As promised Nemes Benjámin (Benji) of the Patriots has given us a behind the scenes peak at the MHL All Star Gala, and he has said that it was a great experience. Benji said it was obvious right from the start that this was the best of the MHL, he continues by saying the pace of the practice showed the talent that was assembled. The young stars also had the chance to see an old boys match where they had the fortune of seeing a number of legends playing against each other. Among some of these people that Nemes had a chance to meet during the weekend was Alexei Yashin, KHL president Alexander Medvedev, as well as the managing director and CEO of the league that Benjámin plays in, Dmitri Efimov.
The All-Star game itself was not like what you usually experience in a situation like this, of course everyone would like to show off their skills but then again no one really wants to suffer an injury that could put them out for an extended period of time when playing a match that doesn’t have an influence on their teams place in the standings. In this match Nemes said that everyone was playing at full tilt, at 120% wanting to show that they were deservedly picked for this gala and to show that they are not only more then capable of playing at this level but also the next one up as well. Nemes was on the 4th line with the other three none Russian players on the West roster as well as a Russian defenseman, as Benjámin said it, “I was on the 4th line with the rest of the non-Russian players, two Belarus forwards, with the Latvian defenseman and a Russian defenseman.” This line did not get as much ice time as the other lines but it looked like they made the most of it by scoring the only goal of the match for their team in a 3-1 loss.
All in all Nemes could not have had a better weekend (well maybe a win would have been icing on the cake). As a fan the Patriots and Hungarian hockey we can look forward to this being a small step forward for ice hockey in this country.
Check back in the near future for more news about the Patriots and the MHL.
Szabolcs Závodszky
Foto: Benjamin Nemes with Dmitri Efimov