Dmitry Sergeyev: Russians don’t have reverse gear!

Four Traktor hockey school alums are currently trying to conquer the North American junior leagues and might make their NHL debuts in the nearest future. We have already talked with Jakov Trenin and Vitali Abramov, and today’s man of the hour is Dmitri Sergeyev, a D-man for Kitchener Rangers of the OHL.

CITY OF KITCHENER
— Kitchener is a small town some 60 miles away from Ontario with the population of 250 thousand people, many of whom are students who arrive there to study in the local university. The air in Canada is very clean, and wild animals, like deer, can be seen in winter time. Once we were driving to a game and even saw a bear that was trying to catch fish in a pond.

STARS
— Kitchener Rangers is a team that plays in the Ontario Hockey League. The league has its own stars, Americans Mitchell Marner and Matthew Tkachuk. They were instrumental in London Knights winning the title this year. They beat us 4:0 in the playoffs. In one of the games against them, we had a three-goal lead, but Marner and Tkachuk then got serious, and the Knights scored five unanswered goals. Marner and Tkachuk definitely have great future in the NHL.

STYLE OF HOCKEY
— Canadian hockey is more intense than Russian; we often get tired even in the power play, because there is only one point man who is responsible for keeping the puck in the offensive zone. If the puck gets into the neutral zone, it is me who has to spurt 10 meters in order to thwart a scoring chance. It is very tough, and it took me quite a while to get used to it.

TEETH
— OHL is a hard-hitting league. I lost a couple of teeth in one of the games during the overtime when a forward of the opposition raised his stick, and I felt something crushing in my mouth. I started to slowly skate towards the bench, spitting out blood and whatever was left of my teeth, and our coach went ‘Come on, it’s just the teeth – you didn’t get your leg sawn off!’ (laughs). There is no place for sissies in Canada.

COACH
— Our head coach is Mike Van Ryn, former defenseman of St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. He is 37, just like his assistants, and has just recently retired from active competition. Our coaches are rather young, and they even take part in our parties.

During the first two years, Van Ryn talked a lot to me individually, asking not to risk a lot.

PARTIES
— Canadian parties are a lot like those in American teen comedies – big house, fun, dancing, inflatable pools with jacuzzi and all that.

GIRLFRIEND
— I found a girlfriend in Canada. She is from Ukraine and has lived in Canada for 7 years.
I don’t like local ladies. They have strange mentality; most of them are only interested in one-night stands while I was looking for something more serious. Many young players take advantage of this mentality though. There is a joke that junior leagues are like American colleges where a lot of fun could be had.

SENSE OF HUMOR
— Canadians have a very odd sense of humor. Guys can playfully slap other guys on their asses or call each other gay. However, there are only heterosexuals on your team. Sometimes a guy can sleep with other guy’s girlfriend, and this other guy does not try to hit him in the face but only says ‘Good for you!’. That is strange, if you ask me. By the way, they do not play tricks on me; I told from the very start that I would hit them in their face.
However, hockey players in Canada are not invincible. For example, a guy from some team of the OHL has posted something offensive under a photo of some girl. She then posted a screenshot of this incident, and the league has suspended him for 15 games.

LANGUAGE
— Canadians use a lot of slang words. I remember going to the English exam here in Chelyabinsk, in Ural State Physical Culture University. My English professor would correct me a lot, and I had to explain to her that this is exactly how Canadians say. They often compress words and use abbreviations. For instance, they use N for the neutral zone, so I have to ask them sometimes if they mean the thing I think they mean.

INJURIES
— Last season was a little tough. I missed a lot games; first, I dislocated my shoulder in the Blues training camp, then, I blew my knee out during the 2016 World Junior Championships. As soon as I returned, I broke a bone in my knee when I blocked a shot. And still, I still think it was a good year. Coaching staff says that I progressed a lot. They even promised to put me in the top two pair in the AHL team, and as a 20-year old guy, I think it’s cool.

VALERI BRAGIN
— We owe our success to our head coach Valeri Bragin. He is a great motivator; I don’t remember that he ever praised anyone. His style is to egg on you so that you perform even better in the next game.

SILVER MEDALS OF 2016 U20 WJC
— We were completely devastated after the loss in OT to Finland. We sat there in silence, but then our coaches shouted ‘Hey guys, you did win silver medals, didn’t you?’. That relaxed us a little, and we started celebrating.

SERGEI ZUBOV
— I don’t have idols. There is one D-man I look up to though – Sergei Zubov. When I was a kid, I had a video tape with the highlights from the NHL. I remember seeing Zubov give some great passes and score great goals. My parents even bought me a Zubov jersey, and I used to hit the ice wearing it.

FUTURE
— When I was in North America, there were times when the going got rough. Traktor management called my agent, asking whether I would consider returning to Chelyabinsk. However, I set my goal, and I decided to pursue it. My dream is to play for the St. Louis Blues one day.
Blues have a great roster, but all NHL teams have to consider the salary cap. For example, let’s say they have five defensemen with relatively big salaries and one-sided contracts, and there is one empty spot with two candidates, one is a veteran with a big salary, and the other is a young guy with a standard contract. So, in order to meet the salary cap, the managers will choose the young guy, mainly due to financial reasons. This is what I am hoping will happen, and I keep working to achieve my dream. You know, Russians don’t have a reverse gear!