To Lemieux’s house on Gonchar’s Jaguar
(Sport Express reporter spent one day in Evgeni Malkin’s company)
Pittsburgh used to be the steel capital of the US, and its strength used to lie in its alloys [It can also mean ‘its strength used to lie in its boxer briefs’. Yay puns]. There used to be so much steel casting that naturally the time came when not only Pittsburgh, but US in general got sick of it. More than twenty years ago blast furnaces were closed and the sole justification for the name Steel City, apart from citizens’ memories and logos on the beer labels, was the fact that its sister cities were Sheffield, Ostrava and Donetsk. For some reason Magnitogorsk, which is also directly connected to all sorts of metals, isn’t included in this list and it’s doubtful that it ever will be.
To be fair, sister cities or not, but Magnitogorsk born hockey player Evgeni Malkin was welcomed in the Steel City like one of its own. He was hugged at the airport, given a Pens jersey during an official ceremony, brought to Mario Lemieux’s house for dinner. Everything was like it was supposed to be. So now the cities which are situated in Western Pennsylvania and Southern Ural respectively are at the very least godparents to each other’s children. Or brothers-in-law. Or maybe sisters-in-law.
Sport Express reporter came to Pittsburgh three days after Malkin’s arrival. The excitement wasn’t exactly over, but it had been dialed down a little bit. It was a busy day in the Steel City: a day of mourning and a day of celebration at the same time. Firstly, there was the funeral of Bob O’Connor, Pittsburgh’s beloved mayor and former steelworker, who died eight months after assuming office. Secondly and mainly, the NFL season was starting with the opener game played by the current champions Pittsburgh Steelers. It quickly becomes clear who rules the city! People of all ages, genders and social standings put on black and yellow jerseys. For example, I have seen a businessman at the airport who had a laptop bag in one hand, a phone in the other and who was wearing a Steelers jersey over a white shirt and a tie.
But on a day like this there are still people in Pittsburgh who care about hockey. Even if there are only two of them, a father and a son who are waiting in front of the Robert Morris hockey rink where Malkin and other Penguins players hold an optional skate on Thursday. The father is a big man with glasses, middle aged, wearing a sergeant uniform. His son is a tiny redhead in a Penguins shirt signed by the hockey players. However early I may have arrived (approximately at 7:30, the same time as the first players), those two have already been waiting at the door. The father recognized every hockey player and told his son a short version of his biography. Malkin was the only one who slipped under his radar. Perhaps, for want of habit. All the attention was stolen by Gonchar who drove Geno in his black Jaguar.
“What is Malkin like?” the father asked me later.
“You’ll see him on the ice. You won’t miss him because he’s the tallest.”
Besa Tsintsadze vs. Crosby
You definitely can’t miss Malkin on the ice, even in the company of Sidney Crosby and the Stanley Cup winner Mark Recchi. Despite it being an optional skate, everybody takes it seriously: there is only a little actual play, mostly the players work on their skating and technical elements. Nothing exciting, just normal work routine. Although here it is: Malkin starts with a cross-ice pass and moving to the net a second later finishes it on his own by placing his stick at a sharp angle. Father and son are amazed.
“Well, was it worth it skipping school for this?”
The son nods. There are new signatures on his shoulders. I think someday this shirt could be sold for the amount of money that would be enough to buy a lifelong supply of ice cream.
Malkin may be the tallest, but the guy who really stands out on the ice is the shortest one, a tiny nimble man. He doesn’t wear a helmet. He’s clearly never played hockey professionally (otherwise he wouldn’t be able to stand on his own feet with this body size), but he handles the hockey stick confidently and his skating is – oh my god!
“It’s Besa,” says the father, “he’s the skating instructor. He was specifically brought in from Wilkes-Barre where he usually works. He’s a former figure skater from the Soviet Union.”
Wow! Surprisingly, all of this is true: he’s really a former figure skater, he’s really from the USSR and his name is Besa Tsintsadze. His skating, both forwards and backwards, is amazing. None of the hockey players can ever skate this fast on a turn in their entire lives. But with a lot of sweating and swearing they at least try to replicate the instructor’s moves.
Malkin is doing everything carefully, like a student. He isn’t brilliant (with his build it’s out of the question), but he doesn’t make mistakes. Crosby is the best though. The scrubby Canadian with bow legs does everything exactly like Besa, only a little bit more slowly. It seems effortless. However, even Sidney doesn’t take the curve in one of the most difficult exercises and falls on one knee. During Tsintsadze’s training that’s the rule rather than the exception.
At the end of the practice the audience has grown. Girls from some university team came to the gym which is nearby. Right away they started gossiping about someone. My guess would’ve been that this ‘someone’ was the handsome Crosby, but alas! Low female voices were talking about Malkin. Well, women do like larger guys.
Sidney Crosby: “I’m happy he’s arrived.”
