In a joint cooperation between Hockey Canada and the Korea Ice Hockey Association that started earlier this year when a select group of Korean players toured Canada to celebrate the country's 150th anniversary, the collaboration will continue with Canada sending three teams to Korea later this month to help prepare the East Asian country for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. While the three teams that will be heading to Korea have yet to be finalized, it is likely that the Ottawa Ice Dogs will be part of the contingent, since they have been playing exhibition games in China and Japan for the last couple of weeks and arrived in Korea earlier this week to continue their preseason schedule.
Coached by two-time Stanley Cup winner Jim Paek, the Korean men's national ice hockey team has taken great strides over the last few years. Currently ranked 21st in the IIHF World Rankings, Korea's guggadaepyo, or national representative, are ably assisted by Richard Park, a veteran of 738 NHL games. They will compete in their first ever Winter Olympics in the upcoming months as the host nation, but their second place finish in the 2017 Division IA tournament was enough to allow them to participate in the top-tier IIHF World Championship next year. They have steadily shown progress since the initiatives were started and the goals were set for the Korean team to be a competitive team at top level play, and this latest cooperation with Hockey Canada can only strengthen that.
Ottawa Ice Dogs' latest signing, Icelandic defender Birkir Holm Gudnason II, spent a substantial part of his high school time abroad in Korea, which was supposedly the connection Ottawa needed to get themselves a coveted spot in the three-team Canadian delegation. The Ice Dogs' management is said to have been ecstatic at given the opportunity, as it will not only give the team a unique preseason experience for team bonding, but also expose the team to various different styles of play that will only serve to benefit them in their quest for the Founders' Cup this season. The Ottawa Ice Dogs will also be financially compensated very well, with airfare and accommodation paid for by Hockey Canada, and the team receiving $400,000 as a stipend.
Prior to their arrival in Seoul, the Ice Dogs spent two weeks in China and Japan playing five exhibition matches, winning four of five. In China, they opened the tour with a 6-3 loss to Shenzhen Ruby Red after having to deal with jet lag and acclimatization to the local weather and food. They headed north into central China for their second game and defeated the Wuhan Furnaces 7-2, before ending their Chinese set of games in Beijing with a 6-4 victory over HC Kunlun Red Star. In Japan, they defeated the Osaka Universe and Sapporo Ice Castles by identical 5-0 scores.
The Ice Dogs have held private training sessions for the duration of the last week since their arrival in Seoul. They are expected to take the next few days off to explore the country before returning to training later next week. Check back next week to see where the Ice Dogs have been around Korea.
.png.ed69a7260a477fcf4feead7a0e4b7506.png)
