On Thin Ice
Summary: ON THIN ICESATURDAY APRIL 15 It is game four of the ECHL Pacific Division semifinals at the IPayOneCenter the archaic edifice formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena in the North Bay district of America s finest city The San Diego Gulls are fighting for their playoff lives as they trail the visiting Fresno Falcons 3 0 in this best of seven games series In the first period while cheers of Let s Go Gulls fill the arena occupied by 2 690 hopeful fans Fresno takes the lead with two quick goals The Gulls cut the margin in half when Jesse Bennefield scores on a power play with 4 15 remaining in the period Unfortunately for the team it is their only highlight of the night as little else goes right Their passes aren t connecting They squander several scoring chances They suffer defensive breakdowns while Fresno skates circles around them And when the final buzzer sounds the Falcons are victorious 5 1 and the Gulls season has come to an unspectacular end But despite the loss a number of Gulls fans have gathered behind a roped area outside the players locker room for a chance to meet their hockey heroes Gulls center Alex Kim emerges to have his picture taken while he scribbles his name on pucks T shirts and anything else that fans stick in his face Are you coming back next year asks Bree a 16 year old high school student who identifies Kim as her favorite player Maybe he answers as he signs an autograph for her I hope so she responds Great season Kim Thank you calls out David who along with his wife Melissa is a Gulls season ticket holder David likes Kim s approach to the game He plays fair and he s honest Melissa likes him because of his work ethic He gives a hundred percent I think the other people could learn from his example she says Alex Kim first learned how to skate at the age of 6 and left his Fullerton Calif home when he was 16 to play junior hockey in Sault Ste Marie Mich and then Des Moines Iowa After competing at the collegiate level with MiamiUniversity in Oxford Ohio and ColoradoCollege in Colorado Springs he began his professional career by signing with the Idaho Steelheads in the West Coast Hockey League Since then he has toiled in the minors for six grueling years playing for eight different organizations in three leagues The experience hasn t always been glamorous It means having to play in front of empty seats lots of empty seats Consider this Two seasons ago Alex played for the Long Beach Ice Dogs a city which doesn t exactly have a love affair with hockey And with the Los Angeles Kings and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim nearby the club wasn t exactly a box office hit drawing a sparse thousand fans a night 1 2 3 4 5 Back Next In terms of playing in front of a small crowd it s very difficult Kim says You don t feel like you can really get into the game and you have to get yourself motivated Kim does that by focusing on the game itself You block the empty seats out You don t occupy yourself with that Then there are the bus rides Minor league hockey teams do take planes but quite often teams travel by bus And using that mode of transportation certainly has its moments like the eight hour trip from Redding Penn to Greensboro N C on a sleeper bus where players slept in bunks hanging from the ceiling held by chain links But the chains weren t locked down and the bunks rocked from side to side during the trip Fortunately for Kim he slept in one of the bottom bunks But of that ride he recalls grown men yelling for their dear lives because they all thought they were going to die There was also the trip to Charlotte N C when the top of the bus hit the bottom of a bridge overpass and parts of the roof came off and it was raining Of course water leaked into the bus And aside from the lighter moments like the pranks that players pull on each other sneaking into rooms to steal pillows arranging a 5 a m wake up call for a teammate on the road life in the minors can also be downright cruel Often as the only Korean player on the ice opposing players throw racial slurs at Kim to unnerve and throw him off his game Although he finds such incidents discouraging Kim manages to put a positive spin on it I m proud to be Korean he says Things of that nature you got to take pride in it You can t be embarrassed or ashamed of your heritage And he responds to such tactics by employing a turn the other cheek strategy and once the opposition realizes they re not getting under his skin the taunting stops The best way I can get back at them is to put the puck in the back of the net he says It s unfortunate that s thrown in there says Gulls assistant coach Jamie Black You know to be a hockey player you have to have thick skin They like to try to get under Kim s skin He takes the high road and that s the way to go But perhaps worst of all there is the waiting for that NHL call up Following the completion of the 2003 04 season Kim decided to hang up the skates at the age of 24 because the waiting game got to be too much I felt there was more life to live and I really needed to explore what was out there he says And he found a new challenge in coaching youth hockey teams in Westminster Calif But Kim also realized that he missed the excitement and lifestyle hockey had to offer and five months later he returned as a player Playing hockey is something not everybody can do And I didn t get to appreciate that he says After I took time off I started to appreciate that more because I wasn t in that environment So I might as well take another shot at it another crack because I was still young When not playing professionally with a minor league team Alex Kim works with kids to improve their hockey skills in Anaheim Calif He returned with the Rockford Ice Hogs of the United Hockey League where he played for more than a season before signing as an independent player with the Gulls an affiliate of the NHL s Colorado Avalanche last November Being in San Diego at least allows him to be closer to his family in Fullerton where he was raised Standing at 5 feet 10 inches and weighing 195 pounds Kim is a dynamic offensive player who brings a complete package of skills to the ice He is one of the Gulls fastest skaters and is an excellent puck handler and passer As a scorer he possesses a highly accurate shot This season however his statistical production was limited to 16 goals and 22 assists due to a collarbone injury he suffered in January which kept him out of 31 games But when he was healthy Kim was