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Now I’m ready for Ottawa.
August 24, 2008.
After SKA St. Petersburg left for the tournament in Austria, it’s just us three training on the ice: Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malin, and me. At the same time two other players train on the other side of the ice, recovering from injuries. One of them is the defenseman Raymond Giroux.
There are only positive impressions from working with the SKA. It was really similar to what they do in the NHL. For instance, the gym. When working with weights, Russian teams use the so-called “stations.” Everyone understands that some exercise are absolutely needless, they’re just done so the player doesn’t relax, so that he’s doing something. The SKA works at this very Western-like. They only do what will be useful.
The training tempo is the same as in America. The sessions don’t last very long, but they are quite intense. We spend an hour on the ice, and then another hour at the gym. But that’s enough time for a pretty heavy load. Plus, the SKA trains once a day, which is also uncharacteristic for a Russian team during the off-season.
Perhaps that’s why guys from the NHL train with them. In addition to us, training there were Anton Khudobin, Nikolai Kulemin, and Mikhail Grabovski. So it’s no coincidence. Everyone knows the best place to get ready for the season.
After the SKA players were gone, Sergei Gonchar made arrangement for the ice. He knows people everywhere. Obviously, we’re paying out of our own pockets for this, but it’s still great. After the ice we’ve got the gym and running. Just this Friday we did ten sets of 200 meters.
As I said before, part of this training I did in Moscow, when Gonchar had left on business, giving Evgeni Malkin and me a plan which we were supposed to follow. When Gonchar returned, he didn’t check whether we’d followed his plan. It’s obvious no one was going to goof off. We’ve spent a lot of energy to get where we are, and weren’t just going to waste all of that for a week of rest.
As you can see I’m paying on my own for the training in Russia. All of it has cost me about 70-80 thousand rubles. Some may be shocked by this amount, but I don’t feel like I’m throwing money away. This means I’ll be ready for the NHL tests. A lot depends on the tests over there. If you get good marks, you’ll be working with the big team and they’ll be counting on you.
Soon a skating trainer will arrive in St. Petersburg to work with us. I know my conditioning will improve even more. When I come to Ottawa, I will have to get right to work, not play catch up.
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