Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy Wade Belak played 42 games, amassing 178 penalty minutes, in jolly ole England during the NHL lockout. (Getty Images)
Feature
A different world
Playing hockey in England was both enjoyable and challenging for Wade Belak
Last Updated Tues., Sept. 25, 2007
By Tony Care CBC Sports
When the National Hockey League locked out its players for the 2004-05 season, Wade Belak was left with limited options.
The Toronto Maple Leafs' defenceman wanted to continue playing, but interest in the 6-foot-5, 221-pound rugged enforcer didn't come from the more coveted and lucrative leagues like Russia and Switzerland.
By late October, Belak was headed to an unlikely destination – one where soccer reigned supreme.
"Initially, I was supposed to go to Amsterdam and play, but that fell through and [the team] went with a different player," Belak told CBCsports.ca.
"When my agent said I could play hockey in England, I was like, 'I didn't even know England had a league.'"
And later this week the country will host its first-ever NHL matchup – the 2007-08 season opener between the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings (Sat. Sept., 29, CBC TV, 12 pm EDT).
10-team league
Belak agreed to join the Elite Ice Hockey League, an association consisting of 10 teams. England boasts the largest number of clubs with eight, while Scotland and Ireland each have one entry.
Formed in 2003 following the disbandment of the old Ice Hockey Superleague, the EIHL offered Belak a chance to keep in shape and stay active.
"My expectation was to go over there and hopefully get lots of ice time and not sit around Toronto doing nothing," he explained. "It was really to go over there and play hockey and not waste a season."
While the quality of the hockey hardly rivals that of the NHL, the league is filled with players from the AHL and ECHL. Canadians litter the 21-man rosters, with the remaining spots made up of players from Britain and other countries. The league is also comprised of a single division which plays a 54-game schedule.
Belak signed on with the Coventry Blaze, a team located about 153 kilometres northwest of London. He quickly realized once he arrived that the Leafs were the most popular NHL team in England, but was surprised to find English fans expecting a different burly player with blond locks.
"I think they thought they were getting [Toronto captain] Mats Sundin," Belak said with a laugh. "It was the greatest signing ever. I read the article when I signed there. I talked to my coach and said to him, 'I hope you don't expect me to score 50 goals with the way you guys are pumping me up here.'"
Toughness translates across the pond
Like his 10-year NHL career, Belak proved to be more of a physical presence than a scorer with Coventry. The Saskatoon native netted only seven goals and 17 points in 42 games, but added 178 penalty minutes.
He also had to get accustomed to a low-end hockey lifestyle, trading his luxurious NHL salary for one that a single male in England could barely get by on. When he competed, each team was restricted to a 10,000-pound ($20,130 Cdn) per week salary cap, a limitation that didn't leave him with much money for other expenses.
"Food was expensive," he admitted. "My fridge was the size of a camper fridge and I had to fill it every other day. So I would buy 90 pounds of food every time I went to the grocery store, which was about $180 Cdn at the time."
Another sobering reality came in the form of replacing equipment. Normally, damaged gear in the NHL would take minutes to restore, but it was something Belak found challenging while playing for Coventry.
"One [teammate] broke one of his blades and he couldn't get it replaced until he ordered new steel that took two or three days," he said with amazement. "So once I came back to the NHL, most of those guys that played there the following year would call me for stuff like gloves and other hockey equipment.
Despite these obstacles, fan support is usually the one positive every player marvels at when they make their way over the Atlantic Ocean. Even with the limited media coverage the league receives, most cities in the EIHL have a loyal fan base.
Theo Fleury scored 74 points in 34 games with the Belfast Giants during the 2005-06 EIHL season. (Canadian Press)
NHL sniper Theo Fleury came out of retirement to play for the Belfast Giants during the 2005-06 season. The former Calgary Flames winger, who played in front of 7,100 people on nightly bases in Ireland, equates the atmosphere of an EIHL game to one English soccer players frequently experience.
"They sing the whole game and they have a really good time," said Fleury, who helps run a construction company with his family back in Calgary. "They love the physical part of ice hockey for sure, because there's not a lot of physical play in what they call football."
For his part, Belak admits fans routinely filled the 2,800-seat SkyDome Arena in Coventry to see big maulers who could deliver devastating blows.
"They love the big guys that can hit and they love to see the fights. In my first home game there, I scored some points and created a couple of big hits and right away they kind of jumped on the bandwagon."
A concept that was foreign to him prior to his trip across the pond.
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