The Larry Finkel Award
Beijing International Ice Hockey

The Larry Finkel Award

(aka: The Finkel)

The most famous hockey trophy in Asia - "The Finkel"

Named after Larry Finkel, who played hockey in Beijing in the late 1990's, Larry was famous for his first three strides away from the bench, and then a amazing glide for the next 5-minutes.

This trophy is awarded only on tour - and only for spectacular plays on or off of the ice that have helped create the legend of Beijing Hockey. Errant shots, passes, police, alcohol and soldiers have been involved.

The Finkel Award

1997 - Hong Kong - Larry Finkel (USA)
Myth, man, legend: Started here in HK! Share your room!

1997 - Bangkok - John Jeakins (Can)
When you say you are going to tour... you go!

1998 - Hong Kong - Ray Plummer (Can)
30-seconds left, off his D-mates butt and past Pascal (Hair-Sweater)

1998 - Ulaan Baatar - Greg MacIsaac (Can)
Our only goalie is detained by the PSB leaving China. Tough to play sans goalie!

2000 - Ulaan Baatar - Dan Koldyk (Can):
Shift change that created a 4-on-0 and lost the tournament

2000 - Bangkok - Roman Lebedev (Rus):
Tournament was in BKK, not MNL (Manila). Coming with 2 "supporters" helped but he still missed the first day of games

2005 - Ulaan Baatar - Ben (Chn):
Taking photos of yourself taken and then made available to the team

2007 - Ulaan Baatar - Gervais Lavoie (Can)
For a shot on his own goalie and finding out why one should never pass in front of your own net... even on a 5-on-3 power play!

2008 - Ulaan Baatar - "Yoko" Tormanen (Fin):
For getting himself, the Mongolian organizer of the tournament and two past Finkel recipients 'detained' by police because "he just had to go!"

2008 - DPRK - On the DMZ - Mark Andrews (Can):
It must be special for a Shanghai guest player to win. It was unanimous that taking a photo and having a machinegun toting soldier single him out to delete it met all criteria! He needed that spare pair of underwear

2009 - Beijing Taxi - Tom McCabe (Can):
Forgetting his team's new jerseys in a taxi!

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AWARD UPDATE (Mar '10)

Beijing Int'l has awards for spectacular moments/behavior by players on tour. For over a decade, these have been awarded for tour actions only. This guideline is now under debate.

This past December, the Captain of the Ice Hogs received his complete set of jerseys, went home in a cab, but was so preoccupied that he left all of the jerseys (and his skates) in the cab's trunk! As this impacts his whole team, the awards commission feels it may be worthy of an award. If you play on the Ice Hogs, your captain should be supplying you with ample beers as punishment as Troy tries to redo the set as quickly as possible.

Past non-tour actions that have NOT been worthy of awards (15-yrs of experience and after hundreds of players... these are some of the best bone-head moments):
- getting into a street fight and thrown in jail in Beijing for 30-days
- getting your furry back hair waxed by a teammate
- getting in debt to "Russian friends" to the tune of US$10,000!
- getting the team kicked out of the arena for a month (2x by 2 players)
- throwing full diapers at policemen from a speeding car
- having a permanent private room at Maggie's
- getting arrested / deported for writing an article in the Canadian press
- getting a drunk Irishman to play goalie who had never had skates on before
- getting asked to leave China after giving "brownies" to your teacher
- letting your Newfoundlander (huge dog) onto the rink to take a leak!