Israel’s ‘ice orphans’: Survival, legacy, and the battle for hockey gold in Sofia
Team Israel gathers on the ice at their last practice before the tournament. (photo credit: MAX MILLER) For the small, bruised, and fiercely dedicated community of Israeli hockey, this tournament is absolutely everything. The air surrounding the Israeli national ice hockey team these days is as thin, cold, and profoundly fragile as the very ice they glide upon and while the global sports media remains largely indifferent to the matches taking place at the Winter Sports Palace in the heart of Sofia, Bulgaria .
And while the eyes of the sporting world are certainly not fixed on the struggles of a lower-tier division, for the small, bruised, and fiercely dedicated community of Israeli hockey, this tournament is absolutely everything. This is not merely a competition; it is an existential battle for a program that has been pushed to the very brink of extinction. The agonizing anticipation has already broken, the first puck has already been dropped onto the scarred surface of the rink, and the first critical chapter of Israel’s harrowing journey in the 2026 IIHF World Championship Division II, Group B, the high-stakes, deeply physical encounter against the national team of New Zealand, has already been written into the history books.
Israel defeated New Zealand 7-6 in overtime in the first game of the tournament and was set to face Bulgaria late Tuesday, followed by group matches slated against Chinese Taipei, Kyrgyzstan and Iceland However, the most staggering detail of this opening clash didn’t happen on the scoreboard, but behind the bench. In a plot twist that feels more like a fever dream than professional international sports, head coach Evgeny Gusin was forced to be physically absent from the bench for this inaugural game. While the players were warming up in Sofia, Gusin was embroiled in a desperate, last-minute bureaucratic war back in Israel, personally fighting to secure the final flights and travel documents for several of his pupils who were stranded by wartime logistics.
It is perhaps the ultimate illustration of the “amateur” chaos the program faces: a national head coach serving as a travel agent until the very last second, sacrificing his place on the bench to ensure his players could simply reach the arena. In Gusin’s absence, the team’s leadership fell to a unique duo. On the ice, the veteran presence of Kirill Polozov, a man whose career has been defined by his steady hand in high-pressure moments, stepped up to guide the younger lines through the tactical fog.
Joining him on the bench was Gusin’s trusted assistant, Mike Gennello. The American-born figure whose influence on the local scene is growing rapidly as he prepares to lead the United States delegation for the upcoming Maccabiah Games, found himself standing on the lines against New Zealand, serving as the primary voice in the locker room. This makeshift coaching structure is yet another vivid illustration of the program’s fundamental duality: a heartbreakingly unprofessional infrastructure met with the boundless heart and devotion of those who refuse to let the sport die.
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