THIS IS A NEW STEP FOR CHINA AND IT’S A BIG ONE.

Keenan also coaches Kunlun Red Star, the Beijingbased entry in the KHL that sits third in their division entering Saturday play and boasts former NHLers Wojtek Wolski, Alex Ponikarovsky, Andrei Kostitsyn, Kyle Chipchura and Vancouver’s Gilbert Brule and players like Zach Yuen, the 24-year-old Vancouverite and former Winnipeg Jets’ draft choice and 19-year-old Rudi Ying, the first Chinese national to play in the KHL.

Throw in Islanders’ draft pick Andong Song, the first Chinese national to be selected by an NHL team and goalie Zehao Sun, the national team goalie who’s working out with the Canucks during their current swing through China, and there would seem to be Japan that dated back to the mid-1960s and was bankrolled by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi. King also enlisted JapaneseCanadian players like former WHLers Ryan Fujita, Steve Tsujiura and Matt Kabayama; Ryan Kuwabara, Montreal’s second-round pick in 1990; and minor-league goalie Dusty Imoo.

And it still wasn’t nearly enough to make the Japanese team competitive.

“The Japanese were terrific at tactics and the team game but the biggest obstacle was their hockey culture,” King said. “The first time I watched a Japanese practice, they were doing line rushes and the same guy was shooting. I asked why and they told me, ‘He’s the oldest player.’ ”

The physical game was another problem and King brought in University of Calgary football coach Tony Fasano to run an introductory course on the art of giving and receiving bodychecks.

“They had to overcome their fear of body contact,” King said.

As the host country, Japan was granted a place in the qualifying round in a pool with Belarus, Germany and France where, predictably, they finished dead last. But, in their placement game, the Japanese scored a 4-3 shootout win over Austria, a win which King remembers as vividly as any in his career.

“They just exploded off the bench (after the game-winning goal),” King said. “Winning that game was like a gold medal. I know it’s an overused expression but I can honestly say we had nothing left in the tank.”

Sadly, that game would also serve as a high-water mark for Japanese hockey. Six years after Nagano, the country’s domestic league folded after 38 years of operation. The Asian Hockey League, which still has four Japanese teams, rose in its place. The Japanese men’s team is ranked 23rd, one spot ahead of Britain.

The game has survived in that country. But it never fulfilled the promise of Nagano which raises the question, will China be any different?

As for the answer, check back after 2022 when the glow of the Olympics has dimmed and the Chinese program will have to get by on its own merits.

Right now, there are a number of reasons to believe that will be the case.

But they also believed the same thing in Japan 20 years ago.