Where it all started....

So i was stuck in Amsterdam in 2004 and i was missing the game of hockey , so one day i got myself acquainted with the internet and started browsing.....googling anything and everything to do with hockey , then i began to wonder if there was any hockey over in my families home country of Malta and i googled it as a joke . To my surprise there was a Maltese Ice Hockey League and they had a team of all-stars that travelled yearly to Dubai to compete in their huge international tourney . I had to contact these guys.

I got in touch with a really nice guy named Jan Hallkvist who is a Swede living in Malta , he ran the travel team which was pretty much considered their national team . They had no clue who i was except for the fact that i was a CANADIAN GOALIE !!!  This bought me at least a tryout , which i had to fly out to Dubai for ...

On the way to Dubai i had to stop over in Malta with hopes of meeting my teammates and having time to get spoiled by my family ....if you ever go to Malta try the Pastizzi , devilish little pastry dough stuffed with ricotta cheese , or peas mmmmmm.....in Malta i found out that their rink had been closed for almost a year and their league was no longer in existence ( totally a shame) . thoughts of teammates flopping around on the ice kinda put fear into me going into my first international tournament with no clue what level i would have to perform at ! Jan met me at the airport and filled me in on the situation surrounding the team and we rushed over to the Emirates office to book my flight ( i think they did not know if i was going to show hehehehe) my 3 days in Malta were filled with astonishment as family members were blown away at the reason why i was in Malta!

After those 3 amazing days in Malta i finally got to meet my teammates that were flying with me from Dubai to Malta. Immediately bonding with these guys as we got a bit loud and boisterous on our flight with the help of a few bottles of wine. Arriving in Dubai and going straight to duty free to get us some $16 cartons of cigarettes and CHEAP CHEAP booze ( no taxes at all in Dubai WOO HOO ) we all scattered and somehow all ended up in the same place at our team bus !Arriving at our hotel safely .

Day 1 in Dubai was basically my big tryout day...if i don't play well then Marcus Lindner plays goal . Right before getting to the arena we met up with our Finnish team mates that joined us , Ossi & Juha Uotila ( brothers) Juha was 19 i think at the time ( former Finnish National Jr. team member, eventually played D for the Toronto Marlies in 2008 season ) . we went to some mall first and ended up going for a pleasure skate before heading to the tournament arena....it was amazing to see people skating around in a mall for my first time ! some people in full arab dresscode , and with many levels of the mall above us with people watching down at us was pretty surreal too ! we finally get to the rink Al-Nasr Leisureland and get to our err-change room/banquet hall and promptly set our gear up front and centre on stage ! I must have had an angel with me as i stopped everything and everyone and was immediately asked to play for the Malta Pirates in the upcoming tourney.

Day 2 the tournament starts and we are playing against teams from all over the middle east with clubs from Dubai , Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia ! can't forget the Swiss team that was there Yellowstone , those guys could drink LOL! That day we played a team from Dhahran and beat them pretty badly in our first game and then played a team called Ghantoot , all i know is these guys showed up in Jeeps all done up with team logos on all their vehicles and apparently had paid the Sebian International team coach ( Marko) and one of his players to play for them.Marko also played out , and was he ever one dirtyl little bastard ....not ever 10 min into the game he figured out Juha was our best player and targeted him with a dirty hit. Did not work and he began to spazz out only to get ejected for remainder of tournament! Coach Jan was happy as they did not seem to see eye to eye even after the game ....we went on to paste Ghantoot something like 8-1 ....HAHAHA. after our games we ended up going to Wild Wahdi Water Park and had a great time relaxing and bonding ( drinking)

Day 3 comes along and we are playing in C division in this tournament, and other teams and tournament organizers are beginning to whine that we are too good to be in C ....We have a game vs. Dubai Bruins and end up losing partially due to all of our bonding (drinking ) the night prior. This is not a joke, the organizers approach us and whine about us throwing the game ....to our amazement we just chuckle and keep on our own way onto the quarter finals where we played the Kuwait Mooseheads , alcohol was an afterthought and we go back to pasting our opponents , with a semifinal in the morning and it being our coaches birthday we obviously had to go out for dinner and drinks. funny thing about going out for drinks at Dubai night clubs: they tend to not let in 10 big hockey players to drink alot of booze without the guidance of at least 2 women per person ????? not going to mention which players did this but some of the patrons enjoying dinner got to see some european ass running by and skinny dipping right in the water there LOL! to this day i still think the security were more afraid of us then we were of them ......happy hangover guys !

Yup it is Day 4 , wake up with slight hangover and a chuckle ....go to rink to play Dubai Bruins in Semifinal (the rematch) now this team was made up of father and son combinations and they were not bad at all , gave us quite the scare in the second period where i had to make a diving save with the paddle of my stick to preserve a 2-1 lead , eventually going on to play in the Final vs. Qatar Qanucks.......now this is one game that stuck in my head for a LOOOONNNGGG TIME . Qatar was the division defending champs beating Malta the year before , so most of the guys returning were keen for this match. They had this stellar goalie and the game went back and forth eventually ending up tied 2-2 going into overtime......well with about 1 min left in OT one of their guys came screaming down the wing and pounded a hard slapshot just above the faceoff circle which just barely squeezed under my blocker side arm .....the arena erupted as most of the teams are from the mid east and definitely cheer for their own :( .....i remember being too pissed off to go to the Cyclone bar ( apparently some kind of huge whore house / with a bar ) right next to the rink , it is closed now so i doubt i will ever get to experience it but from what i hear it is a laugh !

We stayed in Dubai for 2 more days after the tournament ,mainly somber , but we did end up having an amazing time on the Hatta Trek in the desert on some 4 wheeling on the dunes , sandboarding , and smoking some lovely tobacco in a Huka in the middle of the desert complimented with a nice traditional BBQ under the stars with some lovely ladies belly dancing !

After Dubai i continued on my way to Malta for 3 more weeks of sun & fun with carnivals and small wineries on my list of attracting adventures . The Maltese media were quite receptive of our achievements in Dubai and had a few writeups on us in their newspapers....(can't find the clipping now but will post it in future ! ) . This is how my addiction to travelling the world to play hockey began , the day i got back to Toronto i began researching my next tournament trip .......Singapore.