Crosby isn’t dejected, though. In the locker room after the practice the future Penguins captain sat opposite Malkin and started chirping his neighbors as usual. Apparently, Crosby has big plans for the night: he’s going to a football game with two other hockey players. As explained above, Steelers are sort of like a local religious movement and it doesn’t befit one idol to ignore the other, more important ones. The child prodigy immediately agreed to give an interview without even asking for time to take off the hockey gear. As usual, his words sounded beautiful and memorized.
Sidney, for the second year your team has been the center of attention for hockey fans in the US. You were the reason last year, now it’s Malkin. Are you getting tired of it?
I’m not. We try to ignore it. Our job and our goals don’t change depending on how much attention we get, right?
You personally may be even enjoying it.
I don’t know. I just play hockey. Too much attention is an incentive to play better and try harder. But I want to do my best every game I play. So does the attention make a difference for me? No. And you have to keep a cool head anyway. Getting too full of yourself is harmful.
What did you think about Malkin’s escape from Metallurg?
I was very happy that he’s coming to us. We were waiting for him for a long time and wanted to meet him. I know that he went through a lot, he sacrificed a lot to be able to play here. I haven’t spoken to him yet though because of the language barrier. But the whole story allows to think he is a person who is driven and full of determination to fulfill his dream.
You were the first one to send him a greeting after his arrival in the US.
I understood how hard it was for him. I know what it is like to make hard decision at a young age. It can bit a bit scary. I wanted to support him.
What do you think of him as a hockey player?
He is one of those people who can outsmart the opponent almost every way imaginable. That’s why he is unpredictable. You’ll never know what to expect next time. He’s good at skating, shooting, reading the game, passing.
Is Malkin aggressive enough for the NHL?
It’s hard to tell. I haven’t seen him in a game situation yet. But not all players in the NHL are that aggressive. Everybody has his own style. If you play very technically, it makes sense not to play very close to the opponent, but to leave space for a maneuver.
You are the clear leader of the team this year. If more attention is paid to another player, will this help or hinder you?
Neither one nor the other. That’s all I want to say. You’re talking from the point of view of the press, but you choose to see it like this. We don’t and can’t look at the situation this way. Every team has to be united, otherwise teams are meaningless. Our team will be like that, I’ll guarantee it.
Are you ready to become a captain at the age of nineteen?
I haven’t talked to anyone about it, so I prefer not to worry too early. For now I wear the letter A.
But let’s imagine that it’s transformed into the letter C already. Can you for example stand up in the locker room and make a speech for your teammates who are all older than you?
I don’t think all captains are like that. I am certainly not and I’m not going to change. I will lead others by example. Actions speak louder than words.
USSR national anthem, the enforcer’s version
Malkin and Gonchar were getting changed next to each other. They welcomed the Sport Express reporter with jokes.
“He should learn English faster or something,” complained Sergei. “Do I have to translate for him my whole life?”
“My English is great!” retorted Evgeni. “I stay silent, but I do understand everything.”
Of course not. It’s still pretty bad. They got me a tutor, I’ll start next week. Three hours a day. Whatever, I’ll learn it eventually. I’m not gonna be worse than others.
As if he listened to the conversation, the enforcer Andre Roy made his voice heard at the opposite side of the locker room. The USSR national anthem sung by the enforcer became somewhat surrealist, since Andre was creating the lyrics on the go and making them sound approximately Slavic. As a result it sounded like, “Great Ruth was cleaning glasses and plates and cups” [it’s a pun on the name Ruth and Rus’/Russia because they sound a bit similar], although other interpretations were possible.
“Damn, I love this anthem!” added the French Canadian and approaching Malkin, clapped him on the shoulder. “We are gonna get the Stanley Cup this year, guys. Understand? Stan-ley Cup! C-C-C-P! Yeah!”
Evgeni didn’t say anything, although it wasn’t out of the question to assume that he understood everything perfectly.
“Well, it’s gonna be hard,” replied Gonchar to the same question I asked Crosby.
“There should be less press,” said Malkin with a cheeky smile.
“Yeah,” agreed Sergei. “Because someone already called me from Moscow. Their questions were absolutely ridiculous. ‘What color are the walls in Zhenya’s room?’ or ‘What does Zhenya eat?’ The same food as me.”
“My agents try to take care of everything themselves to give me more time to play and less time to worry about anything else,” explains Evgeni. “People can be ridiculous. They were waiting for me when I stepped out of the plane. It’s nice to be asked to take a picture or sign something, of course. I haven’t even seen the city yet. I was at Lemieux’s house, met with the management, but other than that my time was occupied by practicing and relaxing. Although they’re probably taking me to a football game today.”
It’s necessary. You have never been to a football game before, right?
No, but I’d like to. I was at a baseball game in LA, but it was too boring. Football is interesting though. I heard they were going to take all the rookies there. So I’ll get the chance to meet the guys as well.
