– What is the difference between pre-season training camps in the KHL and training camps in America and Europe?
– There you will not ride with the team, training without ice. In America, you prepare and arrive for three or four weeks before the start of the regular season. In the Czech Republic, in general, everything is strange with summer training. We train for 7-8 weeks with the team without ice at all, then three weeks of vacation, and then we went through our programs so as not to lose the tone. And only after that the pre-season friendly matches on ice began.
– How do you judge the level of hockey in the Czech Republic?
– In the Czech Republic, the site is neither European nor Finnish, neither long nor wide – something in the middle, a hybrid. The European style of hockey is aggressive. When you play with the puck, the teams back off and start playing intense hockey. In the Czech Republic, everyone runs, we don’t even have time to skate with the puck, to change in the middle zone. Anything aggressive is the biggest difference.
– Can you share your feelings about getting a Russian passport?
– As I said, since childhood I had a Russian passport, and here I just got an intern. In the Czech Republic there is no concept of a foreign or internal passport, therefore, I note that I have had citizenship all my life, but there was no internal Russian passport that would help me sign up for the KHL without Legionnaire status. It was quite simple to issue sports citizenship and collect papers. I could be misunderstood, confused – I’ve had dual citizenship all my life because of my parents, and only got an internal passport now.
– Did you feel more Russian after receiving an internal document?
– Yes, all my life I have felt like a Russian. I graduated from a Russian school in the Czech Republic, I have Russian friends and relatives. I only met the Czechs, perhaps, as a team. We communicate with Yashkin when he arrives, our families are friends. My mentality is Russian, I just lived in Europe. Even if everyone thought when I arrived that I would be more European. But everyone has already understood everything.
- Ostap Safin: “I haven’t renounced Czech nationality, I don’t understand this kind of nonsense”
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I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
