Interview with Billy Jaffe, former Michigan hockey star and coach of Team USA at Maccabiah Games

Coach Jaffe gives pre-game speech to USA (photo courtesy of Josh Richelew 

Last week, the USA team took home silver in the open division of men's hockey at the Maccabiah Games, colloquially known as the Jewish Olympics. The team featured Colby's Ben Chwick ('14) and Middlebury's Max Greenwald ('16) of the NESCAC. Their coach at the tournament was Billy Jaffe, former University of Michigan hockey star and current NHL Network analyst.

Besides his collegiate playing experience and pro hockey broadcasting credentials, Jaffe has a special tie to the quardennial athletic competition held in Israel. Jaffe co-captained team USA in the 1997 Maccabiah Games, the only other time the 81 year old event featured ice hockey. Like the 2013 USA team, Jaffe's 1997 team took home silver after losing to Canada in the finals; the 1997 edition of the red,white and blue fared a little better than last week's 7-1 loss, falling to the Canadians only 5-3. Jaffe remembers being at the '97 Games and "looking around and saying, ‘Wow, we’re all Jewish,’ but we were going to try and kick each other’s butts.”

Team USA loses to Canada, earns Silver Medal in Maccabiah Games Finals

It isn't gold, but silver is nothing to sneeze at. Team USA, which features Colby's Ben Chwick and Middlebury's Max Greenwald, lost the ice hockey open division Maccabiah Games gold medal finals against Canada 7-1 in Israel today to take home the silver medal.

The Americans finish the tournament at 3-2, with the only two losses coming to the victorious Cancuks.  The Canadians went a perfect 5-0, outscoring opponents 48-5.

Not one to disappoint in their consistency of disappointing, the Maccabiah website has no info on the game. What we do know came once again from the USA team manager Josh Richelew's twitter feed (@jrichelew). The Canadians scored two goals in each of the first two periods to carry a 4-0 lead into the third period.

Maccabiah Games Gold Medal Game: USA vs Canada 1 PM (Israel time) 7/26/13

Who: USA (3-1) vs Canada (4-0)
Where: Canada Centre Metula, Israel
When: 1 PM (local Israeli time; 6 AM EDT)
Audio/Video: Not Available 
Livestats: Maccabiah  (be careful, often doesn't work)



The Maccabiah Games Hockey Overview 
USA Round Robin Recap
USA Semifinal against Ukraine 


The Lowdown: This ones for all the...
In case you haven't heard, there is such a thing as the Jewish Olympics aka The Maccabiah Games. For the second time in the history of the event - the first time being in 1997 - the Jewish Olympics has hockey. Team USA is comprised mostly of NCAA Division I and Division III athletes, including two of the NESCAC's own : Colby's Ben Chwick and Middlebury's Max Greenwald. Team Canada is a hodgepodge of major juniors, Division I, minor league and former D-III players.

Canada and the USA faced off on Tuesday in the final game of round robin play. The Canucks pumelled their southern neighbors 6-1, despite multiple 5-3 power play chances early and 44 shots from the USA.  Overall, Canada has not been tested in the tournament, outscoring opponents 41-4 in four games.

The U.S. has a chance to sweep the gold medals in all three levels of hockey (Junior, Open, Masters). The USA Masters (40+) team, which included Amherst alum John Linder ('80), defeated Canada today to win the gold. The Juniors (18U) division features another USA/Canada final in the gold medal game tomorrow.

Key to the Game: Speed Kills
The U.S. enters the game off an "impressive" (according to U.S. coach Billy Jaffe) 6-0 win over the Ukraine in the semis. After the game, Chwick said they used their speed extremely well. Team manager Josh Richelew said their speed would be a key to the game. Sensing a theme? The U.S. will need to employ their fleet of fast feet to pull off the feat of upsetting Canada - and make no mistake it would be an upset - and return stateside with gold medals around their neck.

Otherwise, the usual keys to a championship game apply: goaltending, composure/aggravating your opponent and executing on special teams. That last point is especially true for an underdog, even more so for one that couldn't capitalize on 5-3s in the first matchup.