a force to be reckoned with Playing in 24 games this season he led the team with a plus 17 rating put together a 16 game point streak and was twice named the Gulls player of the month He also earned ECHL player of the week honors in March And although it didn t garner as much attention he also contributed on the defensive end playing on the penalty killing unit where he led the team with three short handed goals But even with all his talent Kim will need some breaks to reach the NHL He is now 27 a relatively young age by most standards But for a minor league hockey player who s hoping to reach the majors it s almost ancient As Black explains NHL teams look to groom players straight out of junior hockey and college hockey and Kim s been around a little bit Reaching the NHL is certainly not out of the question for Kim but if he was competing for a roster spot with a younger player who has equal talent an NHL team will always go with the younger player But Black says that Kim can definitely reach the American Hockey League the developmental league that is regarded as the highest level of hockey in North America outside of the NHL And Kim was loaned to the AHL s Portland Pirates the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim affiliate for a three game stint in late March where he netted two points one goal and one assist before returning to San Diego When asked if Kim can make a return engagement to the AHL Black responds Absolutely There s no question MONDAY MAY 1 Kim is in his room at the Holiday Inn in Milwaukee Wisc He is feeling the effects of the long season all over his body His lower back hurts and his legs are sore He wakes up with pain every day from tendonitis in his left arm And on this day he is also sneezing from allergies I don t know what s my driving force to keep moving on he says But I keep going And he does because on April 20 he was called up by the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL the Nashville Predators affiliate for their playoff series with the Iowa Stars Kim did log a lot of ice time in the first game of the series However his playing time dwindled as the series progressed And yesterday he was a healthy scratch for game seven which the Admirals won 4 1 Originally excited by the call up his confidence has taken a beating If you re not on the ice then really what is your purpose he asks With his lone contribution being an assist in game four of the series he makes the following analogy on his reduced role with the Admirals I feel like I m at a dinner party and you re all supposed to bring something and I didn t bring anything And on top of that with the team not being able to book hotel rooms for him in advance since he was a late addition to the roster he has been forced to switch hotels in Milwaukee five different times since joining the club Not fun says Kim Three days later Kim meets with Admirals coach Claude Noel who thanks Kim for his contribution to the team but also informs him that he won t be on the roster for the division finals against the Houston Aeros While Kim is disappointed that he was unable to make a bigger impact with the Admirals he is happy to be going back home to California where he can start thinking about next season He ON THIN ICESATURDAY APRIL 15 It is game four of the ECHL Pacific Division semifinals at the IPayOneCenter the archaic edifice formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena in the North Bay district of America s finest city The San Diego Gulls are fighting for their playoff lives as they trail the visiting Fresno Falcons 3 0 in this best of seven games series In the first period while cheers of Let s Go Gulls fill the arena occupied by 2 690 hopeful fans Fresno takes the lead with two quick goals The Gulls cut the margin in half when Jesse Bennefield scores on a power play with 4 15 remaining in the period Unfortunately for the team it is their only highlight of the night as little else goes right Their passes aren t connecting They squander several scoring chances They suffer defensive breakdowns while Fresno skates circles around them And when the final buzzer sounds the Falcons are victorious 5 1 and the Gulls season has come to an unspectacular end But despite the loss a number of Gulls fans have gathered behind a roped area outside the players locker room for a chance to meet their hockey heroes Gulls center Alex Kim emerges to have his picture taken while he scribbles his name on pucks T shirts and anything else that fans stick in his face Are you coming back next year asks Bree a 16 year old high school student who identifies Kim as her favorite player Maybe he answers as he signs an autograph for her I hope so she responds Great season Kim Thank you calls out David who along with his wife Melissa is a Gulls season ticket holder David likes Kim s approach to the game He plays fair and he s honest Melissa likes him because of his work ethic He gives a hundred percent I think the other people could learn from his example she says Alex Kim first learned how to skate at the age of 6 and left his Fullerton Calif home when he was 16 to play junior hockey in Sault Ste Marie Mich and then Des Moines Iowa After competing at the collegiate level with MiamiUniversity in Oxford Ohio and ColoradoCollege in Colorado Springs he began his professional career by signing with the Idaho Steelheads in the West Coast Hockey League Since then he has toiled in the minors for six grueling years playing for eight different organizations in three leagues The experience hasn t always been glamorous It means having to play in front of empty seats lots of empty seats Consider this Two seasons ago Alex played for the Long Beach Ice Dogs a city which doesn t exactly have a love affair with hockey And with the Los Angeles Kings and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim nearby the club wasn t exactly a box office hit drawing a sparse thousand fans a night 1 2 3 4 5 Back Next In terms of playing in front of a small crowd it s very difficult Kim says You don t feel like you can really get into the game and you have to get yourself motivated Kim does that by focusing on the game itself You block the empty seats out You don t occupy yourself with that Then there are the bus rides Minor league hockey teams do take planes but quite often teams travel by bus And using that mode of transportation certainly has its moments like the eight hour trip from Redding Penn to Greensboro N C on a sleeper bus where players slept in bunks hanging