. For example, Jamaica is scouring the United States and Canada for hockey talent of island heritage in hopes of fielding an Olympic ice hockey team in the near future.

Togo, a West African nation, used Facebook to recruit a Togolese-born skier who was raised in the French Alps to be a member of its two-person team for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

And Dominica’s cross country ski team at the 2014 Winter Games was a couple who hailed from Staten Island, New York, not the Caribbean island nation.

Former Ryerson University forward Danelle Im played 20 games for the Rams in 2016-17 (Photo/Alex D’Addese/Ryerson Rams Athletics).

South Korea isn’t known for hockey – its women’s and men’s teams are both ranked 23rd in the world by the IIHF. The country has only 2,591 players, 259 of them women, according to the IIHF

But because PyeongChang, South Korea, is the site of the 2018 Winter Games, the country gets to field men’s and women’s teams to go up against more established hockey powers from North America and Europe.

From Toronto to PyeongChang. Former Ryerson University hockey player Danelle Im is looking forward to facing the world’s best at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea (Photo/Alex D’Addese/ Ryerson Rams Athletics)

So when South Korea put out an all-call to help boost its program pronto, Im was only too happy to sign on  – once she learned that the offer was legit.

“I never dreamed this would happen,” Im, who was born in Toronto to Korean parents, told The New York Times in February.

Im’s goal Sunday matched her output for Ryerson in 2016-17. She had a goal and 3 assists in 20 games for the Rams.

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