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Beck has since stepped down as the national team head coach, but last spring he took them to the world championship in, of course, Istanbul, where they finished fifth in their six-team pool, largely because Georgia was disqualified for an eligibility transgression.

He’s also retired from the full-contact men’s league — please consider the image of the former blue-line terror playing in a Hong Kong recreation league — because a) his body couldn’t take the grind, b) he has five stints in his heart and c) he was suspended “a couple of times.”

“My office told me maybe it was time to quit,” Beck says in a phone conversation from Hong Kong. “I think they were doing me a favour.”

He continues.

“I went through different stages in my life, but to me it was all growing experiences to take me where I am now. It was a different era (in his playing days) and a lot of things were around. But they never altered my decision-making.

“I’m still competitive and I get to coach kids in a competitive environment. I think we’re building something here and I always think of Ernie (McLean, who coached Beck and Smyl on the fabled New Westminster Bruins team of the late ’70s). He did so much for us as players and men, I try to use the same things he taught us.”

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Beck was brought to Hong Kong 10 years ago through a Vancouver connection with Thomas Wu, a local businessman who was interested in starting the academy. His position has since taken him all over Asia, including the Chinese hockey hot-bed in Harbin, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. He’s also travelled to Russia, the Czech Republic and taken the national team to Luxembourg. This summer he’s taking a group from the academy to Boston University, where they’ll rub elbows with the 40 or so NHLers who train at BU.