Perezhogin more than game to learn

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Habs' top draft pick Alexander Perezhogin more than game to learn

By Garry McKay
The Hamilton Spectator

There have been times this year, Alexander Perezhogin admits, that he's felt lonely and homesick.

The Hamilton Bulldogs winger is, after all, a 20-year-old from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, who speaks practically no English, trying to make a go of it, living on his own, in a strange country, thousands of miles from home.

He's a friendly guy with an infectious laugh and is a good enough hockey player that the Montreal Canadiens made him their first-round pick, the 25th player taken overall, in the 2001 NHL entry draft.

The 6-foot, 185-pounder left-shot right winger is playing his first season of North American pro hockey with the Bulldogs.

The Spectator recently interviewed Perezhogin through interpreter Ahmed Mohammed, a re-settlement assistance program counselor with the Settlement and Integration Services Organization.

Spec: Can you tell us about your first year in Hamilton and how hard it is when you can't speak the language?

Perezhogin: The language barrier is the first challenge for me, but many hockey players, when they come here, go through the same thing.

Spec: What do you do with your time if you can't understand the language?

Perezhogin: I watch TV.

Spec: Even if you don't understand the language?

Perezhogin: It doesn't matter. I still watch it, movies mostly.

Spec: Don't you get lonely?

Perezhogin: It was very difficult in the beginning for me. I had a lot of friends back home and lived with my parents in Omsk and I got along well with my teammates on my team, Omsk Avangard. I was a happy person.

I felt lonely here and homesick, and I missed my family and friends.

Spec: Is it better now?

Perezhogin: Yes. I've made some friends here and I'm adapting to my new life in Hamilton just like all European players do.

Spec: What's it like in the dressing room if you can't speak to the other players?

Perezhogin: People can understand each other even if you don't understand the language, by action.

Spec: What about when coach Doug Jarvis comes in before games or practices to talk to the team.

Perezhogin: I'm getting better and I can catch some things that he is saying. At the start it was more difficult and I was guessing what he was saying. And basically all coaches say the same thing in terms of what they want me to do (laughs).

Spec: My understanding is that if Doug Jarvis wants to talk to you about something that's important he gets an interpreter on the phone.

Perezhogin: If it's a serious conversation, in more detail, I can call my agent and she translates to the coach. We've only had to do it once but it could happen again. Sometimes the coaches just call me in and explain things by using the VCR and showing me things.

Spec: Was it easier for you when Alexander Svitov was here?

Perezhogin: In the first month when he was here he helped me a lot, but now I can do things myself.

Spec: When you first came over, were you pretty nervous about coming to a new team in a new country and with a language barrier?

Perezhogin: Before I came here I wasn't nervous but I got nervous after I got here.

Coming to a different country wasn't the biggest thing for me. I was more nervous about my own skills as a player.

Spec: Do you mean whether you were good enough for this level or adapting to the different game over here?

Perezhogin: I was worried about being at a different level from the team. This is a game of speed and strength and I was thinking about that.

Spec: How have you had to adapt to the game over here? And how about the ice surface here?

Perezhogin: The ice is very slippery here (laughs). The ice surface is smaller than at home and it means I have a very small amount of time to make very serious decisions. They have to be very fast.

Spec: Can you give us an assessment of your year?

Perezhogin: My level is much better but nevertheless I'm not satisfied. I know I can do better than this. Sometimes at the last moment I make the wrong play and my teammates know it wasn't supposed to be that way.

In general I think I'm doing good.

Spec: One of the challenges that many first-year pros face is learning to live on their own and cook for themselves. How do you manage if you can't read the labels?

Perezhogin: It wasn't that difficult. I used to live by myself. I left my family when I was 12 to play hockey and from 12 until 17 I was by myself living with the guys, playing hockey all day and cooking together. So I was independent. Then at 16 my family moved to where I was.

Here it's not difficult. And language is not a problem when you're hungry.

[PTH]

mr said:

Habs' top draft pick Alexander Perezhogin more than game to learn


The Spectator recently interviewed Perezhogin through interpreter Ahmed Mohammed, a re-settlement assistance program counselor with the Settlement and Integration Services Organization.

Can you think of a less likely name for a Russian-English translator ?

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

PTH said:

Can you think of a less likely name for a Russian-English translator ?

An Arab educated in Russia. Or a native of one of the many heavily Muslim former Soviet Republics in central Asia. Not unheard of. No more incongruous than a French speaking African.