Players to Watch (provided you could actually watch) 
Ben Chwick (F) and Max Greenwald (D) Hey, this is a NESCAC site. Also, Ben and Max have done their part to help the patriotic cause. Greenwald has two points (1-1-2) and Ben has one (1-0-1).

Players to Watch (not from the NESCAC)
Ben Rosen (D/F) The recent BU grad has played well in the tournament, racking up several points, including a goal in the second period of the semis that broke the 0-0 deadlock and opened up the onslaught for the Americans. Exactly how many points does Rosen have? We'll let you know if the Maccabiah site ever gets its sh*t together.

Rosen also has several ties to the 'Cac. He came directly to Israel from Islanders mini-camp, where he played alongside Hamilton's Bennet Schneider. After graduating from BU, he signed an ATO with the Bridgeport SoundTigers (Islanders AHL affiliate), where he played one game with Bowdoin grad Jon Landry ('06), who just signed a two-way contract with the Minnesotta Wild.

Adam Henrich (F) The 28 year old from Toronto leads the Canadians in scoring with 15 points (8-7-15). We know this, because the Canadian team page actually has its sh*t together. Anyway, the journeyman minor leaguer, who has 83 career points in the AHL (32-51-83),  earned first star honors for his three points (2-1-3) in the first matchup of US/Canada.

Tweet, tweet 
Our first pre-game tweet comes to us from Kristina Carbonneau, presumably the daughter of Canada's head coach Guy Carbonneau.  Mike Keenan, coach of the Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup team, was supposed to coach Canada. But when Keenan had to back out because of personal reasons, Carbonneau stepped in. Carbonneau coached the Canadians for three seasons and won three Stanley Cups as a player, so not a bad backup plan.

#TeamCanada hockey is kicking serious butt at the #Maccabiah games!!! #Canada vs. #USA in tomorrow's finals! #Proud #CoachGuy #GoForGold👆
— Kristina Carbonneau (@K_Carbonneau) July 25, 2013

The next comes from defenseman Colby Cohen, who was supposed to play for Team USA but ended up having to back out, most likely because he signed a contract to play in the Finnish pro league a few weeks before the tournament. Cohen played three games in the NHL with the Avalanche in 2011 before being traded to the Bruins, where he earned a Stanley Cup ring without ever playing in a game. Not a bad deal. The tweet is at US coach Billy Jaffe and Ben Rosen, a former teammate of Cohen's at BU.

Good luck @BJaffe @BRosen8 an the rest of the USA boys against the Canucks in the gold medal game. Wishing I was there. #greggoldberg
— Colby Cohen (@ColbyCohen36) July 25, 2013

You were born to be Jewish American Hockey Players 
And finally, in honor of the underdog USA team going for gold, we present four year old Josh Sacco's Herb Brooks'  pre-game speech from the 1980 Olympics, which he learned from watching Kurt Russell's portrayal of Brooks in "Miracle." Sacco's adorable video, complete with a Brooks replica suit, went viral four years ago and he has given the speech on talkshows, an NHL game and even a baseball version at a Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway. Enjoy and go U-S-A!

Team USA defeats Ukraine, advances to finals against Canada in Maccabiah Games

Team USA, which includes Colby's Ben Chwick ('14) and Middlebury's Max Greenwald ('16), defeated the Ukraine 6-0 today to advance to the 2013 Maccabiah Games men's hockey finals against Canada, who dismantled Israel 13-2 in the other semifinals.

The Maccabiah website, true to its shaky performance throughout the tournament, provides next to no details for the game, even erroneously posting the wrong score; the 5-3 listed tally represents the round robin match between the USA/Ukraine, the smallest goal differential of any of the eight games in the  tournament so far.

What we do know of the game comes mostly from Facebook and twitter thanks to Josh Richelew, the USA team manager. After a scoreless first period, the USA jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second period. The floodgates opened in the third and the US squad ended up with six goals, three of them on the power play.

Greenwald had an assist somewhere in there while Chwick did not figure in the scoring sextet. According to Chwick, "All in our best effort of the tournament. We used our speed extremely well." (h/t Benet Pols)

The US now faces off against a Canada team that beat the red, white and blue 6-1 in the final game of round robin play yesterday. Despite the lopsided score, the US did pepper the Canadian goaltender with 44 shots. The gold medal game will take place on Friday afternoon in Israel. 

