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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1998-04-01, Page 9$-THE HURON EXPOSITOR, April 1, 119S Misses first game of playoffs with fractured rib McLlwain has mixed feelings about his season in Germany BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff After scoring 100 goals in more than a decade with numerous trams in the National Hockey League and spending another couple of seasons as a top scorer with the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League, Seaforth's Dave McLlwain, a product of our local minor and junior hockey systems, signed a one-year con- tract at age 30 with the Landshut Cannibals of the German Premiere League last fall After numerous unsuccessful attempts to conduct an interview by e-mail, The Expositor finally tracked Dave down by phone Friday afternoon during his pre -game nap to see how his season across the sea has gone. Mcliwain was nursing a cracked rib (hairline fracture) picked up the weekend before and was not dressing for Friday night's final regular sea- son game. The playoffs were scheduled to start Sunday. The following questions and answers ensued * * * Ouestio>3 - How is your team doing? * * * Answer - "We are sitting in sixth spot, but we're three points out of first. That's how tight it is. It depends what happens tonight, we can move up to third...You play your first games, you play each team in the league home and home, and after the 28 games the top six teams are automatically in the playoffs. Then those top six just play each other for 20 games the last part of the season. And the bottom teams play each other in a schedule. Then they had to have a playoff to see who comes up to seventh and eighth. So they've got that figured out. The two teams finished last night and they're waiting to start Sunday." "The games (amongst the top six teams) are 2-1, 3-2... all the scoring was being done in the lower league so it's hard to even compare scorers from our side to their side. The top 16 guys of 20 scorers in the league are from the B side. The guy that won the scoring is in the B pool." * * * How have you done per- sonally this season? * * * "I finished second in scor- ing on the team, one point back of the leader but I led our team in goals. I had 21 goals and 13 assists...34 points in 48 or 46 games... We didn't have one guy in the top-20...Our scoring leader only had 35 points. We do very well but we don't score a lot of goals." * * * Other players on his teem area hockey fans might know include: Mike Bullard (who once scored 50 goals for Pittsburgh) has been playing in Europe for seven years in Switzerland and Germany) ...Dean Evanson, Mark Lamb (played with Dave in Ottawa), Gino Cavallini, Steve Junker (Tcam Canada last year), Greg Brown (brother Dave Brown plays with Detroit), Wally Shricbcr (veteran of the German league. * * * How does hockey in the German Premiere League compare to what you are used to? * * * "I'd say it's very compara- ble to "the 1" (International Hockcy League where Dave played for Cleveland), maybe a little better... "The game here has gone to the next level, a little better, but the refereeing hasn't stepped up. There's a lot of hooking, and the holding is just unbelievable. You skate around with a guy on your hack the whole game, com- pared to back home... "I find the refereeing behind a little bit. And every- one says it. It's very frustrat- ing. "You always hear of the European game being more wide open and more skating. It used to he. But with so many guys having come over, there arc quite a fcw Canadians so it's very similar to back home but the referee- ing hasn't caught up. They seem to be behind the play. You see something different every game. Just when you think you've seen it all some- thing happens, and your like: 'Wow! Only over here.' "We usually draw 5,500 to 6,000..." in (sounds like Landchute) Landshut which is 40 minutes north-east of Munich in southern Germany, with a population of about 65,000. "They're front-runners here and if you don't do well you hear about it. And they don't understand - they think because they made their team better bunging in a lot of imports this year... Other years you're allowed two imports just the same as Switzerland, where you're allowed two or three. But now they opened it up. All you have to have is five Germans. That's why so many guys have come over this last year.. "And they think since they signed all us players that you're going to win every game. But every other team did it too, and got better. It's very competitive. "They don't understand that we're that close to first. They say: 'Oh, you're in sixth place.' • "Tonight we could end up in third, it depends. Playoffs start Sunday. They don't know who, where, or who is playing what. So it's very unorganized the way they do things sometimes...After we played those first 28 games to decide the top six, that was fine. But the bottom nine teams (one didn't make it) said we have to get a crowd ... so they had to have a play- off to see which two teams would be the top two to come up