Russians in the NHL

In the modern day National Hockey League, you can never have too many Russians on your team. It's a theory that has seemed to work well over the past few years for teams such as the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning who both have four on their squad. In this past 2015-16 season, every team seems to have a couple kicking around as Russian hockey players are starting to see the lure of the National Hockey League a little more with each passing year.
  The Washington Capitals have always had their rock Alexander Ovechkin leading the Russian contingent on their team. He's a huge mentor and influence on his fellow countrymen Evgeni Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and Stanislav Galiev. He was also played big role in guiding past teammates like Alexander Semin and Semyon Varlamov adapt to the NHL game very quickly.
  The transition to North America from Russia is never easy, having to learn a new language, new style of hockey, and trying to make your way in a foreign country. It's difficult and a process to say the least, but it definitely helps big time when you have a fellow Russian who has already been in the league for a while to help make the transition go as smoothly as possible.
  Right now the Tampa Bay Lightning are one of the more interesting teams currently in the National Hockey League. They have a likeable coach in Jon Cooper that all players like playing for. They have the youngest team in the NHL, with many players under the age of 25 having major roles on the squad. In 2014-15, the Lightning got all the way to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals with a team riddled with rookies and second year players.
  Like their counterparts in Washington, the Lightning also currently have four Russians on their team; Nikita Kucherov, Vladimir Namestnikov, Nikita Nesterov, and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Likely the most notable of those is 22 year old Nikita Kucherov who is one of the most explosive scorers in the National Hockey League. He's right up there with Vladimir Tarasenko, Evgeni Kuznetsov, and Artemi Panarin as the best young Russian sniper in the game.
  Kucherov is quick to point out how having some countrymen on the team is helpful. "Obviously it's big and especially on the ice it helps," Kucherov said. "The other Russians know how I play and we can all set up plays easier since we all know each other. Off the ice, having three other Russian guys in the locker room is good. It's nice to have them since sometimes the North Americans don't understand our jokes. It's nice to have company."
  Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy just wrapped up his second year with the big club in Tampa. When he came over at the beginning of last season, he spoke virtually no English. A year later and he's doing just fine. "The first couple months you know was brutal. It was really tough," Andrei said. "Last season I had a lot of emotions because everything was new for me, but now I'm just happy because I'm playing in the NHL."
  At the beginning of Vasilevskiy's rookie campaign, the Lightning brought in veteran Russian netminder Evgeni Nabokov to come in and mentor Vasilevskiy. Nabokov did great work in showing the young phenom the ropes, and Andrei is quick to pay homage to arguably the best Russian goalie to ever play in the National Hockey League. "Evgeni is just a great guy. He was amazing for me and helped me so much that first year. If I didn't have him, last season would have been much harder on me for sure."
  Andrei also appreciates the fact that he has some fellow countrymen on the team to help with the transition. "It's more fun to have other Russians on the team," Andrei says with a laugh. "I've known those guys for five or six years and its awesome. When you play on the same World Juniors team and then on the same NHL team, it's a pretty cool feeling."

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The Detroit Red Wings have a long history of Russian players on their team going back to the days of the great Slava Fetisov and Sergei Fedorov. Each time the club won one of their last three Stanley Cup's, Russian players played an integral part of each triumph. Currently, the club has two cosmonauts on the team; 37 year old Pavel Datsyuk and 24 year old Alexei Marchenko.
  Datsyuk of course is very well known all over the hockey world for his smooth hands, prolific scoring and defensive-minded play. His counterpart Marchenko is in only his third season in North America. Alexei loves the fact that he's had a person like Pavel in Detroit to help him get adjusted to the NHL. "It was great that he was here from the beginning," said Marchenko with a smile. "I knew Pavel from before because we played together with CSKA Moscow during the last NHL lockout. So it helps big time. We know each other and I love having him here."
  Alexei Marchenko has been learning English for many years now and speaks the language almost perfectly, from the time he came over to North America. Alexei said, "I studied English at school, you know like special school. And then when I moved over here its improved on its own."
  The transition to North America can be tough for lots of Russian players, but Alexei's was a little simplified, since he had some North American coaches helping him while he was with CSKA Moscow of the KHL. "We had a men's team coach from North America, so you could speak to him to improve your English. He also showed how people in North America work out and train, plus all the on-ice stuff. So when I showed up here, I knew what was going on with the drills." Marchenko would go on to say, "The lockout also helped a lot because lots of NHL players came over so I got to practice with top players like Pavel and (Mikhail) Grabovski, which was great. I also got to play against Ovechkin which was also great for me because I could see how those guys play and try to absorb as much as possible."
  Marchenko idolizes the great Sergei Zubov and hopes to have a lasting career like him. He's well on his way to being a force on the blueline for years to come like Zubov was and for Alexei, he seems to be getting better from every game he plays in that historic Red Wings uniform.

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One star Russian in the National Hockey League today has been able to adjust and get by without the help of any countrymen. Dmitri Kulikov of the Florida Panthers is one of the best Russian defensemen in the game today, and he's done it all by himself as a lonely Russian in the sunshine state. It's a good idea to get Dmitri's perspective on things because he's the only person in this article who didn't have a Russian mentor when he came to the National Hockey League.
  The Florida Panthers selected Dmitri in the first round (14th overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, and put him on the team roster right away and he's never had to play a game in the minors. He's now completed his 7th full season with Florida, and is currently the longest tenured Panther on the team.
  Dmitri talks about his transition to North America, and about the fact that he doesn't feel like he was under the eight ball being the only Russian in the sunshine state, "I think it was fine when I first came over since I adjusted really fast and started learning the language right away. All of the people that were around me like teammates and coaches helped me a lot and it just kind of took off from there. I have (Aleksander) Barkov now. He's part Russian and can speak Russian, even though he's Finnish. It's nice to have guys to speak your own language and understand your different types of jokes that we have. I don't feel unfortunate that I've never had many Russian teammates since it's been so good here in Florida from the time I got here."
  Kulikov had himself a Canadian mentor to show him the ropes of playing in the world's biggest stage. "I lived with Gregory Campbell my first year in Florida and he kind of showed me the professional way for the game that he carried himself with. He's a true professional on and off the ice. He takes care of his body, always doing the things in the gym to prepare for the next game. He also knew all about recovery stuff and eating well because it's a long season. When I first came over from Russia I was used to playing only 30-40 games a season back home. But when it's 82 games, with lots of travel, your body can't recover fast enough even though you're young. It's tough, but Campbell showed me everything I need to do to prepare myself for the next game and I can't thank him enough."
  A product of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl system , Kulikov has never shied away from a chance to represent the Russian National Team. Dmitri won a gold medal at the 2007 World U18's and a silver the following year. He won a bronze the next year at the World Juniors, and in 2010, he was on the Russian World Championship team that won a silver medal. One more silver medal at the 2015 World Men's rounds out his international resume.
  Despite all the hockey experience that Dmitri possesses, he still just feels like a normal player on his Florida Panthers. He doesn't feel like he's a leader, just another guy on the team trying to do everything possible to help his team succeed. "I think we have a lot of leaders on the team, so I just try and lead by example by doing the right things on the ice and doing things that would get our team better on the ice."

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