Hockey International...

Another amazing day in China! It figures that my first win as an international head coach would be overshadowed by another amazing cultural experience. Yes, we defeated Japan 3-1 today in a game in which we played very well and never trailed. The team again played better today than the day before and we are still moving in a good direction. However, in the spirit of "it is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game," the win today was just the beginning of another new cultural experience.

After today's game, there was a banquet for the representatives of each team in the tournament. It was hosted by a very important man in Harbin. We walked from the rink after the game to the swim center, where, on the lower level, there was a banquet room. Again, the traditional Chinese round table with the spinning center console with various types of food was the centerpiece for the evening.



Each of the four teams competing had a delegate representing their team. From Russia, there was the team leader, head coach and a chinese interpreter. Japan had a similar delegation with a team leader, head coach and translator. The Germans just sent a team leader, who spoke German and English. From the Chinese team, we had myself the assistant Coach Mr. Ji and the team leader Mr. An. Also, at the head of the table was the Harbin director and a woman who translated everything into english. She is a figure skating judge and as such speaks some english (pictured with me below). She was called over to translate anytime a group wanted to toast with me, so she wanted a picture with me.



The Japanese team leader also spoke good english and we had an excellent conversation about the state of women's hockey in China and Japan (which is similar) and we exchanged business cards and e-mail addresses and promised to keep in touch.

The evening was all about toasts. We began eating slowly, picking at the various items on the table. As is the custom, our host from Harbin made the first toast to the entire table. He then went around to each individual country's delegation and drank another toast with them. He said that he was very happy that I had come to China to help the team and wished me and the team much success, and was very happy with today's win over Japan. After that, the individual delegations went around to each other toasting to the games played and the games to come. There was lots of cameraderie and good will in the room. Several thousand toasts later, we took some pictures. Below you can see me with the Chinese delegation, Mr. An (left) and Mr. Ji (right).



I had some excellent food tonight and learned how to say good luck in Russian. It was amazing that 5 different languages were spoken throughout the night and the common language was women's hockey and its growth, health and good competition. There were no hard feelings between us and the Russians, even after the minor scuffle we got into at the end of our game. Below is the picture of the entire group.



Tomorrow we face a very tough German team for the first time this tournament (playing on our fourth day in a row). It should be a great game... Signing off again from Harbin, China, good night!