See-Sawing Into the National Hockey League: Radoslav Suchy

Stories From the NHL Locker Room

Slovakia-born Radoslav Suchy’s journey to the National Hockey League might be typical, although not a well known. For the most part, it’s rare for a young player to make the grade on the first try. Things were no different for Suchy.

"Always my dream, when I was a kid, was to play in the NHL."

However, his venture to the Show started in Canada -- Sherbrooke in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League -- to be exact, and he didn't know a stitch of English -- or French.  

"I knew three words: 'thank you,' 'sorry,' and one that’s bad, starting with 'f.' I went to school for English, but as soon as I came to the dressing room, everybody was talking French. For two months, I didn’t talk to anybody."

Hindsight told Suchy it may have been a good thing he didn't know English. In the beginning, he found it very difficult, so much so, he seriously thought about going home.  

"I didn’t know how to tell them. So I stayed there."

The transition for any young player into the next level of competition is difficult, but especially for someone who doesn't know the culture or language.

When he met his billets he was painfully shy. 

"That was very weird. They were really nice. They offered me everything. I could eat anything in the fridge. But I was really shy. I remember the first time, I just ate a little bit. I didn’t want to eat too much. At night, at nine o’clock, I was still a little hungry but I was shy to go up and ask them for more food. I had to wait until they go to sleep. I was sneaking in the fridge when they were sleeping. It was a good laugh.

"(The billets) had some special food. The first time I had it, I didn’t really enjoy it. I was being polite and said I liked it. Then we got invited to (my billet) family friends. They asked what did we like, they would make for dinner. They said, 'He really likes the... He really enjoy it.' After a while, I got used to it. Now I really like it. It’s pretty good."

He had to get used to the smaller ice surface, and the hockey style was much more physical than he was used to. 

"The coaches always took me on the side, although I didn’t speak English, took me to the boards and showed what they wanted me to do. 

"The atmosphere was good because in Slovakia, we have just the parents in the stands at the junior games. In Canada, there’s real people even paying for that to see your game. The people recognize you on the street. In Slovakia, nobody knew that I was playing hockey. In Quebec, I’d be walking in the mall and people stopped me, asked for autographs -- kids came to me. I was really impressed how big the hockey is in Canada."

Suchy was traded to Chicoutimi in his last junior year in junior as an overaged junior. While Sherbrooke didn’t go far in the playoffs, Chicoutimi was a contender for the Memorial Cup. 

"They trade me for three young players. Before Christmas, they sent me home for a week. That was nice of the team. I asked them, 'Am I getting traded? Because if I am, I’m not coming back.' I wasn’t drafted, so there was no need for me to come back to junior. They said, 'No, no, no! Over my dead body.' So I went home. I came back. The first thing, the coach asks me to come into his office. They told me I had been traded. It was really hard. I didn’t want to go."

But Chicoutimi had a very good team and Suchy was able to star in the Memorial Cup -- where all the scouts saw him. 

He received an invitation to try out with the Phoenix Coyotes. 

“I was in camp, and I didn’t have a contract. We had already played five exhibition games. They sent some guys down, and I still hadn’t played one game. After I got called, I was going to play the next day. I played the one game, and right after, they called me and tell me they are offering me a contract. At that point, I would take any contract. Then they sent me down to Las Vegas."

After a couple of months in Nevada, Suchy broke his finger. The Coyotes sent him to its minor league team in Springfield to get healthy. As he healed, his ice time increased due to three injured defencemen.  

“The second year (at Coyotes camp), the coach says, 'We have too many defencemen. You’re going to play forward in the camp.' I think, 'Oh, my God. What am I going to do?' So I just play forward. I had also played one NHL exhibition game as a forward. Then they sent me down. I didn’t really have a big shot of playing in the NHL."

In his third year, Suchy came into training camp and made the team. Although with eight defencemen in the preseason lineup, he was a healthy scratch for five games.

Facing Chicago, +Jeremy Roenick was suspended for high-sticking Tony Amonte, which meant moving a forward up into the lineup. With too many players on the roster, Suchy was the odd man out and was sent back down.

“I thought, okay, that was my chance. I didn’t play any games. I’m down in the minors and the general manager from the Coyotes came down and said, 'We want you to stay down here and play a lot. Up there, you’re not going to play a lot of games. You’re not going to have a lot of ice time. We have too many defencemen.' Luckily two weeks later, one of the defencemen got hurt. Then I got called and played a few games. They decided I’m going to play the rest of the season. I’m glad I never gave up and kept working. I kept hoping that I’m going to make it."

