SOCHI, Russia – This was not the planned path for Emanuel Viveiros when he left North America two decades ago in search of a way to extend his hockey career. Back then, the last place the Edmonton native ever dreamed he’d end up is behind the Austrian bench at the Winter Olympics.
“My wife and I came over for one year and it’s been exactly 20 years now,” Viveiros said Thursday at the Bolshoy Ice Dome. “We never imagined this at all.”
When you spend time around international hockey, you encounter stories like this one quite often. So deep is the passion for the sport in our country that Canadians are willing to do virtually anything to maintain a tie to it. In many ways, hockey can be considered among our greatest exports.
As a player, Viveiros was an offensively gifted defenceman who once scored 109 points for the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders and won a silver medal with Canada at the 1986 world junior championship. He was drafted by his hometown Edmonton Oilers and appeared in 29 games for the Minnesota North Stars, but that would be the extent of his NHL career.
His first brief taste of European hockey came as a 23-year-old and eventually he took over the coaching duties with Klagenfurt AC after playing parts of seven seasons for the Austrian club team. By 2011, he became the country’s national coach.
Today, he feels equal parts Austrian and Canadian, which will make next Friday’s preliminary round game between the countries an interesting experience. It’s something that both Ralph Krueger and Sean Simpson – the former and current Swiss national coaches – have done in the past, not to mention others like Dave Henderson (France), Rick Cornacchia (Italy), Ted Nolan (Latvia) and many more.
The Austrian program is currently riding a high under the guidance of Viveiros, especially after it edged out rival Germany in the Olympic qualifying tournament to earn a spot here. This is the first time since the 2002 Salt Lake City Games that the country has competed on the sport’s biggest stage.
Just three NHLers currently hold Austrian passports – Thomas Vanek, Michael Grabner and Michael Raffl will all compete in Sochi – but Viveiros believes others are knocking at the door. His biggest challenge has been building belief in a relatively small hockey nation.
“We were used to … failure,” said Viveiros. “We were expected to lose all the time. When we took over three years ago, we said `We have to change something – the identity and the cultural thinking and the attitude. Instead of just coming to these tournaments and just taking part we have to put pressure on ourselves.’
“We felt that we had enough quality players that we could maybe do something like this to make an impact.”
A respectable showing at the Olympics is the next item on the agenda. It will be difficult in a group with Finland, Canada and a more experienced Norway team, but anything can happen in a single-elimination tournament.
Viveiros isn’t planning any big motivational speeches for the tough matchups to come. He anticipates that simply taking the same ice as Canada, for example, will be motivation enough.
“I don’t think I have to say anything – these guys, looking at the roster, they can’t wait to play and why not?” he said. “They get a chance to play against Sidney Crosby. It’s an honour.”
Interestingly, the language of choice during Austrian team meetings is English because Viveiros’s staff includes Rob Daum, the long-time coach of the University of Alberta and a former assistant with the Oilers.
However, after spending so much time in his adopted home, Viveiros can comfortably interact in German during one-on-one conversations with his players.
“Yes, but with a Canadian dialect,” he said. “The hockey language is the hockey language.”