Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with Mikhail Grigorenko who is currently with the Rochester Americans. The 20-year-old Khabarovsk native spoke about his season thus far in the AHL, improving his game, and friends in the NHL.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with netminder Andrey Makarov who currently plays for the Rochester Americans. The 21-year-old Kazan native spoke about why he choose to stay in North America, his friends around the hockey community and his favorite US city. Be sure to catch our next interview next week with Mikhail Grigorenko.
Coming off a remarkable win against Team Canada in the gold medal game at the World Juniors, Team Russia stunned the hockey world after erasing a 3-0 deficit in the third period to win 5-3. While the team needed it’s offensive spark to complete the turnaround it was netminder Igor Bobkov who was called into action to backstop his team to eventual victory. I had a chance to talk with Bobkov since his return back to the OHL’s London Knights about the game, life after, and playing in Canada. Below is the interview, enjoy.
How did you feel when you found out you were yet again selected to represent Russia at the national level?
I was glad of course, it was important to me to be selected to the junior national team in my last year of eligibility. Since things weren’t going too well for me in London, I needed to prove to myself that my game was still strong.
Yesterday, yours truly had the opportunity to talk with Semyon Varlamov of the Washington Capitals after practice before their home opener. While having brief encounters with various Russian NHL’ers in the past this was the first one-on-one i’ve gotten to do with an actual player. Despite speaking fluent Russian my entire life there were moments I stumbled through only to be assured by Varly that I was doing fine and not to worry. There is video of the interview but seeing how it’s in Russian I’m not sure if I will upload it. Here is the interview below, enjoy.