In lieu of details of the semis, here are some fun tweets.  The first comes to us form Stan Fischler, Emmy award winning broadcaster for the MSG Network (Rangers, Islanders, Devils). He tweeted out the finals matchup before either semifinal game was played. If Israel and Ukraine used it as bulletin board material, it didn't work.

So in the Jewish Olympics -- otherwise known as the Maccabiah Games -- it's Canada vs. USA in the Final on Friday at 1 p.m. Israel time.
— Stan Fischler (@StanFischler) July 24, 2013

The next comes to us from Ben Rosen, USA team member, former Boston University Terrier and current property of the New York Islanders organization. Rosen discovered that the Canada Centre had a shooting range and decided to blow off some steam pre-game.

Shooting range in a hockey rink...only in Israel #headshot #firsttimer pic.twitter.com/IQ32FG3vOO
— Ben Rosen (@BRosen8) July 24, 2013

Who's that tweeting at USA coach Billy Jaffe in the tweet below? None other than Mike Eruzione, captain of the famous 1980 USA "Miracle on Ice" Team.

Team USA #Maccabiah2013 wins 6-0. Best effort by the boys so far “@MERUZIONE: one game at a time. Good luck on your quest for Gold.”
— Billy Jaffe (@BJaffe) July 24, 2013

Enjoy the rest of the tweets below and don't forget to vote for who you think will win the gold medal matchup between the Canucks and Yanks. (poll is on upper right hand corner sidebar)

6-0 win. Gold Medal game vs Canada on Friday
— Josh Richelew (@jrichelew) July 24, 2013

Gold medal game againt the US on Friday
— Jesse Feldman (@JesseFeldmanTV) July 24, 2013

Next stop gold medal game #canada #dumbcanucks #usa #maccabiah2013 http://t.co/wC8MX3s6dP
— Max Motew (@FattyLip1) July 24, 2013

Good luck to @BRosen8 in his gold medal game #favoritejew @ColbyCohen36 is a close second though #mazeltov
— Vinny Saponari (@VinnySap) July 25, 2013

Team USA Maccabiah Games Round Robin Recap

by Benet Pols

Colby's Ben Chwick (courtesy of Colby SID)

On to the medal round. With round robin play completed at the Maccabiah Games, Team USA featuring NESCAC’s Ben Chwick (Colby ’14) and Max Greenwald (Middlebury ’16) is seeded second.

After going 2-1 in the round robin the team faces a rematch today, July 24th, with third seeded Ukraine (1-2), in the semi-final. The other semi-final features Canada (3-0) and Israel (0-3). The final and consolation will be played on July 26th.

Canada can expect to reach the finals as Israel has come up on the short-end of some big scores. The hosts lost 14-0 to the US, 15-0 to Canada and 14-3 to Ukraine.

The Canadian roster, like the US roster, features a number of players with NCAA experience.

Team USA’s semi-final should be more difficult. While the US side beat Ukraine in their first meeting, 5-3, it was the only tight game in the Maccabiah Games so far. Both Team USA and Ukraine were easily beaten by Canada: the US suffered a 6-1 setback while Ukraine lost 7-1. However, Canada’s goaltender, Cody Rosen, was called upon to make 43 saves against the United States; according to the Team Canada website, he performed especially well in a penalty filled second period that saw the Canadians short-handed frequently.

Round robin play featured a US win over the host nation Israel. In spite of the Israeli press’s game prediction that “Israel may have the advantage of being an established unit of players who know each other well and are internationally experienced,” the US team built a quick 7-0 first period lead and then coasted to a 14-0 win. Middlebury’s Greenwald notched a second period goal with a shot that found the top-shelf. Greenwald moved into the high slot from the left point and took a pass from a teammate moving out of the right corner across the face-off circle.

Israel does many things well but up-to-the-minute scorekeeping seems to be a challenge. Much of the detail of these games is picked up from players’ and coaches’ emails and tweets. Josh Richelew, the University of Michigan Director of Hockey Operations and Maccabiah Team USA manager, created a YouTube channel that provides some highlights as well. Below is the embed for Greenwald's goal from the channel. However, no information on assists, penalties or goaltender performance is available from the Maccabiah sites.

