Loose Pucks: Breaking Boundaries

July 13, 2012

NBC Washington yesterday profiled two aspiring NHLers with unconventional national backgrounds who are attending the Capitals’ Prospect Development Camp this week.  The longer shot of the two is undrafted free agent Nathan Walker, who hopes to become “the first-ever Australian in the NHL” despite being passed over in the 2012 entry draft last month.

Europeans are well represented in North American pro hockey — 2012 Calder Trophy winner Gabriel Landeskog was the first European-born captain of a Canadian major junior team and newly retired Nicklas Lidstrom became the first European-born captain of a Stanley Cup champion team — but players from other continents remain out in the cold (or in this case, the dry heat).  Mites and squirts hitting the ice at Australian hockey rinks — all 20 of them — can look to Walker to blaze the trail.

Not a hockey powerhouse, Australia does have some things in common with the game’s birthplace.  No less an authority than the Toronto Star — “Canada’s largest daily newspaper”— declared in a 2010 column that

Australia and Canada have been linked in the world’s minds for a century.  Both are geographically sprawling, resource-based, former British colonies that share language, history and guilt-laden problems with their native people and have become two of the richest nations in the world.

Regardless of whether Australia and Canada have ever been uppermost in the world’s minds — separately or together — the Star acknowledges that “the surface similarities mask fundamental differences” — none more fundamental than the state of hockey in each nation.  There are six professional hockey leagues playing in Canada (NHL, AHL, ECHL, WHL, OHL, and QMJHL).  There are nine teams playing in the “completely amateur” Australian Ice Hockey League, not only the country’s top league but “the biggest ice hockey league in the Southern Hemisphere.”  Only in the Southern Hemisphere do leagues feel the need to insert the word “ice” before “hockey.”

But with all due respect to Walker — who according to NBC Washington has been called “the Wayne Gretzky of Australia” — he’s not the first Aussie to break into North American hockey.

The original Willie O’Ree of Australia?

None other than the Geico gecko, who during game broadcasts displays flashy stick skills and the impressive ability to maintain his balance on the ice with no skates and a tail.

True, some observers believe the gecko is actually a Brit with a Cockney accent, but consensus has not been reached on the matter of the lizard’s nationality.  The Huffington Post columnist Stephen Schlesinger, who despises the gecko, identifies him as “[t]he little green lizard from Australia” who speaks with an “Australian twang.”  The gecko himself is coy on the subject; The Inspiration Room blog quotes the lizard’s own (now defunct) blog as saying, “I’m not concerned with geography or nationality.”

Either way, Walker’s Aussie credentials are as suspect as the gecko’s.  Though described as Australian, Walker was born in Wales before growing up in Sydney and signing with a hockey team in the Czech Republic.  His nation of origin is identified by Elite Prospects as “Australia / U.K.”

For those who are interested, The Sidney Morning Herald noted in yesterday’s “Australian Ice Hockey League wrap” that Walker fans can view the prospect camp’s final scrimmage webcast on WashingtonCaps.com this coming Sunday (Saturday in D.C.’s time zone).  Capitals Voice, the team’s official blog, reports that the scrimmage is part of Capitals FanFest.

Curiously, the Capitals make no mention of this intriguing connection, revealed under closer inspection of the team’s official website: “Washington Capitals FanFest Summer 2012 presented by Geico” (emphasis added).

Sydney synergy in action

As a final note, while Walker hopes to make the leap from Down Under to North America, there are players who go the other way.  According to the Herald, each of the nine AIHL teams “is allowed four imports, usually professionals from European or lesser North American leagues.”  Although the league is amateur, “imports are allowed to receive assistance to help with accommodation etc.”  Suddenly the KHL doesn’t seem so bad.