And he did.

Never give up on your dreams.

Stories from the NHL Locker Room

If there is one thing we learn from working in sports, regardless of the position, there is no end to great stories.

Some are funny, inspiring, and some just give you an insight into the people and atmosphere of the game.

I spent over 20 years living in a locker room.

My time goes back to the Wayne Gretzky dream team years of the +Edmonton Oilers of the mid-1980s to the Jonathan Toews era with the +Chicago Blackhawks.

As a freelance reporter, I can tell you first-hand that life in the NHL is not all that glamorous. Yes, we had fun. Yes, there were moments you can count as the times of your life. But for the most part, the professional sports life does not reflect what most fans see during the three hours of game time.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and not much of it is what you'd classify as glamorous.

That said, it's during those behind the scenes moments when the best stories come out. It's time I shared more of them.

Coaching Drills

I had the good fortune to watch one of the greatest players practice almost every day. Here is a clip of Jarome Iginla I took from one of those skates.

There was one moment, when all the players, including the goalies, had long since gone to the dressing room and Jarome was still on the ice getting one-on-one coaching from multi-Stanley Cup winner and Hall of Famer Guy Lapointe. Much like the drill you see above, Jarome meticulously shot at the same spot at the net from the same spot on the ice over and over until every shot hit the target perfectly. If it didn't, Lapointe would point his stick and yell out some instruction.

But not all drills seem all that skill developing.

Dave Lowry and friends during a public skate at the Calgary Saddledome

Dave Lowry has enjoyed a lot of years in the NHL as both a player and a coach. He mentions a fellow to whom many will shake their head in acknowledgement at -- a fellow I knew from junior football. Don't get me wrong, I actually liked the man, but there are many who thought he was just plain nuts. He's no longer here to defend himself, but Bill Laforge certainly had a reputation.

"When you’re a young kid, your dream is to play in the NHL," recalls Lowry. 

"I was 19 and went into Vancouver for my first camp. Teams (clubs broke up their training camp squad into teams) that lost the game had to run a mile in their gear. You had two minutes to get your skates off and you had to run. Unfortunately, I was on a team that didn’t win a game in training camp. We spent a lot of time running. 

"One of the drills Billy had for us was he had his 13 stations. One was jumping in and out of the bench. One was fighting with another guy, sparring in a circle. Another was running in and out of sticks and having to run in and hit the boards. Another had players lined up on the top of the circles on both sides and you had to skate as hard as you could and run over each other behind the net. I thought, if this is what pro hockey is like, I don’t know if I want to stay."

Messing With Loyalty -- Casebook Example: The NHL

They're back.

After the second work stoppage in eight years, it is business as usual for the National Hockey League as everyone awaits the shortened season schedule on Saturday.

But is it?

The mood was different during this lockout. This time, veteran hockey insiders were fed up with the league and the players association's ability to play nice with each other. I was one of them.

Could care less when they returned, we all said. Now that they have, it's hard to stay mad. Why is that?

Because none of us, not even the fans, are bigger than the game. Goodness knows the players and league executives are not either.

Hockey may not top the list of popular sports in the United States, but if you've grown up in the hockey belt: Canada and the northeastern United States, chances are that the hard line people took during the labor strife will subside once puck drops in their nearest town.

Some will come back grudgingly, some with open arms. Some will wait until the Stanley Cup playoffs, the passively-interested fans will carry on with what they've been doing. However, the latter make up the majority of the United States -- the people to whom the league has been wining and dining since it expanded past the original six teams.

The NHL has been a classic example of a marketing fail.

Assume with arrogance that your loyalists will continue to support you no matter how many times you piss in their Cornflakes and mortgage the future for an audience that isn't there.

This time they have a voice, whether or not the decision makers listen. The people have their own media and it is called the Internet. It is where they have shared their anger, frustration, and love of the game.

But the loyalist will be true to the game. They can't help themselves. Hockey is part of their DNA. There may be fewer of them this time, or maybe not. Time will tell. Put a good product on the ice and the league and the  players will be instantly forgiven.

I'm already seeing it -- including my own mirror.

Pictured with Jarome Iginla

With Stanley in Edmonton