"Has thrown 21 washer, has made 16 transfers, has typed 45 minutes of the penalty"
With all the super Russians in the NHL, I randomly thought about Alexei Cherepanov today. So I went and stalked him on Omsk's site. For anyone that doesn't know, he kind of got a bad rap in the draft. He was slated to go as a top 10 pick, but sunk all the way to 17. The Penguins took Angelo Esposito, another player who went later than expected (and traded him for Marian Hossa). Anyhow, I felt really bad seeing Alexei just sitting there with his agent, waiting to be picked.
In doing research for my thesis about Cold War hockey, I really, really have to wonder if those stigmas against Russian players are still an unspoken part of today's NHL, even though Russians as a group have more than proven themselves. I certainly think that Cold War mentality is still in place in Philadelphia... the Flyers have long been a team of good ol' Canadian boys that Don Cherry would certainly approve of. For this week's column, I had kicked around the idea of writing about the novi ruski in the NHL (not to be confused with the novi ruski of Gorby's time), but it might get pushed back to next week.
But regardless, I had to post this because it's hilarious. I can read Cyrillic enough to read names and figure out really, really basic things. So when it came to Cherepanov's information, I had to translate it.
Check it:
"In matches of superiority of Russia during performances for ДЮСШ "Avant guarde" has lead 131 match, has thrown 175 washers, has made 133 transfers, has typed 267 minutes of the penalty."
What a bad ass dude to throw washers and make transfers. But in all honesty, he has quite the pedigree. Unfortunately, he'll be a Ranger so it's just not going to work out between us.
In doing research for my thesis about Cold War hockey, I really, really have to wonder if those stigmas against Russian players are still an unspoken part of today's NHL, even though Russians as a group have more than proven themselves. I certainly think that Cold War mentality is still in place in Philadelphia... the Flyers have long been a team of good ol' Canadian boys that Don Cherry would certainly approve of. For this week's column, I had kicked around the idea of writing about the novi ruski in the NHL (not to be confused with the novi ruski of Gorby's time), but it might get pushed back to next week.
But regardless, I had to post this because it's hilarious. I can read Cyrillic enough to read names and figure out really, really basic things. So when it came to Cherepanov's information, I had to translate it.
Check it:
"In matches of superiority of Russia during performances for ДЮСШ "Avant guarde" has lead 131 match, has thrown 175 washers, has made 133 transfers, has typed 267 minutes of the penalty."
What a bad ass dude to throw washers and make transfers. But in all honesty, he has quite the pedigree. Unfortunately, he'll be a Ranger so it's just not going to work out between us.