Border crossings

Players from other countries common in international play

Brett Hull (left) was born in Ontario, but has been playing for USA Hockey since 1986. AP

By Jon A. Dolezar, CNNSI.com

When is an international border not an international border?

When the game is ice hockey, especially international competition, the borders become a bit blurred.

Two key players on Team USA are Canadian by birth, bringing the total to seven foreigners who have played for the U.S. in Olympic hockey competition.

Adam Deadmarsh was born in Trail, British Columbia, about five miles from the U.S.-Canada border near the northeast corner of Washington state. Brett Hull was born in Belleville, Ontario, approximately 120 miles east of Toronto, while his family was vacationing in his father's native country before Bobby Hull returned to training camp with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Each player's mother is an American citizen and they are dual citizens of Canada and the United States. Both Deadmarsh and Hull have played for USA Hockey after being spurned by Canada once they reached the senior level for international competition.

Nabokov fights the system and loses A high-drama controversy struck the murky waters of these international rules when Russia attempted to get Evgeni Nabokov on its roster to back up Nikolai Khabibulin at the Winter Olympics. Nabokov has a Russian passport, has served in the Russian army, has an apartment in Moscow, but he was born in Kamergorsk, Kazakhstan and played two games for the Kazakhstan team in a World Championship Group qualification Group C tournament in 1993. According to IIHF bylaws, participating for a country after your 18th birthday makes you ineligible to play for another country. Despite this fact, the Russians were confident they would be able to get Nabokov onto their Olympic roster. Assistant general manager Igor Kuperman said in December: "There have been at least 15 precedent cases of players who had played for one country before switching to another. Only in one case was the player in question not allowed to continue in a [1987] world championships tournament. He had played for Poland before he suited up for Germany. "In all of the other cases, nothing has happened." Despite the Russians' pleas and evidence, the Court of Arbitration for Sports ruled on Jan. 31 that Nabokov was now ineligible to represent Russia. The IIHF cited bylaw 204 which states that "once a player has represented a country in any IIHF championship or in the Olympic competition or in the qualification of these competitions, he will not be eligible to represent another country." "Just imagine that California became its own country and after that you wouldn't be allowed to play for the USA anymore," Nabokov said. "That's exactly the same thing that happened with me." Nabokov was hurt that he wouldn't be able to represent the country he now calls home. "I was real upset about it," Nabokov said. "When you grow up in the USSR system and you are basically playing Russian hockey, I think you deserve to chose what team you want to play for. There is not such a different between the countries. It's not like Czech and Canada or Czech and the USA. It's basically the same country, it just happens to be separated now." Nabokov had the support of Russia head coach Slava Fetisov, but even Fetisov couldn't pull the strings to get Nabokov onto the roster. "It's definitely unfortunate," Russian starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin said. "He's a very good goaltender. I think it would be great for the team and for him to be on the team. I'm really disappointed, but there are certain things that we cannot control." The IIHF plans to review the rules at its 2003 Congress. "It might be time to make a review of that bylaw," IIHF spokesman Szymon Szemberg said. "Society looks different today with people being more mobile and changing citizenship more often than was the case 10 or 15 years ago. People move more often between countries, so maybe there is a good situation to review this rule." Nabokov is planning to keep up his fight and hopes that the IIHF will change the rules and open the door for him to play for Russia in the future. -- By Jon A. Dolezar, CNNSI.com

"They know the rules going in," said Art Berglund, Team USA's Director of Player Personnel. "Deadmarsh played for Canada in a non-sanctioned IIHF event, but he's only played for us in a sanctioned event. He knew his chances were better to play internationally for us than they were for Canada when he was a junior."

Deadmarsh is competing in his sixth major international tournament as a member of Team USA, having played in the 1993, '94 and '95 World Junior Championships, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and the 1998 Olympics.

