Tokyo Canadians Hockey Club News

On Monday, September 14th at Meiji Jingu Ice Rink the Tokyo Canadians kicked off their 2020/2021 season with a spirited Red & White scrimmage. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the TCHC.

For a quarter century the Tokyo Canadians have been hockey pioneers, growing the great game of hockey in a non-traditional market. Tonight’s skate began the next quarter century.

Team White

D; Rico

D; Leon

F; Yamashita

F; Colucci

F; Tsukasa

D; Hartwick

D; Trost

F; Medcalf

F; Hamashima

F; WolfeTeam

Red

D; Holt

D; VanLangen

F; BJ

F; Yuya

F; LaRose

D; Takenami

D; Kunishita

F; Chawanya

F; Hayakawa

F; Meehan

A visitor for the Red team,

Take, who we’ll name ‘Europe’, donned a jersey with a dozen logos and advertisements. This type of jersey either: a) was a gift from a friend in Austria, or b) means the fella may have been played to play hockey.

Team White looked on with caution.Kevin Meehan began the night wearing a White sweater, but due to a mishandling of the puck bag and his kindhearted-nature, he had to swap jerseys and play for Red. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first player traded in the 2020-2021 season.Shu Hayakawa was a game-time decision and jumped over the boards midway through the game’s fourth shift, injecting a rested-body into Red’s line up.

Stephen Faulkner, per the NHL’s reporting rules, was unfit to play.White jumped out to an early lead with a pair of Colucci-assisted goals from Tsukasa and Jake Trost. Tsukasa finished a silky 2-on-1 while Trost hammered a shot past Eisuke Shimizu’s glove.BJ answered right back for Red with an innocent-looking but deceptively-quick snap shot from the top of the circle just over Takeshi Tasumoto’s right pad.

Fashion statement of the night went to number six in Red, Yuya. His orange mouth guard was stuck to the outside of his helmet and remained there as he played. It looked like an orange tracking device you would place on a dolphin. Rumor has it this was on purpose. Number six no doubtedly has a name, but the nameplate on his jersey was written in an awfully illegible Gothic-style font.

Think Meat Loaf from the ‘70s. Satoshi Chawanya scored one of the most memorable goals of the evening, firing a hard wrister from the corner behind the goal line and banking it in off of Tatsu’s pad. In his post-game press conference, Chaw credited his years of experience using a protractor.

Eric Wolfe, better known as “the guy who screams when he changes,” notched a hat trick, kicked off by a beautiful rebound goal and a Bobby Orr-like in-the-air celebration.The night ended with Derek Hartwick rifling a slapper past Tatsu from the point, sealing a 14-8 victory for White.Tonight’s Celliant Extra Effort award goes to Yamashita-san. His relentless and aggressive forecheck caused a number of turnovers. Quick sticks in passing lanes created a headache for Red’s defense.

On Sunday, August 21st, the Tokyo Canadians held their monthly R&W scrimmage at Jingu rink. Now with Rio over we can focus our efforts on competing in 2018 in Pyeongchang.

With two plus lines per side there were plenty of legs for fatigue not to be an excuse, and as expected, there was an upbeat pace held throughout the night.

The scoring opened on a nice connection between Taro Kurokawa and Paul Dupuis. Taro dipsy doodled in the offensive zone for what seemed to be 45 seconds before firing a hard and accurate pass that was deftly deflected into the top corner by a streaking Dupes. 1-0 Red.

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On Sunday, May 15th, the Tokyo Canadians had a friendly match against Ome Club, a team that competes in Tokyo’s Super League. This is a rematch from our previous game back on January 30th, in which we either won or tied depending on whose set of facts you find most appealing.

Tokyo Canadians Lineup
Goalie: Tatsu
Defence: Rico, Faulkner, Naoto, Yahagi
Line 1: Koby, Kai, Oliver
Line 2: Madden, Daisuke, Reno
Line 3: Chaw, Sasaki, Colucci

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On Sunday, April 24th the Tokyo Canadians played in a practice game against an assortment of players from three teams (Vanguards, Mavericks, and Hasegawa) whose average age hovered around twenty five. The Tokyo Canadians’ average age was a decade plus over that, but that is neither here nor there.

The newest members of the Tokyo Canadians, Kent van Langen, Daisuke Sasaki, and Bryan Norton, suited up for the first time as members. Sasaki kindly played for the opposing team to fill out their lines, a decision we later oh so dreadfully regretted.

The trifecta of TCHC keepers were in attendance. In alphabetical order, Aaron, Ace-k, and Tatsu were all tending net. Not simultaneously of course. You think that is a ridiculous thing to point out, but it was a legitimate question I had to field from my Japanese wife.

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On Sunday, April. 17th, the Tokyo Canadians held their monthly R&W scrimmage at Jingu rink. Note that the following recap has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence. Good enough for shinny though.

A high level of commitment to the evening was evident from the very start. Guys were already in the dressing room a full half hour before the drop of the puck. Maybe it’s because tax season is over, or maybe it’s the start of the NHL playoffs. Either way there was energy in the air!

Play began evenly enough, with red striking first. A quick tally from Ishii-san, still reeling off the energy from the Bangkok tournament. White then took over, tallying more than a few marks in succession, with guest Issei from the Vanguards leading the charge with a hat trick. Just before his third goal, Issei fired a laser just wide of the night, catching the glass and creating such a deafening noise that even Naoto from the bench said, “Whoa!”

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On Sunday, Feb. 21st, the Tokyo Canadians held their monthly R&W scrimmage at Jingu rink. We would like to thank all the extra people spending money by going to the public skating sessions; Jingu can now afford to turn on the lights.

The night began unceremoniously for team white as Tommy led a “Go Team White” stick tap in the crease. Unfortunately only the goalie was there with him, and more out of obligation than by choice. Tommy, your efforts did not go unnoticed.

After 10 minutes of back and forth scoreless play, Mikael of Red broke the deadlock with a short side goal on Tatsu. White answered back shortly thereafter with a lucky goal, bouncing in off an errant pass from Red. Kevin Holt, who was on the bench at the time, amazingly earned two assists on the play.

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On Saturday, Jan. 30th, the Tokyo Canadians had a friendly match against Ome Club, a team that competes in Tokyo’s Super League.

Ome Club arrived en masse, with more than 3 lines of players. The Canadians modestly took to the ice with 9. Before the match, the Ome Club captain asked if we were ‘ok’ on player numbers. The question itself was a nice gesture, but there was an underlying tone of skepticism about our 9 versus their 17. While it was true their leg count nearly doubled ours, they did not factor in spirit. The puck dropped just before 11pm.

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On 17 January 2016, Tokyo Canadians had a first R&W scrimmage of 2016.

We had over 30 skaters including some alumnis and guests,

White wins 6-2.

On Sunday, December 20th, the Tokyo Canadians skated in their final Red & White scrimmage of 2015.

With several members out of town over the holidays, a number of friends of the Canadians joined as guests.

On Sunday, November 15th, the Tokyo Canadians played a friendly match against team Mavericks of the Kanagawa Ice Hockey League.

The Canadians watched the Mavericks take the ice with their captain holding a hockey whiteboard. Either this team took themselves way too seriously, or they were ready for a battle that involved written on-the-fly tactics. At the drop of the puck we learned the latter was closer to the truth. They brought a fast and young team who ate their Wheaties that morning. They were on the board early and often and built up a 3 goal lead, which we all know is the most dangerous lead in hockey.

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