After a 10-2 loss to Canada in the preliminary round in the 2012 world junior championship in Alberta, a handful of Danish players put on a mock news conference while waiting for the team bus to the hotel.
To those watching, it was refreshing to see the players having fun and enjoying the experience despite their on-ice disappointment. But to their coaches, it was a sign that the players were happy with just being there, and that was not good enough.
The coach at the time, Todd Bjorkstrand, benched all five players for their next game.
Denmark, a country of 5.6 million in the shadow of the hockey powerhouses Sweden and Finland, has 25 rinks and about 4,000 registered hockey players, but it has grand ambitions to develop some of the best hockey players in the world.
Defenseman Mathias Lassen said the incident in Alberta “gave hockey players in Denmark a hunger for more.”
“It made everyone work even harder to be better because we don’t want that,” he added. “We want to play in the top group, but we need to earn our spot.”
Since 2008, Denmark has been climbing the ranks of hockey. That year, Denmark earned its first promotion to the top 10-team division at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s annual world junior championship for the best hockey players under the age of 20. But when the Danes finished in last place, after being outscored by 23 goals, they were relegated.
The Danish Ice Hockey Union decided it was time to make changes. The federation overhauled its development system by introducing the Age Training Concept, which educates coaches at all levels on the proper way to train each age group to ensure the best development of the players.
“We have a lot of parents coaching back home, and they go and watch the elite team and then they want to do that with a group of 10-year-olds,” said Flemming Green, the development director for the Danish federation. “It doesn’t work like that. It was important to have a tool for the coaches so we can all be reading the same pages in the same book and do what is right for the players.”
It seemed as if the team was headed in the right direction when Denmark returned to the top division for the 2012 tournament. The Danes again finished last and were relegated, but the mock news conference was a turning point.
By the 2015 event, Denmark earned its first victory in the top division, a 4-3 shootout win over Switzerland, and advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time.
“We were really proud of our performance last year,” Lassen said. “It set a standard that we’re not just here to have fun. We want to be looked at as a serious competitor and not just as the worst team that’s happy to be here. We want more than that.”
This season, Denmark reached the quarterfinals again, falling to top-seeded Russia in overtime. Russia lost to Finland 4-3 in overtime in the gold medal game.
“Our first goal is to make it to the quarterfinals and having done that the past two years, our next goal is to win a quarterfinal game and play for a medal,” said Alexander True, who was on last year’s team and is one of 12 players eligible to compete in next year’s tournament. “That would be amazing. This can’t be enough for us anymore.”
For Denmark coach Olaf Eller, it is about small steps.
“We know the best teams are simply at a higher level than we are right now, but maybe we can be a little bit better than some of the lower teams, and hopefully we can be better than we were last year,” he said. “We want to get better and it might not show in the number of games we win, but more in how well the games are played and how close the games are.”
The men’s national team has stayed in the 16-team top division since 2003, but has not finished higher than eighth at the world championship. Currently 15th in the international rankings, Denmark will play an Olympic qualifying tournament in September, hoping to participate in the Winter Games for the first time. In May 2018, Denmark will host the men’s world championship, another first.
There are six Danish players in the NHL, including Eller’s son, Montreal Canadiens forward Lars Eller; Anaheim Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen; and Frans Nielsen, who is second on the New York Islanders in goals.
“The guys we have now in the NHL show that more is possible,” Olaf Eller said. “Ten years ago, the goal for Danish players was to be good enough to play in Sweden and, now, it’s still good to play in the SHL, but ask any of these players what their goal is and it’s playing in the NHL. They know that it’s possible now.”
With the increased visibility comes more sponsorship dollars, more resources, more opportunities and more responsibility for the players and coaches to keep raising the bar.
“I want to make it to the NHL,” True, 18, said. “I’m not there yet, but I am going to focus on working hard every day and see where it takes me, and I want the young hockey players in Denmark to see us doing our best and want to do that too and go after their dreams as well. It can be more than just a dream.”
That is a mission young Danish players are taking seriously.
“We just have to keep going, keep getting better, taking small steps and work towards closing that gap,” Eller said. “We are a small hockey country, but we are trying.”
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