2013-05-09
Just wanted to give a quick shout out to the boys playing in the Hong Kong tourney from tonight! We have sent a strong roster so hoping for some hardware in return!
Good luck to:
Take Tatsumoto
Tommy Anderson
Chris Antonelli
Rob Voisine
Tom Devaney
Naoki Kaneko
Togo Kaneko
Jungo Aratani
Joji Hiratsuka
Tony Hiratsuka
Mike Doris
Kevin Yu
Soichiro Omi
Marty P.
First game is against the Hawkers tonight... go get them!
2013-04-24
The Tokyo Canadians Hockey Club hosted a wine tasting and dinner event on April 20 at Legato in Shibuya, Tokyo. A sampling of 14 wines from various countries and delicious food was enjoyed by nearly 160 guests who attended the event. The proceeds went to support the teams main charity organization, The Mercy Centre, in Bangkok, Thailand.
2012-05-26
Sadly, we have to bid adieu to four of our teammates in the next couple months as this Tokyo chapter of their lives comes to an end. Many of you already know, President Brent McCain who is off to a better suburban life in New Jersey said, "I am going to miss TCHC. It was the best part of my Tokyo experience."
Long-time member Rob Smaal has recognized the lack of quality defensemen in Calgary these days and opted to try his hand at free-agency for the upcoming season. Two other departures are forward Dave McKinnon and goalie Nobu Araki, who both recognized their measly playing incomes will last longer in tax-friendly Singapore.
To see these boys off in usual TCHC style, we had a FAREWELL PARTY on Saturday, May 26th with family and friends.
2012-05-21
The end of a hockey season is often toughest on the veteran players of a team, for they are the ones who continuously get badgered with questions like “do you have it in you to return for one more?”, “not the way you would’ve liked to end it, eh?” or “such high hopes early on, but to end the season like this must be particular hard on you.’” In fact, Sunday night’s Red & White game was no exception to this rule, as it would be last time (for now) that three TCHC veterans – Rob Smaal, Nobu Araki, and Brent McCain - laced-up the skates this late on a Sunday night for quite some time.
And with a few more healthy scratches than normal, the team was also forced to make some last minute call-ups for Sunday’s game, including Naoki Kaneko who recently returned from another pro-season in France, Tony Hiratsuka (nephew of veteran Joji), who flew in from Ottawa, Aaron McCain to man the pipes for Red, and up-and-coming hopefuls Brad Morimoto and James Barringer, who’ve now played with the team for a few months.
With 11 players aside and not much of a warm-up, the puck was dropped and a fast-paced affair was on. Only a couple minutes into the game, on the first line shift for White, the powered by gritty checking unit of Satoshi Chawanya and Mikhail Komatsu went to work in the Red defensive zone, stripping the puck off a stunned Naoki Kaneko, before shovelling it over to a wide open Shawn Montague who drew first blood on goalie Aaron McCain, now in his 3rd appearance for TCHC. Red continued to lay on the pressure, with Naoto Hamashima feeding a nice pass over to outbound President, Brent McCain, who was eager to get on the score sheet one last time. Shortly after that, on another defensive lapse by White, Red forward Chris Antonelli spotted a wide open Barringer in front of the net, who banged home his first of the season to make it a quick 3-0 lead for White.
Soon thereafter, with the help of his nephew, Joji Hiratsuka replied to make 3-1 but the score was widened again when Tommy Anderson carried it in all alone and beat Aaron with a solid wrist shot. Following an Antonelli goal from Hamashima, Red realized there was still plenty of time left in the game and started to cycle the puck down low in the White zone. Then, blueliner Rob Smaal, never the selfish player (even in his final game as a Canadian), slipped a pass across the slot to a waiting Guy Roberge who slotted one past Nobu. Following the next line change, Red again took the puck deep behind the White net where Dan Stevens spotted an open Tony Hiratsuka for his first of the game. 5-3, White.
White added a few more by Mikhail, Holt and Antonelli (on a sweet little dipsy-doodle around an unnamed Red defender), before Koby answered for Red, showing no signs of slowing down only 3 days ahead of his 40th birthday. After 3 more Red goals by Roberge, Kaneko and Laurie, Red made it as close a game as it would get, 11-9 with 10 minutes to play. Sensing the pressure, Tommy Anderson took it upon himself to put the game away by scoring 2 goals, the first one knocking Aaron’s water-bottle off the net with a nice top corner wrist shot.
Final score was 14-10 for White, in a well-played match by both sides.
Your Allied Pickford 3 stars of the game:
1) Chris Antonelli – A 4-point night and hat-trick for Antonelli had Bruin scouts wondering if this could be the next Brad “the rat” Marchand as Anto was mixing it up all night, and heavily involved in the play for White.
2) Tommy Anderson – Single-handedly put the game away, not to mention shutting down a few good chances for Red. Also a 4-pt night for Tommy.
3) Rob Smaal – Playing in his final night, and still looking strong (playing with long-time defensive partner Lotocki), Smaaly held-up the back-end and even got involved on the score sheet. Not a bad farewell, at all.
Game Notes:
- Official attendance was 2 (mostly comprising of Hiratsuka family members).
- The next Red & White game will be 22:00 Sunday, June 17th at Jingu.
- Farewell party for Smaal, McKinnon, Araki and McCain 5pm this Saturday @ Legends
2012-03-26
March 26, 2012 was a day TCHC President, Brent McCain, will not soon forget. Brent wrote the following email to the TCHC membership at large.
The TCHC took a step into the limelight and did itself very proud. The call came through around 11 am from Chad and Paul Thoppil that Prime Minister Harper would indeed like to meet with us. I sent an e-mail and after a string of about 250 e-mails and phone calls we had the PM's personalized TCHC jersey ready and a time to meet him.
A group of about 15 TCHC members were able to make it to see the PM who graciously greeted us and listened to my speech about what TCHC has done and will be doing in Tohoku. He then chatted with us all for about five minutes and seemed a little upset that the hockey talk needed to be cut short. My only regret is that one of the guys who does the most in Tohoku, Joji Hiratsuka, arrived about three minutes after the doors closed and could not get security to let him pass.
The evening event on the same day was an even bigger success with the TCHC and the Tohoku Free Blades announcing their partnership in conjunction with Nadia, USF and Xebio. There was an even bigger crowd than for the PM with about 25 TCHC members in uniform and mingling with our partners. This partnership will bring relief efforts to the affected Tohoku region using sport to reach out to children. I rely on the TCHC executive to keep this thing going, not only in 2012 but also as a legacy partnership for our Hockey Club.
The thing that struck me the most was the support of the entire team yesterday and last night. This was a team effort from top to bottom and I cannot remember a time when I was more proud to be a part of a hockey team.
