October 2009
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12 Volume 13 Number 4 October 2009 DENIS HAINAULT Born: March 20, 1957 in Montreal, Canada ■■ With Hockey Canada ❒ Director, High Performance ❒ Team manager for the National October 2009 U20 Team ❒ Team leader with Canada’s Volume 13 Number 4 Men’s Olympic Hockey Team 1998 and 2002 Published by International Ice Hockey Federation Editor-in-Chief Horst Lichtner Editor Szymon Szemberg Design Jenny Wiedeke ❒ Event manager for the 1995 World U20 Championship ❒ Manager for the U18 team and U17 program from 1991-1996 Don’t forget to expect the unexpected ■■ In Vancouver: Will oversee the entire hockey tournament in two venues with 2009 Victoria Cup a strong reminder hundreds of volunteers. not to count the underdog out. Mr. Ice Sport: It’s no easy task to take organize 30 years ago, the U.S. Olympic team taught the world a very valuable les- any event at the Winter Olympic son - never count the little guy out. It was a lesson that Games, but Denis Hainault has a was just reinforced a few weeks ago when extreme particularaly hot seat as the man in underdog Zurich upended NHL giant Chicago in the charge of hockey for Vancouver 2010. He is in charge of making latest edition of the Victoria Cup. Could it be a lesson sure tthat everything runs perfectly that continues to endure through the upcoming season with an entire nation’s, and as we look ahead to a watershed year for hockey? We world’s, focus on the two venues will only know that answer in May. that he will be in charge of. PHOTO: JEFF VINNICK RENÉ FASEL EDITORIAL ■■ The second edition of the Victoria Cup showed that this event has a great future. Having NHL teams play against European clubs for a trophy on an annual Getting Vancouver ready for the World basis has been the missing piece in the international hockey puzzle. After the New York Rangers' inaugural win in 2008, the ZSC Lions of Zurich upset By Lucas Aykroyd ❒ What are the biggest challenges that you face as ❒ The physical layout of this arena is going to be dif- the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1, at Zurich's Hallenstadion on September 29, thus the VANOC director of ice sports? ferent than the set-up during the Vancouver equalizing the score to 1-1 between the continents. ■■ Denis Hainault is no stranger to international For me, it's a challenge overall. It's about building a team. Canucks' NHL season, for instance, in terms of where hockey events, but VANOC's director of ice sports We have different people working for us with different the media is positioned or the dressing rooms. What Although the Finnish team Tappara defeated the Florida Panthers in an exhibition is gearing up for the biggest challenge of his needs, and we need to get them to all work together in the goes into working out that configuration? game in a shootout in Tampere one day earlier, the Lions' victory was the first career: the 2010 Olympics. same direction and deliver what'll probably be the biggest There are a lot of different groups that we have to accom- ‘real’ win by a European club over an NHL team in 18 years. hockey tournament ever. There are little challenges that modate during the Olympics, like the Olympic Family, the The 52-year-old Montreal native worked for Hockey come up daily, but we overcome those as we move along. media, and the athletes. For instance, you need 12 dressing It was a memorable game before an enthusiastic crowd which will cherish the Canada for nearly 15 years, supervising and managing rooms to accommodate each team. Actually, in this buil- triumph for a long, long time. Everyone was a winner, the NHL, the IIHF, Swiss both men's and women's national teams. Among his ❒ How hard was it to find volunteers for the ding, we need 14, if I include the game-day dressing hockey, the ZSC Lions and also the Chicago Blackhawks. After the event, which career highlights, Hainault worked with the teams that Hockey Canada Cup? rooms. Right now, GM Place has a maximum of five dres- also included a 9-2 trashing of the Swiss champion HC Davos, the Blackhawks won gold medals at the World U20s in the 1990's and For the Hockey Canada Cup, we have approximately 280 sing rooms. So there is a lot of space that we have to have established a new fan base in central Europe. 