from the ceiling held by chain links But the chains weren t locked down and the bunks rocked from side to side during the trip Fortunately for Kim he slept in one of the bottom bunks But of that ride he recalls grown men yelling for their dear lives because they all thought they were going to die There was also the trip to Charlotte N C when the top of the bus hit the bottom of a bridge overpass and parts of the roof came off and it was raining Of course water leaked into the bus And aside from the lighter moments like the pranks that players pull on each other sneaking into rooms to steal pillows arranging a 5 a m wake up call for a teammate on the road life in the minors can also be downright cruel Often as the only Korean player on the ice opposing players throw racial slurs at Kim to unnerve and throw him off his game Although he finds such incidents discouraging Kim manages to put a positive spin on it I m proud to be Korean he says Things of that nature you got to take pride in it You can t be embarrassed or ashamed of your heritage And he responds to such tactics by employing a turn the other cheek strategy and once the opposition realizes they re not getting under his skin the taunting stops The best way I can get back at them is to put the puck in the back of the net he says It s unfortunate that s thrown in there says Gulls assistant coach Jamie Black You know to be a hockey player you have to have thick skin They like to try to get under Kim s skin He takes the high road and that s the way to go But perhaps worst of all there is the waiting for that NHL call up Following the completion of the 2003 04 season Kim decided to hang up the skates at the age of 24 because the waiting game got to be too much I felt there was more life to live and I really needed to explore what was out there he says And he found a new challenge in coaching youth hockey teams in Westminster Calif But Kim also realized that he missed the excitement and lifestyle hockey had to offer and five months later he returned as a player Playing hockey is something not everybody can do And I didn t get to appreciate that he says After I took time off I started to appreciate that more because I wasn t in that environment So I might as well take another shot at it another crack because I was still young When not playing professionally with a minor league team Alex Kim works with kids to improve their hockey skills in Anaheim Calif He returned with the Rockford Ice Hogs of the United Hockey League where he played for more than a season before signing as an independent player with the Gulls an affiliate of the NHL s Colorado Avalanche last November Being in San Diego at least allows him to be closer to his family in Fullerton where he was raised Standing at 5 feet 10 inches and weighing 195 pounds Kim is a dynamic offensive player who brings a complete package of skills to the ice He is one of the Gulls fastest skaters and is an excellent puck handler and passer As a scorer he possesses a highly accurate shot This season however his statistical production was limited to 16 goals and 22 assists due to a collarbone injury he suffered in January which kept him out of 31 games But when he was healthy Kim was a force to be reckoned with Playing in 24 games this season he led the team with a plus 17 rating put together a 16 game point streak and was twice named the Gulls player of the month He also earned ECHL player of the week honors in March And although it didn t garner as much attention he also contributed on the defensive end playing on the penalty killing unit where he led the team with three short handed goals But even with all his talent Kim will need some breaks to reach the NHL He is now 27 a relatively young age by most standards But for a minor league hockey player who s hoping to reach the majors it s almost ancient As Black explains NHL teams look to groom players straight out of junior hockey and college hockey and Kim s been around a little bit Reaching the NHL is certainly not out of the question for Kim but if he was competing for a roster spot with a younger player who has equal talent an NHL team will always go with the younger player But Black says that Kim can definitely reach the American Hockey League the developmental league that is regarded as the highest level of hockey in North America outside of the NHL And Kim was loaned to the AHL s Portland Pirates the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim affiliate for a three game stint in late March where he netted two points one goal and one assist before returning to San Diego When asked if Kim can make a return engagement to the AHL Black responds Absolutely There s no question MONDAY MAY 1 Kim is in his room at the Holiday Inn in Milwaukee Wisc He is feeling the effects of the long season all over his body His lower back hurts and his legs are sore He wakes up with pain every day from tendonitis in his left arm And on this day he is also sneezing from allergies I don t know what s my driving force to keep moving on he says But I keep going And he does because on April 20 he was called up by the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL the Nashville Predators affiliate for their playoff series with the Iowa Stars Kim did log a lot of ice time in the first game of the series However his playing time dwindled as the series progressed And yesterday he was a healthy scratch for game seven which the Admirals won 4 1 Originally excited by the call up his confidence has taken a beating If you re not on the ice then really what is your purpose he asks With his lone contribution being an assist in game four of the series he makes the following analogy on his reduced role with the Admirals I feel like I m at a dinner party and you re all supposed to bring something and I didn t bring anything And on top of that with the team not being able to book hotel rooms for him in advance since he was a late addition to the roster he has been forced to switch hotels in Milwaukee five different times since joining the club Not fun says Kim Three days later Kim meets with Admirals coach Claude Noel who thanks Kim for his contribution to the team but also informs him that he won t be on the roster for the division finals against the Houston Aeros While Kim is disappointed that he was unable to make a bigger impact with the Admirals he is happy to be going back home to California where he can start thinking about next season He
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