Bernardston’s Doug Weiss is at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia. The 52-year-old Franklin County native is an orthopedic surgeon at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, N.H.
“They called me last summer,” said Weiss, who’s been affiliated with Team USA for over a decade. “Tournament-wise this is my 12th or 13th, but this will be my first men’s World.”
Weiss flew from Boston to Mannheim, Germany, on Monday and joined the team Tuesday. Team USA is primarily composed of players from NHL clubs that are out of Stanley Cup competition. Despite their inexperience playing together, Weiss said he expected they would quickly develop a camaraderie: “OK guys, let’s put together a good team here, jump aboard and see what we can do.”
Weiss and his brother Dave learned the game in the Franklin County Hockey Association, where they were coached by their father Bob Weiss up until they enrolled at Deerfield Academy. Dave attended Union College and played for the Dutchmen, and Doug played at Dartmouth from 1984-88 and was alternate captain his junior year and captain his senior year.
“The best memories I have are of playing on the frozen flooded cornfields,” said Weiss. “Matt Bete, John Reno, Dave and I would walk up the railroad tracks and play under the moonlight, then go to my parents’ house for hot chocolate. In the summer, we’d work tobacco and afterward go down to Enfield and play at the Twin Rinks.”
The tournament will be in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava, which borders Austria, and 250 miles east in Kosice, which borders Hungary. In Bratislava, Weiss will see the Danube River made famous by the Johan Strauss symphony he performed at the Paris World Fair in 1867. In Kosice, he’ll pass remnants of fortifications that were built in the 17th century to defend against Turkish invasions.
The U.S. hasn’t won an IIHF World Championship in modern history. Last year’s team lost in the semifinals to Sweden, 6-0, and beat Canada, 4-1, in the bronze medal game. This year’s roster is anchored by forward Patrick Kane, who scored 44 goals and had 110 points for the Blackhawks this season.
The competition is stacked with talent. Canada’s roster includes Toronto’s John Tavares and Detroit’s Tyler Bertuzzi. Team Russia’s lineup boasts the firepower of Washington Caps forwards Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov. Two-time defending champion Sweden’s roster includes Chicago’s Erik Gustafsson, Toronto’s William Nylander and Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
Weiss said Team USA’s hopes will be pinned on better players than previous years. “When you get Patrick Kane, that encourages some of the other high-level Americans like (Buffalo’s) Jack Eichel and (Calgary’s) Johnny Gaudreau. We’ve gone from NHL third- and fourth-line players trying to get some recognition to top line skaters who know the system and are passionate about it.”
Hobey Baker runner-up Adam Fox of Harvard has been added to the roster, together with East Longmeadow’s Frank Vatrano, who played 81 games and scored 24 goals for the Florida Panthers this season. Consensus first round pick Jack Hughes of the University of Michigan has joined his brother Quinn Hughes of the Canucks, and two roster spots remain open for whoever else gets bumped from the playoffs.
Team USA coach Jeff Blashill will be joined by his Red Wings assistant coach Dan Bylsma and New Jersey Devils head coach John Hynes. “What’s good is I’ve worked with these guys in the past,” said Weiss. “It’s nice to have that familiarity and they’re all good guys and easy to work with.”
Team USA’s first game is Friday against Slovakia, followed by Sunday against France, Monday against Finland, and then every other day against Great Britain, Denmark, Germany and Canada. The NHL Network’s coverage begins Friday with Canada versus Finland at 10 a.m., followed by Team USA versus Slovakia at 2 p.m. The network will air over 30 games, capped by the Gold Medal game on May 26 at 2 p.m.
Weiss will be standing next to a trainer – look for the one without the white towel draped over his shoulder – and his mission is to be sure the players don’t miss a shift. “These guys are all pros and to them it’s playoff hockey,” he said. “They’re banged up and bruised and keep playing. My job is to make sure they’re taken care of and are OK.”
Kentucky Derby Redux: On Saturday evening after Maximum Security was DQ’d and dropped to 17th in the 145th Kentucky Derby, the winning bouquet of roses was taken from the colt’s co-owner Mary West while she stood in the winner’s circle.
All that was left of this stunning and unexpected turn of events was for Rod Serling to step to the camera and deliver his dark moral to the story.
It was a scene straight from the Twilight Zone, but Gary and Mary West aren’t hayseeds. Their horses have won 11 races from 45 starts this year and have earned over $1.4 million in purse money. Their stable includes Game Winner, the 7-1 betting choice that finished out of the money.
They’ve been married for 50 years and are self-made billionaires. Neither has a college degree, but they did have the foresight to start a video conferencing company early in the tech boom. The Thoroughbred Daily News reported they sold their company in 2006 for $1.6 billion and have given millions to help improve the quality of life for the elderly.
The Wests got into horse racing in 1980, when they claimed a 3-year-old colt named Joe Blow.
Joe Blow? Right. You can’t make this stuff up.
It doesn’t sound great being 7,865th in a race, but that number was a top 20 finish for South Deerfield’s Lauren Galenski at last month’s London Marathon. Galenski was in a field of 42,549 runners who crossed the finish line across from Buckingham Palace. Her time was three hours, 35 minutes and nine seconds.
SQUIBBERS: Pablo Sandoval became the first player in a century to hit a home run, steal a base and pitch an inning during the Giants’ 12-4 loss to the Reds on Monday. Big Sandy (he’s up to 268 pounds according to baseball-reference.com) is being paid $550,000 by the Giants and $18 million by the Red Sox, who released him in 2017, less than three years into his six-year guaranteed contract. … A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano, who threw out Xander Bogaerts twice and Mookie Betts in Oakland early last month, was 2-for-10 and dropped a ball during this week’s series in Boston. … The Mets’ Mickey Callaway and Nationals skipper Dave Martinez are neck-and-neck in the race to be the first manager fired this season. Callaway can’t survive many more headlines like Tuesday’s New York Post: “Mets are teetering on edge of hopelessness” … Midway through the third period of Saturday’s Bruins game, a blonde-haired woman sitting in the first row behind the Boston bench held a yellow cloth sign with black letters that said, “nakopte jim prdel.” According to Google, the words are Slovakian for “kick their a**.” … Former UCLA coach Jim Mora, as quoted by Sports Illustrated regarding quarterback Josh Rosen’s inability to keep it simple on the gridiron: “He needs to be challenged intellectually so he doesn’t get bored. He’s a millennial. He wants to know why.” … Is it just me, or are we really hearing less about launch angles and mph off the bat this season? Thanks for that, because it was annoying and boring. … During NBC’s leadup to the Kentucky Derby, the Stanley Cup was filled with enough bourbon to knock out a racehorse. “I’ve seen worse things in the Stanley Cup than a mint julep,” said handicapper and former Blackhawks forward Eddie Olczyk.