The second game featured a much better matched opponent in Ukraine.  Team USA went ahead 2-1 on Chwick’s first goal of the tournament and the red, white and blue held on for a 5-3 win.

Ukraine’s roster included two-time NHL All-star Alexei Zhitnik, a man who played more NHL games on the blue-line than any other player born in one of the nations of the former Soviet Union. In addition to his 1085 NHL games the forty year old picked up an Olympic goal medal playing for the “Unified Team” in 1992 and a silver playing for Russia in 1998. Anticipating facing off against Zhitnik, Max Greewald, tongue-in-cheek, noted that he didn’t “know whether to be excited or scared.”

The United States takes on Ukraine at 2 PM EDT ( 9 PM in Israel) after Canada faces off against Israel at 11 AM EDT (6 PM Israel). Limited live stats for the games can be found here at the Maccabiah website.

Two current (Colby's Ben Chwick, Middlebury's Max Greenwald) and one former (Amherst's John Linder) NESCAC players represent USA in Maccabiah Games

by Benet Pols 

Colby's Ben Chwick (courtesy Dustin Satloff Photography)

Hockey in the desert. Ridiculous you say? Well not if you’re the city of Glendale, Arizona, where it seems perfectly reasonable to keep an NHL franchise no matter the expense. The Phoenix Coyotes, however, are a big time pro sports team with revenue sharing and TV contracts.

But what about NESCAC hockey in the desert? In July, no less? Two NESCAC players will compete for Team USA in this summer's Maccabiah Games in Israel. Ben Chwick, a rising senior forward at Colby and the White Mule’s second leading scorer last season, and Max Greenwald, who just finished his freshman year on the blue-line for the Middlebury Panthers, will join 17 others on the Maccabiah USA’s men’s ice hockey roster. In addition, John Linder, a 1980 graduate of Amherst, will play defense in the master’s division.

The Maccabiah Games are billed as the Jewish Olympics and are hosted quadrennially by the State of Israel. Jewish athletes from around the world represent their home nation in games with a similar format to the Olympic Games. The games were first hosted in 1932 in what was then known as the “British Mandate of Palestine”; 400 athletes competed that year. The event occurred again in 1935 but the Second World War put the games on hold until 1950; they’ve been growing ever since. 

This July 8,600 athletes from around the world will participate in competitions ranging from badminton to basketball. Americans, including Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman, who will be honored at the opening ceremonies, number about 770.

 Ice Hockey, however, has not been a regular facet of the games. In fact, it’s been featured just once before, in 1997. The open division features four teams this year. Joining the Israeli hosts are teams from Canada, the Ukraine and the USA (there are three divisions for most sports: juniors, open, and masters. Masters athletes are over 40 while juniors are teens; the open division is the most competitive).

Israel is a small nation, nearly the size of New Hampshire, but contrary to perception the hockey games will not be played in the desert. Israel has just one full sized ice hockey arena, the appropriately named “Canada Center” in the town of Metula, not far from the border with Lebanon. It is about as far north in Israel as a person could travel, forming the apex of what is known as the panhandle of Galilee.  This region of Israel is fairly mountainous with peaks ranging to about 4,000 feet, not unlike what you might seen in Green Mountains of Vermont, or the western mountains of Maine. According to The Jerusalem Post, the Metula rink is the country’s "one-and-only full-sized rink, recently refurbished by the Games Organizing Committee, including equipment imported from Scandinavia."

The Post goes on to point out that “six NHL team owners each donated to assist participation: Daryl Katz (Edmonton Oilers); Henry Samueli (Anaheim Ducks); Ed Snider (Philadelphia Flyers); Larry Tanenbaum (Toronto Maple Leafs); Cliff Viner (Florida Panthers) and Jeff Vinik (Tampa Bay Lightning)…..In addition, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Joe Cohen of Los Angeles also contributed to support the tournament.”

The NHL connections continue as the Canadian side is coached by Mike Keenan, familiar to New York Rangers 

fans for having returned the Stanley Cup to Madison Square Garden in 1994 after a generation’s long absence.