*

Renewed Russian nationalism has been one of the preconditions and consequences of the present crises. Another effect has been that Islam is gaining in importance, outgrowing that of everyday religion, and becoming the vehicle of re-structuring social relations, the way of life, ethnic re-identification and renewing the ideology and politics of the indigenous peoples of Central Asia, the northern Caucasus and the Volga region. Inside Russia Muslims account for 12 per cent of the population. The growing Muslim diaspora is securing its economic and socio-political status in the largest cities of Central Russia, including Moscow.

- www.intas.be/catalog/93-3241.htm

Russia has plenty of citizens who are (at least culturally) Muslim: 20m, an eighth of the population, say Muslims; 14m, on official estimates. They are mostly the result of tsarist expansion within the past few centuries. Indeed, the Russians conquered cities such as Bokhara and Khiva only in 1869 and 1873; both are now in Uzbekistan but were under Russia's sway until 1991. Chechnya was conquered only in the second half of the 19th century, and resistance never totally died out. In the days of communism, the state tolerated Islam, as it did the Orthodox church, provided both stayed on the leash. And official atheism found no great echo among Muslims.

- www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5509-6.cfm

Tariq bin Laden, brother of Osama, was well aware of this when he visited Russia in the early 1990s. Following his visits to Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and other Caucasus republics, mosques, Islamic schools and cultural centers sprang up like mushrooms. They were usually headed by bin Laden's people.

This is precisely why Russia could play a key role in Central Asia: Russia remains the sole influential cultural force in the region. There are hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians living there. Many of the region's intelligentsia were educated in Russia and speak Russian. If Russia should withdraw from this cultural territory, it would quickly be replaced by imported varieties of Islam, including radical varieties. And the governments of the region would find it difficult to neutralize these trends, even with American money available.

Hence, there is another essential task for Central Asian nations: organizing training for "their own" imams and teachers. The Muslims of Central Asia are being offered assistance in this by Russian Muslims. For example, there are students from Central Asia at the Kazan Islamic University. Unfortunately, there are few of them.

- www.cdi.org/russia/234-4.cfm

[Montrealer]

Interesting stuff, Mr. B, thanks a lot.

[Both the interview and the background on Central Asian socio-political forces]

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

mr said:

The Hamilton Bulldogs winger is, after all, a 20-year-old from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan...

[blaise]

There was a large Russian minority in Kazakhstan when it was a SSR. In recent years the ethnic Russians have been emigrating en masse, either to Russia proper or to the United States (particularly in the New York region) because of persecution. Analogously, there is a great deal of resentment against Moslems in Russia. It is generally well known that the second war in Chechnya was instigated under false premises not long after the first war ended in a truce. A Russian filmmaker living in exile in Europe has been indicted in absentia for a documentary contending that the explosive demolition of two occupied apartment buildings in Moscow was staged by the KGB (technically, it's successor using a different acronym) and blamed on Chechen separatists. This was used as the pretext for a savage genocidal campaign. Such cynical ruthlessness is characteristic of the present Putin government (or by forces he cannot control). The gas attack on the theater occupied by a band of Chechens that resulted in numerous deaths among Russians and foreigners was unnecessary and unforgivable. According to Russians who survived the attack, the Chechens were concerned about their welfare and never considered detonating the explosives strapped to them. Enough about the "progress" under Putin, a former KGB functionary!

[Douper]

Aren't we experiencing the same problem with Markov? Would it be a good idea for the Organisation to maybe have 1 of Perez and 1 of Markov's friends move here to keep them happy and comfortable I know it might sound stupid but Markov with Petrov played a hell of a lot better than Markov ...Now Alone.

[blny]

Is there a Russian community in Montreal? If so I'd think it wise to see if Andrei would be interested in meeting with some to feel less isolated. Perez could benefit from that sort of outreach too.

[seventeen]

Just so long as it's not a Russian friend of Theo's ex-friends.

[blaise]

I recall that Mogilny had unpleasant dealings with the Russian "Mafia" several years back. In fact, they were threatening several Russian NHL players with harm to their relatives if they didn't pay extortion money.

[Tattac]

Blaise said:

I recall that Mogilny had unpleasant dealings with the Russian "Mafia" several years back. In fact, they were threatening several Russian NHL players with harm to their relatives if they didn't pay extortion money.

I heard the same stories about Bure and Fedorov. I wonder if the authorities are doing anything about it, especially now that some of Russian players are coming back (Yushkevich and Tverdovsky come to mind).