December 5th is the feast day of St. Nicholas (the basis for Santa Claus) in the Netherlands and other European nations. I remember this every year because 25 years ago, my preschool teacher at little St. James made us take off our shoes, line them up outside our classroom door, and twenty minutes later, they were filled with candy. To this day, I’m still confused at what happened and why, but that’s neither here or there. To celebrate this important Dutch holiday, let’s check in on some of our former Boston University Terriers playing hockey in the Netherlands.
Former Terrier Jason Lawrence during a October 23rd game for the Eindhoven Kemphanen. (Photo: Eindhoven Kemphanen Facebook page)
After spending the 2009-10 season in the ECHL with Charlotte and Gwinnett, former Terrier right winger Jason Lawrence took his talents to the Netherlands, and now plays for the Eindhoven Kemphanen in the Nederlandse Ijshockey Bond (the Dutch Pro League.) The league has seven teams in its Eredisvie (highest level), and they play in several tournament type rounds throughout the season. The season began in late September and ends in late February. Many of the players in the Dutch Pro League are from Europe, but each team has a handful of foreign (U.S. or Canadian born) players.
Lawrence is one of Eindhoven’s five non-European players, and the only American. The Canadian and American players tend to lead the league in points, and Lawrence is no exception. He may be 19th overall in points in the entire league with 29 (13 goals, 16 assists), but he’s been on a hot streak as of late. On November 23rd, Lawrence had two goals and an assist in a 5-4 loss to The Hague. In Eindhoven’s next game, November 27th against Turnhout, he had a goal and two assists. In the team’s eight games of the North Sea Cup thus far (this part of the season, which will stretches from the first week in November until February 20th), Lawrence has points in five of them.
Fellow former Terrier Dan McGoff plays for the Dutch Pro League’s team in Nijmegen (the Devils), and isn’t far behind Lawrence with 27 points, good for 25th overall in the league. McGoff is one of three Americans on the Devils’ roster, which includes former Colorado College forward Scott Thauwald.
Interested in following Lawrence and McGoff’s Dutch careers? Even if you have no Dutch language skills (I luck out because I spent time in The Hague during my senior year of high school, but even with that my Dutch isn’t that great), you can follow along on the following sites:
Ijshockey.com (a Dutch hockey news site)
Nederlandse IJshockey Bond (the league’s official site – it also covers youth and junior national teams, so remember that you’re focusing on the “Eredivisie”)
Eindhoven Kemphanen’s Facebook page (which posts mainly in English)
9pm Media (the league’s hockey photographers, worth a look even if you could care less about the league – the photography is just stunning, and you get a real sense of the spirit of the game overseas)