with us, so teams could get some fans in for atten- dance or they said some teams were going to fold. One team ended up folding this year halfway through the season. "It's like everywhere- the money's a problem. Our big sponsors are a couple of guys and they expect you to win every game. They don't know a lot about the game, they just...A lot of times, in hockey... You might lose 4-3, and you should have won 8- 3, but the other team got hot goaltending. But another time you win 2-1 and you should have got your bums kicked and you got lucky. "All they sec is the score... "The owners, they put the money in and they just... that's why you're an owner - you can complain and do that..." How much of an adjust- ment has playing hockey in Germany been? * * * "There was an adjustment with hockey because you only play two games, you play Friday - Sunday, one DAVE McLIWAIN #71 away and one home, and the rest of the week you practice. You only practice once, Tuesday you practice twice. Mondays are days off. So it's the same thing every day, every week..It's so routine for four or five months. "I found that tough because you're used to playing more. After playing 90 to 100 games last year you're down to 48 games. You don't feel tired... You don't feel men- tally exhausted or ... the sea- son's coming on and you get pumped up for playoffs and then you're done for the year. "They have soccer on every day. And I don't know what they are playing for. They don't shut down. They played right through winter and then the World Cup's this summer. It's on and on and on. It was on when I got here, it's still on. It will be on when I leave too.... They're soccer crazy. * * * What have you been doing with all the extra time on your hands? * * * "That's the thing. You try to figure out this computer stuff. We've been doing some trav- elling, and we had the all-star brcak there - we were able to get up and visit Lisc's rela- tives in Denrhark (Lise is Dave's wife. They got mar- ried last summer). We stopped in Paris for a few days. We can get to Italy, two countries below us, in three hours. Austria's right below us. We've been down there. Lise skied a few times. I've only skied once. "I don't speak German and neither can Lise but I've picked things up. I can't put a lot of words together. Some Don't Be 1 of the 1865 People Who Couldn't Get Dry Wood This Year! BUY NOW ,,FOR ,,NEXT ,YEAR!. $130./17 cu. yd. TPuck Load Delivered within 20 miles. Mileage Charge beyond that. AUBURN, ONTARIO -72 C 8t MX SERVICE 8 KING ST BOX 927 CLINTON, ON, t7NT.N(!M 11.0 BALANCE DOTE alt TAX PREPARATION Imre QV= AND EASY. ,— HATTER MUT TOUR 111111111101f *Reasonable Rates *Electronic filing for faster refund • 10% Seniors' Discount *No GST on our service *Wheelchair Accessible PHONE (5191482492 4824927 MX (519) 4834483 CINDY RADFORD MARY COTE REFUND of the wives were taking lessons earlier on and I think they learned the basic stuff, just to help them out, whether it's going to the grocery store or just downtown. It was frustrating to go downtown when we first started out but 'it hasn't been too bad. And in the dressing room you've got a lot of Canadians so you don't really speak German." Everybody speaks German in the small towns but Munich - everybody speaks English. It is very Americanized. * * * What are your views on Canada's recent fourth - place Finish at the Olympics? * * * "I was disappointed as much as the next person... "I think when you get down to a shootout like that, there are a lot of questions of who they were picking... You have a guy who has scored as many goals as Gretzky and he's not even in a shootout? I don't care how old he is, he can score. .. They came up with the decision of how, because of the way the ice was or something like that. Ray Bourque's a world-class player but how many break- aways has he had being a defenceman?... I've never seen him score on a break- away. I would think you'd want to go with a forward or goal scorer. . "1 think you should go with Gretzky.... Look... He's had the most points since January in the NHL... Now he's up to third or fourth in the scor- ing and he's not even on a very good team this year." * * * How have you done in your career against Hasek (Czechoslovakia's goalie who led them to Olympic gold medals)? * * * "I've scored some against him but the last few times I faced him I was with Ottawa and we found it tough to score against anybody. "Hasek's good, and has really come into his own in the last couple of years... 11 shutouts in a season, that's unbelievable." ' * * * When are you and Lise coming back to Canada? "All depends, it could he two weeks. It could be _a month... The longest the playoffs can go is April 27th, final game. final series. It'll be tough. 1 think we played seven 2-1 games. We play a very defensive system our team. It's hard to open it up. * 5* What happens next? * * * "I plan on being there at my hockey camp (Dave McLlwain Hockey School in Seaforth in August) for the two weeks this year. I haven't decided what's in store for next year.. 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