2000's, and served as a team leader with Canada's workers, including 190 volunteers. Hockey being as big review. It's a big part of what we do on a daily basis. We Olympic squad at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games. He as it is in Canada, it wasn't hard to get volunteers. look at every space in this building to see how we can was hired by VANOC, the 2010 Olympic organizing com- People know how big the next step is, so we were able accommodate the different groups. It's worth noting that both Victoria Cup games so far have ended with one-goal wins. mittee, in 2005. to find the proper people to run our programs. The big- ■■ gest difficulty is for people to take time off from work. ❒ At the end of this test event, how do you evalua- While the international calendar for national teams is nearly saturated (Olympics, With just over five months left before the Games kick Many have travelled and found accommodations at te what was done well and what needs to be better? World Championships, World Cup of Hockey and various events like the Euro Hockey off, the Hockey Canada Cup women's tournament plays their own expense to be part of this. I'm very impressed We will have a debrief as part of our process. We'll sit Tour), it is international club hockey that has the potential to expand hockey's frontier. THE WORLD ON HIS SHOULDERS: Chicago captain Jonathan Toews and his teammates a vital role in testing Vancouver's operational readiness. with the type of commitment these volunteers are wil- down with everyone. Obviously, you can never operate learned a valuable lesson at the hands of the Zurich Lions. After Chicago easily won its exhi- IIHF.com caught up with Hainault at the Sweden-Finland ling to give. any test event at the same level as the Olympics, becau- While the first NHL club vs. Euro club game was played in 1975, the games have bition game against Davos in a 9-2 rout, the Blackhawks had a rude awakening against game at GM Place on September 3 to get some more se the Olympics are unique and they're on such a huge never occurred on a regular basis, there has never been anything concrete at European Champion ZSC Lions Zurich, which earned an improbable 2-1 win in the Victoria insight. ❒ And how many volunteers will you need for the level. But our staff is directed to look not just as this stake and there has never been a solid marketing strategy behind it. Cup title game. It was an eye opener for the young forward and his NHL teammates. Olympics for hockey? event, but how they're going to do things during the ❒ Why is it necessary to hold an Olympic test For hockey specifically, we'll have about 130 volunteers at Games. We look at things we can do differently. All this has great potential to change with the Victoria Cup. Our sport has been bles- Now, after two editions of the Victoria Cup, we must sit down with the NHL and the event? Canada Hockey Place, and about the same number at UBC sed with a natural North America vs. Europe rivalry, a competition which has provided NHLPA and evaluate the events to see how we can improve. I am sure that we, for ❒ It's really important for us to prepare and train our Thunderbird Arena. To run the venues, when you add it all The ultimate question: are you going to be ready some of the most exciting moments in hockey history. example, can find a format which is more appealing to the clubs, players and fans. volunteers. These people are not necessarily used to the up, it'll be close to 1,000 volunteers, including everything in February 2010? processes that are involved in the Olympic Games. A lot from press services to medical services and so on. When the IIHF compiled the '100 Top Stories of the Century' during our centennial ■■ As you read this, there’s approximately 100 days left until the 2010 Olympic of our volunteers are experts in the roles they're playing, I'm totally convinced and comfortable in saying we'll be year in 2008, nine of the Top 10 stories were related to this transcontinental rivalry. Winter Games in Vancouver. Both the men's and women's events have the potential ❒ but even for, say, off-ice officials, the roles can be diffe- Have you gotten advice from Jukka-Pekka ready to host the world in 2010. Of course, that holds to be the greatest hockey tournaments ever. rent from what they do in the Canadian Hockey League Vuorinen, your predecessor as director of ice true for the Olympics in general. But from a hockey point ■■ The ambition of the IIHF and NHL must be to develop the Victoria Cup into hoc- or the NHL. We also need to look at the modifications sports during the 2006 Olympics in Turin? of view, this is a country that's hosting events on a regu- key's own Ryder Cup, the extremely popular USA vs.