Hull was a dual citizen until 1986, when a spat with Canadian hockey officials propelled him to become solely a U.S. citizen and pledge his support to the U.S. program. USA coach Dave Peterson asked Hull to be a part of Team USA for the 1986 World Championships in Moscow, while Team Canada coach Dave King didn't want him. Hull had scored 84 goals in two seasons at Minnesota-Duluth, but the Canadian roster was packed with stars like Marcel Dionne, Dale Hawerchuk, Dave Taylor and Denis Potvin. Hull has been red, white and blue ever since, playing in the 1996 World Cup and the 1998 Olympics. Hull's decision to play for the U.S. has elicited catcalls of "traitor" from bitter Canadian fans ever since.

The other five American Olympic hockey players to originate from other countries are: Herbert J. Drury (Midland, Ontario) in the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games (hockey was a summer sport in its first Olympics) and '24 Chamonix Winter Games; brothers Joe W. McCormick and Larry McCormick (Buckingham, Quebec) in the 1920 Games; Francis Shaughnessy (Montreal) in the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games; and Frank A. Synott (Chatham, New Brunswick) in 1920 and '24.

There was one major instance of border crossing in international competition that was allowed. After playing goal for Canada in the 1977 World Championships, Tony Esposito joined the American team for the 1981 Canada Cup.

Team Canada has one player on its 2002 Winter Olympics roster born outside the country. Winger Owen Nolan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Canada has had eight other players born outside of Canada don the red and white maple leaf sweaters for the Olympic Games: Paul MacLean (Grostenquin, France) in the 1980 Lake Placid Games; Petr Nedved (Liberec, Czechoslovakia) in the 1994 Lillehammer Games; Herb Pinder (Boston) in the 1968 Grenoble Games; Alex Sinclair (Liverpool, England) in the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games; Don Spring (Maracaibo, Venezuela) in 1980; Bill Thomson (Ayshire, Scotland) in 1936; Claude Vilgrain (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) in the 1988 Calgary Games; and Stanley Wagner (Pueblo, Colo.) in the 1932 Lake Placid Games.

One of the more bizarre events of nation-jumping took place in this Olympics when Toronto Maple Leafs forward Robert Reichel and his Czech Republic teammates faced off against his brother Martin Reichel, who plays for Germany. Martin Reichel moved to Germany 12 years ago from what was then Czechoslovakia and has represented Germany in three World Championships prior to this Olympics. The only other time brothers met in Olympic hockey was at Squaw Valley in 1960, when Frantisek Pikal from Czechoslovakia played against Zdenek Pikal of Australia.

The Germans also have three Canadian-born players on their roster in this Olympics. Len Soccio of St. Catherines, Ontario, Mark McKay of Brandon, Manitoba and Wayne Hynes of Montreal are all key players on the German team. None of the three had success reaching their NHL goals, but have gone on to have successful careers in the German DEL league.

Injured German goaltender Olaf Kolzig is a one-man version of the United Nations. Born in South Africa where his parents were in the hotel industry, Kolzig moved to Denmark for a year and then moved with his family to Canada when he was 3 1/2. Most of his formative years were spent in the Toronto and Halifax, Nova Scotia areas and now he has spent 13 seasons living the United States while playing in the minor leagues and for the Washington Capitals.

Kolzig played for the German national team in the 1996 World Cup, the 1997 World Championships and the 1998 Nagano Games. He trained with the Canadian team for the 1989 World Junior Championships before a passport snafu was caught at the last minute.

"Near the end of training camp we were filling out our paperwork and they had a box where you put your passport number and I had too many numbers in my passport," Kolzig said. "So I called someone over to help me out and showed them my passport and they said, 'Oh, we didn't know you were German.' And a couple of hours later they came knocking on my door and said they were sorry to tell me that I couldn't play for Canada. So I thanked them for the T-shirt and shorts and went on my way."

Kolzig didn't think about international competition again until former Capitals teammate Stefan Ustorf told members of the German hockey federation that Kolzig was a German citizen.

"When you think about it, I should probably be Canadian," Kolzig said. "I grew up and lived the majority of my life in Canada. I spent a few summers over in Germany. My parents still speak German around the house and I spoke German before I spoke English, so I grew up in a German household with their traditions. Just because you are in a different country doesn't mean you are any less German than anybody else."

Kolzig was slated to be a member of the German team in Salt Lake City, but suffered a knee injury on Feb. 8 against the Nashville Predators that has him watching from the stands in Salt Lake City.

 

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