- The speedy centreman is fast making a name for himself as a fan favourite for the Quebec-based team
- Suzuki represents a wave of NHL players of Asian descent now making their way into the league in earnest
When it comes to the National Hockey League, there is no more a storied franchise than the Montreal Canadiens.
The team have won a record 24 Stanley Cups, most of them between the 1950s and 70s. French-Canadian players such as Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur came to define a team, a province and even a style of hockey - fast, flashy and with plenty of flair.
As the NHL enters 2020 and its 103rd season, the league's diversity has exploded over the past few years. Players now come from all walks of life, backgrounds and heritages. This is largely owing to the growing diversity of North America (Canada and the United States) where the vast majority of ice hockey players have come from.
This year the Canadiens find themselves fighting tooth and nail just to get into the play-offs, as they sit seven points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final wild card slot in the Eastern Conference. With injuries depleting the squad, they've called in reinforcements " former two-time 50 goal scorer Ilya Kovalchuk " to try and help bolster a team anchored around veteran franchise goaltender Carey Price.
The Asian ice-hockey players in the 'whitest sport on Earth'
But there is hope for the future, as one of the team's youngest players, rookie Nick Suzuki, is having a stellar campaign during his first year in "the show", as the league is know inside hockey circles. The London, Ontario native also brings with him a rich history, he is a quarter Japanese as his great-great grandparents immigrated from Japan to Canada in the 1990s.
Suzuki has 27 points in 49 games, which puts him seventh in team scoring, and fifth in the entire league for rookies. He said breaking into the league is one thing, having previously played for the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League, suiting up for such a well-known franchise adds another element to his first campaign.
"It's really special," said the right-handed centreman, "especially to have all the history around the dressing room, to see all the faces and historic teams and players, and so it's an honour to wear the jersey."
Suzuki's story is becoming more commonplace these days as the NHL undergoes a metamorphosis in terms of how it is played and what type of players it favours. Suzuki, who stands 180 centimetres and weighs 91kg, may have had a much tougher time breaking into the NHL even five years ago. The league, once known as being a punishing sport that required players to have size first and foremost, now favours players with expert speed and agility.
For Suzuki, this is music to his ears. For the first time in 14 years, games in the NHL last season averaged three or more goals, something reminiscence of the 1980s and 90s when the league was known for producing high-flying and high-scoring games.
"It's a good transition for myself, a lot of players are coming in (to the league) not as big but who have a tonne of skill and speed. And that is kind of how the NHL is transitioning and it's kind of nice to see the game going that way too."
This has invariably widened the talent pool of players to pick from. Last year was the third consecutive year a player of Asian descent was taken in the first two rounds of the draft, Suzuki and his younger brother Ryan being two of them. Suzuki said it's great to see the NHL become a multicultural mosaic when it comes to the names on the backs of the jerseys, given the league is sometimes disparaged as being the "whitest" sport on the planet.
"It's cool to see different countries and heritages coming into hockey and starting from a younger age. The Asian community is really getting into hockey and as well, in Japan, China and Korea, so it's nice to see the younger kids there learning about it. I'm sure there's going to be an even bigger wave coming out of there in the coming years."
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