But from the looks of it, the Canada Center will be all-to-familiar to the boys from the NESCAC. With a low roof, limited fan capacity, and all spectator seating on one side of the arena, it shares a resemblance with the municipal arenas that same of the  less prestigious D-III schools call home.

According to Chwick and Greenwald, the USA roster --ages 18-34--includes a split of mostly Division I & III collegiate players, and a few younger players who are active in juniors. One player, Ben Rosen, has some AHL experience; Rosen completed his career at BU this year and then got into one game with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the New York Islanders AHL affiliate. Rosen just finished up mini-camp with the Islanders, alongside Hamilton's Bennett Schneider. 

Chwick looks to provide some serious offensive punch to the team.  The 5'10', 160 lb. play-making forward is a Purchase, NY native and product of the Berkshire School. During his junior season in Waterville he was the White Mules’ second leading scorer, garnering 23 points (7-16-23) in 25 games; Chwick trailed only team MVP, and Concannon Award semifinalist, Nick Lanza in scoring. More important, he led a late season push that saw Colby surge from last place in NESCAC to secure the seventh seed for the NESCAC tournament; the Mules eventually succumbed to second seed Williams in a tight 2-1 opening round tilt.

Greenwald's USA Jersey, (@Grizzwald11)

In their last seven regular season games Colby went 4-1-2.  The turn-around arguably started with Chwick’s tying goal with 6 ticks on the clock against cross state, out-of-conference rival UNE. During the seven game run Chwick netted three goals and assisted on six others, bring his season total to 16 helpers. For the season, Chwick led Colby in assists and was second in goals with seven.  

Middlebury’s Max Greenwald just finished his first season in NESCAC. Listed as a defenseman by the Panthers, the freshman had a goal and five assists in 15 games, but his high school career shows he too has some offensive punch. The product of the Landon School in Potomac, Maryland scored 21 goals in 22 games during his senior year, playing both forward and defense. Hockey is a serious commitment for the Greenwald family; until recently they were part owners of the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays.

Greenwald played in both of Middlebury’s NESCAC playoff games this year, picking up an assist in their 4-2 semifinal loss to eventual champion Bowdoin. 

Meanwhile, John Linder, competing in the masters division, has only just returned to the ice after a 15-year hiatus. A friend who was already on the masters roster put the retired businessman, who now works as a Rabbi in Arizona, in touch with the team. After getting back in shape, Linder attended the tryouts in March 2013 in Philadelphia before being selected. Linder’s story is featured on the Maccabiah Games website.

While there are formal tryouts, a recruitment network picks up many players. Like Linder, Chwick heard about the games from a friend. Unable to attend the tryouts he made the roster based on the recommendation of coaches. Greenwald was recruited by University of Vermont Associate Athletic Director Jeff Schulman. Schulman, a four-year player at UVM and a veteran of the 1997 Maccabiah USA team, has remained affiliated with the games over the years and has a professional relationship with Middlebury coach Bill Beaney.

The open division features four teams: Israel, Canada, Ukraine and the USA. A press release on the Maccabiah website notes that the three visiting teams are expected to be strong but suggests, “Israel may have the advantage of being an established unit of players who know each other well and are internationally experienced.” Neither Greenwald, nor Chwick, have played internationally before and the team has spent very little time on the ice together.

In an initial round robin beginning July 20^th, each team will play the others once apiece; based on the results of the round robin they’ll be seeded 1 through 4 and then play a standard single elimination tournament. The final will be played on July 26^th.

But there’s more than hockey to these games. As Linder notes: touring Israel is a big mission of the Maccabiah Game.  "To bring people to Israel and to experience the land of Israel. . . .I’m thrilled with the honor of playing for this fabulous group of men, not only to support Israel and our brothers and sisters living in Israel, but to have the experience of competing as Jewish athletes and representing the United States of America.”

Max Greenwald will be making his first trip to Israel, but this is Ben Chwick’s second time. It promises to be packed with activity, hockey and otherwise. According to Ben: 

“The trip has started with a week of touring around the country with the rest of the USA athletes here. We then go to the north where the only full size rink is for a week of competition. And then we have a week to watch the rest of the athletes finish their events. I'm looking forward to getting to learn more about the country and culture. So far the country has been beautiful.” 

And, of course, there’s the opportunity to meet Aly Raisman.