“Half the game is mental, and the other half is being mental”. This is a quote from Jim McKenny, a retired Canadian ice hockey player. I am not going to pretend to know who he is, but this quote pretty much summarises the sport in a nutshell.

I am also not going to pretend to know loads about the sport of ice hockey. Consider my knowledge rudimentary, however I do know I really enjoy the sport.

EA Hockey on the Sega Mega Drive was my first real introduction to ice hockey. It was one of three games packaged with the console. The other two were Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage. I would always represent the United Kingdom and 90% of the time I would reach the semi-finals and lose to Czechoslovakia. The positive from losing to Czechoslovakia was that my interest in the country was conceived as a result of this introduction. This would blossom over the years as the country split in two to become the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Hockey fashion, and I use the term fashion lightly, was also something I embraced throughout my childhood. Donning the shirts of multiple NHL teams over the years, I eventually made it to the US in 2005 only for the season to be cancelled.

14 years later and another opportunity presented itself. Great Britain had qualified for their first ever ice hockey world championships. The 2019 IIHF World Championships were due to take place in Slovakia and coincided with a planned trip to the Czech Republic. Everything was aligning, so we bought a couple of game tickets for Great Britain vs. Denmark and Germany vs. France. These were not showpiece games, but I wanted to see Great Britain play and our odds to win were strongest in the matchup with Denmark. This point would come back to kick me.

I ended up catching a flight to the city of Košice alone as our planned trip to the Czech Republic fell through and it became increasingly difficult for both of us to make the trip. In the city for 24-hours, my grand plan was to make friends in the fan zone and sell the spare ticket. This plan also backfired as attendance at the 2019 IIHF World Championships does not garner the same level of interest as a FIFA World Cup. The fan zone was near empty.
The first game was the one I was looking forward to. Great Britain appearing at their first world championships against Denmark, an opposition we were marked to be competitive against. As referenced earlier, this point came back to kick me. Great Britain were trounced by 9 goals. It was one of the worst defeats of the tournament. The latter game of Germany vs. France was more entertaining though, especially given the amount of beer consumed.
Finland were the eventual winners of the championship beating Canada in the final, and Great Britain did not finish last overall. They came fourth… from bottom.

My experience of ice hockey at the 2019 IIHF World Championships was an interesting one. I came away wanting more and a desire to experience NHL Hockey or international ice hockey against two powerhouses. Whilst I may not have seen ice hockey of the highest quality, I definitely experienced the ‘being mental’ described by Jim McKenny. The speed and the power these athletes exhibit is best evidenced by the sounds of the sport. The screeching sound when skate meets ice in a rapid change of direction, the thump as a body is pounded into the glass, and the explosive bang when a puck makes contact with the glass at full speed. These are all sounds that symbolise the ‘being mental’.