Alpha Asian

Been caught up so much with the Jeremy Lin story, that I forgot to give some praise to my man Richard Park who hit a milestone. Being a role player in the NHL, he's not expected to score much, but he did score his 100th goal last month. There are other Asian Americans who are in the NHL ranks. I don't follow the entire league, just mostly the eastern conference for which my Washington Capitals play. But the names that pop up make me take notice and I think, "Wow, that's pretty cool ...". Here's a short list of Asians that I'm aware of that are currently playing in the NHL.I have no idea how many more may be lurking in the juniors or AHL teams. Devin Setoguchi - half Japanese; plays for the Minnesota Wild Manny Malhotra - Indian-French Canadian' plays for Vancouver Canucks (he's been in the NHL for quite awhile and I never knew he was part Asian until I read something on him) Jon Matsumoto- half Japanese; plays for the Carolina Hurricanes ...

Happy New Year, everyone. It's the Year of the Dragon. Let's hope it's a prosperous one and the economy will turn around and give us some more positive news. Yesterday, my Washington Capitals lost in overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins on national TV yesterday. And once again, the play by play announcer, Doc Emerick, referred to my man Richard Park as "a native of Korea". Doesn't that imply that he grew up in Korea? Park grew up in North America, having emigrated as a little kid from Korea with his family. While it irks me to see him being portrayed as something "other" or "foreign", it's also said for a lot of European players in the NHL. And that's because they DID grow up somewhere else and it's still their home country! But Emerick has been slagged on in hockey forums as having lost his touch as a commentator. So I guess if I'm going to follow hockey, I'll have to put up with the guy. Wow. Talk about natio...

Richard Park, number 12, celebrating score with team mate Chris Kunitz So I'm watching the hockey game last night between my Washington Capitals and their rivals the Pittsburgh Penguins. My man Richard Park came back from playing in Europe and signed on with the Penguins. He's not a standout player, but a 3rd or 4th line kind of guy. If you're not familiar with hockey, each team has 4 lines and they rotate them in and out of the game on shifts. Usually your top two lines have your main stars and scorers. Anyway, at last night's game, the play by play announcer, Doc Emerick makes a comment about Richard Park as being "from Seoul, Korea". Huh? You know, that kind of stuff just promotes North American Asians as somehow being this "other" group, still foreign and "not one of us". For those in the hockey world who know, yes, Park was born in Seoul, but as a kid his family emigrated to North America. He grew up in Canada and the US. Maybe i...

Hockey season is about to start. It's taken a really chilly turn here in the DC area, we barely got up to 52° yesterday. But it has that kind of hockey weather feel, though, in the area. During this summer, NHL player Paul Kariya retired after 15 seasons as a left winger. He missed the entire season last year due to concussion problems. And unfortunately for hockey fans, Kariya’s career came to an end because of those problems. He wisely chose to retire from the game rather than try to continue on and risk further brain damage. ESPN.com had some harrowing details by columnist Pat Burnside about his brain injury that I don’t think most hockey fans were aware of. Burnside writes: "Highly skilled and a stickler for details big and small when it came to preparation, Kariya became a cautionary tale even before the NHL had turned its attention to keeping its best players safe. Kariya suffered his first concussion in 1996 and another in 1998. Mark Lovell, one of the continent...

Alex Ovechkin checking Evgeni Malkin into the boards I like ice hockey, which is weird given that I grew up in DC area. I always think of hockey as a northeastern and midwestern sport. But ever since DC acquired an expansion team back in 1974, the Washington Capitals, I've been an observer and fan of my local NHL franchise. Sure, hockey is probably a third or fourth tier sport in most major metro areas. Let's face it, football still dominates most people's interest as far as pro sports goes. But I like it, having gone to a few Caps games as a kid with my uncle. The team has been a real heartbreaker to follow, having always been a group of overachievers, and they've managed to lose in a lot of tough game 7's of the playoffs. But in the last few years, the team is much different and they have arguably the best player in the NHL today in Alex Ovechkin. It's just fun to watch this team play (of course, it helps if the team is considered one of the elite team...