The Engleson Files

So, after our drubbing on the ice the Dragons had to quickly get back to the Star Garden Fashion Business Hotel in order to get changed and then go out for dinner with our opposition/hosts, which was to begin around 5:00pm. The post-game dinner has been a long standing Dragon tradition in places like Changchun and Haerbin where the hospitality from our hosts has been second to none and they are always ready to have a party. These banquets are not for the feint-of-heart and while attending there is really only one expectation from you: to drink, and a lot of it! The banquet in Jilin began at roughly 5:00pm and it is pretty safe to say most of the Dragons were drunk by 5:30pm. Unlike in Canada, the drinking over here is fast and furious and basically every drink you have must be a ganbei - dry glass. Yes, I think this is exactly the soul-searching that the Dragons needed to get ready for their big game tomorrow!

Now, the basic formula to these banquets goes as follows: the head guy from the opposition’s team will address everyone with a hearty welcome and extension of international friendship and then yell “ganbei”, to which we will all give a cheer and then empty our glasses. Then our captain, Adrian Conradi, will stand up, apologize for our terrible play on the ice, and then extend the same gratuity to our hosts and new friends, to which we will all have another ganbei (usually at this point it is only beer). Then the fun begins. Then while everyone is eating dinner, each table is responsible for taking a turn at making rounds to every other table, re-extending our friendships and love for hockey and sharing another ganbei. This phase of the banquet can go on for, at least, an hour; and then what usually happens is that players you may have had a special moment with on the ice, or players that you, or they, respect, will seek each other out and have their own individual/personalized ganbei’s with each other (and sometimes the ante is upped here and you may be required to ganbei baijiu, or lighter fluid as it most commonly tastes like). In these personalized ganbei’s you see a lot of thumbs-up, pats on the back and hugs being extended to each other in order to compensate the fact that you can barely speak to each other. The whole banquet is a hockey love-in and is an absolute fantastic time shared with other people who love and play this great game. Even though many of us cannot communicate with each other, keen friendships between the teams are made and very special memories are created. Simply put, these banquets are priceless!

Damn cigarettes!! Tough to say ‘no’ to in the 40 000 times you are offered one.

Above is a picture of some of the Dragons extending our thanks to the cooking staff inside the kitchen; then down below you can see the official Ice Dragons paddy-wagon that was at our beckoning call once the dinner was over. Many of the guys on the Changchun and Jilin teams are police officers and for the entire time we were in Jilin we had a policeman follow us around and help out where he could (we called him the Terminator because of his cool sunglasses). Anyways, after the banquet the paddy-wagon was waiting for us and we all filed inside and then the police officer took us to a local night club to finish off the evening - a perfect way to end a great night. “In your rooms by 4:00am,” were the last words heard from our trusty captain, “we have a big game tomorrow!”