This isn’t the best atmosphere for an interview, so we decide to talk more thoroughly a little bit later. Malkin and Gonchar also have to go to the gym to work out after practice. Access to the gym is actually restricted to members only, but nothing tops the reporter’s impudence: I don’t only get inside, but also ask two questions to goalie Marc-Andre Fleury who is on the treadmill. The long haired French Canadian who looks a lot like a penguin himself is another one of the golden youth of Pittsburgh. His English isn’t the best, but he makes up for it with his radiant smile.
Marc-Andre, what do you think of this whole Malkin saga?
I’m glad he’s here. It looks like Malkin is a good hockey player and a great guy. I even like the fact everyone’s going crazy about it. Publicity is a good thing! Let the fans have fun. It’s good business for the team and we need it right now.
What do you as a goalie think of him?
His shot is very quick, he has good hands. It’s hard to figure him out.
It was hard to figure out Malkin’s plans for the day. In theory he was free until 6 pm, when there was going to be a small gathering after which the rookies would go to the game.
However, right after training Evgeni spent a couple of hours in the Mellon Arena at the GM’s office. Issues discussed were entirely bureaucratic: opening a bank account and filling out some forms for the team doctor. Malkin’s by now infamous passport has turned up a couple of times.
Done with the formalities and having received instructions for next day (the instructions were translated by the Sport Express reporter who had been in the right place at the right time), Evgeni finally went to the hotel to eat. At that moment we saw a proof that Pittsburgh’s citizens hadn’t only been thinking about Steelers. At the arena’s exit, behind a low fence there were twenty Penguins fans who had somehow found out that they’d be able to meet Malkin and get his autograph. They were quietly standing in line. Of course Evgeni couldn’t say no to them, so nobody went home disappointed. The first in line was a couple of French Canadians who came to Pittsburgh from Montreal. Were they here specifically for Malkin? With these Canadians it wouldn’t be out of the question.
After giving autographs, Evgeni went to the hotel which was luckily right across the street from the arena. We finished the interview there, in the hotel restaurant which was full of – who else? – fans of the Steelers and their rivals Dolphins from Miami.
“I’m ready to take second place.”
Evgeni, you’ve already met last year’s ‘golden boy’ Crosby. What do you think of him?
Yes, we’ve met during the dinner at the Lemieuxs’. There were people from the team’s management and also me, Crosby and Gonchar. Sidney is a great guy, cheerful and intelligent. He doesn’t think he’s a hot shot. And things he does on the ice are unforgettable.
Last year one of the main topics in the NHL was the rivalry between Ovechkin and Crosby. Now you are going to get a lot of attention. But whereas Ovechkin came to a team where he basically was the king, yours already has another leader. Are you scared of being overshadowed?
I really do get a lot of attention, more than ever before. I’m not used to it. I like it better when I stay in the shadows, so people are able to see what I can do on the ice.
But you aren’t going to get 20 minutes on the ice every game. You will play center for the second line.
The first two lines are the most important ones, they have a lot of responsibility. I will also certainly be on the ice with Crosby during power plays and that will be a lot of ice time. It will be enough for me, I’m not worried.
Won’t you be disappointed if Crosby gets a lot more ice time than you?
If he deserves it, he’ll get it. If I deserve it, I’ll get it.
But he’s the captain, it’s almost guaranteed that he will.
Well, he’s a first line player and he’s supposed to spend more time on the ice than any other forward player. If I get enough ice time for a second line player, I’ll be happy.
You said last year that if Pittsburgh doesn’t give you a chance, you’ll return to Magnitka. What did you mean?
I meant if the coach doesn’t let me do anything. So I won’t be able to show what I can do. Being second best after Crosby is fine with me. You always have to start small. You can spend a year being in second place and then you can try moving upwards. He demonstrated last year that he was the best player on the team, but nobody in the NHL knows what I’m capable of yet.
What role do you see yourself in?
Making passes, giving assists. I probably won’t have as many goals as Ovechkin, but I’ll try playing with my partners. People say I should shoot more and then I’d get more goals.
Two years ago, at the draft, you said you weren’t physically ready for the NHL, that you had to train and increase your body mass first. Are you ready now?
Yes, now I’m ready. I played with the national team and the Olympic team against the Canadians and I felt it was time to play among them.
There are rumors that you’re going to play at the same line as Recchi and Malone.
We always skate with Recchi during practice and I understand him pretty well. I think it’s a good idea for me to play with him. He’s very experienced, he won the Stanley Cup, he can teach me some things. Also he makes great passes, sees the ice perfectly and he isn’t greedy. Working with him would be comfortable for me.
To be honest, you are now in a situation where you have to either become a star or… You do understand what the Russian people will do to you in case you fail, don’t you? You won’t know what hit you. Do you feel this extra responsibility?
I do, of course. But that’s the path I’ve chosen for myself. Yes, I’ve burned the bridges behind me and I have to prove myself here without looking back.
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