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| National ice hockey team players react to cheering fans after a game against Finland on Feb. 20, 2018, at Gangneung Hockey Center in the namesake eastern city during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Yonhap |
A little over a year has passed since South Korea made its Winter Olympic debut in men's hockey. As the host country, South Korea received an automatic spot at the PyeongChang Winter Games, and the team likely wouldn't have made it to the competition if it were forced to qualify for it.
Still, in the years leading up to the Olympics, the upstart squad made significant progress under head coach Jim Paek, a former Stanley Cup-winning defenseman who took over the program in July 2014. In the world rankings, it jumped from 23rd in 2013 to 18th prior to PyeongChang 2018 and then to 16th after the Olympics. South Korea was relegated to the third division in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships in April 2014. And three years later on Paek's watch, South Korea earned a promotion to the elite division for the first time.
Though South Korea lost all four games at the Olympics, it didn't get blown out of the water every game, as some pessimists had predicted.
Now in February 2019, Paek's team finds itself at a crossroads. Some of the positive vibes and excitement for the future in the post-Olympic days have given way to uncertainty. The shallow talent pool also paints a dark picture of the future in a country where hockey is still a niche sport.
Paek does have a handful of players still in their early 20s who have been getting some reps with mainstays. The Legacy Cup, a tournament hosted by South Korea two weeks ago to commemorate the first anniversary of PyeongChang 2018, served as an audition for these players, with the world championship a couple of months away.
"They have to keep developing and keep working hard," Paek said of his young players after a 5-1 loss to Kazakhstan at the Legacy Cup on Feb. 7. "We'll have a good training camp in April to pick our final roster (for the world championship). We have to pick those young guys that will learn from our good veterans."
Conspicuous by their absence at the Legacy Cup were a few naturalized players who represented South Korea at the 2018 Olympics. Canadian-born Michael Swift and Bryan Young, and U.S.-born Mike Testwuide weren't named to the team, while forward Brock Radunske, from Canada, retired after the Olympics.
Only the goalie Matt Dalton and defensemen Eric Regan and Alex Plante ― all born in Canada ― were back on the team at the Legacy Cup.
Whether the missing names will be back for the IIHF World Championship Division I Group A, scheduled for April in Kazakhstan, remains to be seen. In the meantime, Paek filled his lineup at the Legacy Cup with the likes of Jung Jong-hyun, Song Hyeong-cheol and Choi Jin-woo, defenders aged 23, 23 and 22, respectively, and a pair of 22-year-old forwards, Lee Jong-min and Lee Chong-hyun.
In net, Park Sung-je, a longtime backup to Dalton, called it quits last year at age 30, and Paek brought 23-year-old Lee Yeon-seung into the fold.
All those players saw substantial action at the Legacy Cup, in particular Lee Yeon-seung.
He made his international debut against Kazakhstan and made 21 saves in the 5-1 loss. He survived some nervy moments in the opening period, but the bottom fell out for Lee in the second period, as he surrendered three goals, including a couple of soft ones that should have been stopped.
Dalton looked all but ready to jump in from the bench, as he was watching the game with his mask on and leaning over the fence at times. But Paek stuck with Lee for the full 60 minutes.
And South Korea's lone goal was scored by Choi Jin-woo, the team's youngest blueliner at the tournament.
Paek said afterward that giving his young horses significant minutes was all part of "a process" for his team.
In the immediate future, South Korea needs a backup netminder in place of Park Sung-je, and some of the team's key skaters today are approaching 30 or are already there.
And Dalton, who will turn 33 in April, will have to be replaced at some point as the No. 1 goalie, and South Korea won't just keep handing out passports to Canadians or other foreign-born goalies forever.
"We have to give these guys an opportunity. That's what we're about," Paek said. "We have to develop our Korean players. We have to give them an opportunity to play and to experience and to get better."
Dalton returned to the crease for the tournament finale against Japan on Feb. 8 and turned aside 26 shots for the shutout in a 2-0 victory.(Yonhap)
