"Penguins' fans, we are working on it!" - Evgeni Malkin & Sergei Gonchar
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
These days Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and other NHLers work hard at a training camp in St.-Petersburg.
Author: Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
Translated by Alexei Belousenko (Russian Hockey Digest)
The Sovetsky Sport correspondent went to St.-Petersburg to visit Russian hockey players. This is very rare to watch a dozen NHL stars spending time together while practicing between the seasons. Last time, similar camp took place in Chicago last year by the end of August. Vladislav Tretyak organized it in order to get Russian NHLers together in informal environment. But this time there is no need to fly over to the City of Wind; Petersburg is close by…
Alexander Radulov was the first who arrived to the camp this morning. Nashville’s forward is wearing a t-shirt, but it’s windy and rain is about to start – typical Petersburg’s weather. Radulov is cold, but makes a look he’s OK. We’ve got some time waiting while other players arriving. Alexander recalls flashbacks when he won Juniors league in Quebec where Patrick Roy was a coach.
A. Radulov: Patrick gave us a choice to pick – either we return to Quebec after finals on a airplane, or on a bus. We chose the bus. Departed by midnight accompanied with lots of champagne and beer… We arrived in Quebec around seven in the morning. I was shocked! Cloudy morning, business day, people are about to go to work; but 20 thousand people made it to the city’s central street to celebrate with us! And we were just juniors. Hockey is alike religion in Canada…
Perhaps, in Canada all of the girls are hanging on hockey players?
A. Radulov: (smiling) Nah… Though… I remember, we were in Montreal and I saw Saku Koivu and Richard Zednik coming out of a bar with six beauties! That’s the popularity.
Alexander Radulov (Nashville) is getting ready for a season
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
After a while, Alexei Semenov arrives; Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin followed him. Evgeni stays at Gonchar’s place in Vsevolozhsk village close by, thus they come to a practice together. Sergei put a music-player with small ear-phones on his arm; Malkin grabbed big head-phones… And they went jogging in a park for 45 minutes. By arrival they started working out with a coach Dmitri Kapitonov, former long-distance runner and participant of Olympics-2000. Hockey players unrolled mats and did a few exercises for stretching. After that, they worked with sports balls that are six kilos of weight. Malkin grabbed the ball behind the head.
D. Kapitonov: Alright, Evgeni, hold it, hold it. 20 seconds, 19…
E. Malkin: 18, 17…
By the end of the practice that took two hours, players leaned against a wall alike sitting on a chair.
Gonchar and Malkin "sitting" on a "chair"
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
A. Radulov: It was an OK practice. Tomorrow, is going to be a killer!
How many times a week do you practice?
A. Radulov: Six. Sunday is day-off. We don’t go on the ice yet, but work out hard in a gym, jogging in park.
Six times a week on summer?!
A. Radulov: Yep. We want to get prepared for the season…
Malkin builds a six-pack
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
Where is Ovechkin? He went to Saransk and should be back in Petersburg by the evening time.
D. Kapitonov: I will meet him at the airport, and will go to practice right away.
From airport straight to the gym?
D. Kapitonov: Sasha doesn’t want to miss practices in order not to fall off the schedule.
Evening. St.-Petersburg. Sport-complex “FizKult” in industrial part of the city. And here comes Ovechkin!
My colleague from Canadian TV, that came to Petersburg to video the training camp, grabs my sleeve: “I can’t imagine Sidney Crosby walking into a regular gym in Canada just like that! People would tear him apart for souvenirs!”
However, no one pays attention to Ovechkin. People in the gym recognize him, of course, but tactfully do not bother him interrupting NHL star’s practice.
Ovechkin listens to coach Dmitri Kapitonov (Olympics-2000 participant)
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
Dmitri, how many NHLers are coming to your camp this summer?
D. Kapitonov: Let’s count: Ovechkin, Gonchar, Malkin, Semenov, Radulov, Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Semin and Andrei Taratukhin. Also, Andrei Nikolishin was practicing with us, but he went back to Moscow for now. So, nine players all together.
Do you have some kind of innovative training system?
D. Kapitonov: Nothing new was explored in last hundred years (smiling). I used to work with figure skaters, Olympic champions – Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov. Then, started working with hockey players. I go to the US to work with them on their physics. Beginning last year Sergei Gonchar started working with me, after his first season in Pittsburgh.
It was not his best season…
D. Kapitonov: Right. When we first started, I loaded him with cross-country, and he was sitting on a bench with his head down. Now, he admits that he became a different person. His second season in Pittsburgh was way better than previous.
What shape is Andrei Nikolishin in right now? Could he come back to NHL?
D. Kapitonov: As a matter of a fact, he is one of the best speaking of physical conditions. His major weakness: he doesn’t know limits. He works too hard. He says: “OK, I will jog in the morning, lift heavy weights during the day, and take another cross-country”. Dynamo’s school. But there should be some rest as well, so that muscles could recover.
Ovechkin is getting ready for Tour de France
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)
Do you load Ovechkin with heavy weights lifting?
D. Kapitonov: No, he works with a quarter of his own weight. This is enough because a hockey player should not be pumped up as an elephant; he should be flexible and sturdy.
Did he stay in your place?
D. Kapitonov: Yes, this is more comfortable. And useful: for instance, I learned him to wash dishes after himself (smiling).
A. Ovechkin: (yelling) I’ve done it before, too!
After “riding” a bicycle for twenty minutes and working out with dumbbells, Ovechkin’s yellow t-shirt becomes dark.
How you guys spend your spare time?
A. Ovechkin: We go to movies. Recently, we watched “Transformers” with Malkin and Radulov… OK, I gotta run, I mean literally, cross-country in the park, just for a half an hour.
“Capitals’ fans, we will see you soon!” – A. Ovechkin & V. Kozlov
Photo provided by Pavel Lysenkov (Sovetsky Sport)