CrashingTheGoalie

by JOERI LOONEN (courtesy of the iiha.com)

“When my agent told me Barys Astana was interested, I didn’t know of the city,” Letowski said. “When I learned it was in Kazakhstan the first thing on my mind was about that movie, Borat, and stuff like that. In North America, that’s what most people think when they hear about the country.”

But the truth isn’t anything like that. In 1997, Astana, which means capital city, replaced Almaty as the new capital of Kazakhstan. Along with the move, neither costs nor efforts were spared in order to designate the city which is the second-coldest capital in the world.

Led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country wants to connect to the big global economies by 2030. The ambitious plans have seen shopping centres being built in no-time and complete cities are renovated. As sports are one of the ultimate promotional tools, Kazakhstan is working hard in this area as well.

ALATAU SPORTS PALACE – (capacity – 5332)

courtesy of the iiha.com

Letowski might not have been aware of this past, but he is a witness of the results that it all led to.

“There are a lot of new buildings. Also there are a lot of cranes everywhere,” he knows.

Then again, the “restaurants always seem empty. Nevertheless, it’s beautiful here but the town doesn’t seem to have too many people.”

Other than empty restaurants, Letowski did see some familiar faces in the locker room.

“Part of me deciding to come here was the fact that this team did have a limited number of imports, guys with NHL experience,” he admits. “That said something about the team and how they approach the season. It would have been hard to be first guy here, I’m not sure I’d have accepted the offer then. But now guys like Jozef Stümpel, Branislav Mezei and Kevin Dallman had already signed. It kind of made it easier for me to settle in.”

Despite being a newcomer to the KHL, Barys Astana is representing Kazakhstan in a great way. At the end of October, the team holds a respectable 10th spot in the league with 14 wins out of 24 games. With their results, they outclass the other foreign KHL teams from Latvia (Dinamo Riga, 15th) and Belarus (Dynamo Minsk, 22nd).  Nevertheless, the teams sitting in the middle pack shift up and down. The gap between sixth-ranked CSKA Moscow and 14th-ranked SKA St. Petersburg is only six points (which equal two victories).

After a slow start, Letowski has picked up his offensive game and to date has 7 goals, 3 assists and is +2 in 29 games. He also has 28 penalty minutes, 2 game winning goals, and 2 goals scored during a shootout.

KHL STATS

“Upon my arrival here, I only had like five or six games before the season started,” he says. ”I actually felt good the first ten games, just offensively I didn’t put up the numbers. I think recently I got more comfortable and the past few games have gone very well for me. I look forward to building on that to get better.”

During his spell in Switzerland, Letowski had an all-offensive first-line role.

“I probably played 20-25 minutes a night. Here it’s a little more spread out, at least in our team, we roll lines over pretty good. The one thing I know is that the power play scores a lot of goals. There are not that many even-strength goals and as I’m not part of the first power play unit, I don’t get a ton of chances to score a goal. I’m just trying to play real good, solid hockey.”

Also the on-ice practice sessions were totally different….

“They’re definitely longer. You can skate for pretty much an hour and a half here all the time whereas in Carolina you’d skate for 40-45 minutes. That’s different yes.”

It’s these kinds of things that see foreign players struggle in the early stage of the season. Letowski has now overcome this.

“When I first came here it was really tough, but you learn from it and now I like it. It’s refreshing.”

Other than a pair of on-ice sessions per day, there are also the off-ice workout sessions that keeps the players busy on non-game days.

“You almost get spoiled in the NHL,” he jokes.

Off the ice, perhaps the biggest transition to make is the language problem. Letowski remembers the problems he faced.

“You don’t know a single word which is tough.  Our coaching staff doesn’t speak English. There is one guy in our organization who speaks English but he’s not part of the coaching staff. Stümpel speaks quite a bit of Russian while Marc Lamothe and Maxim Spiridonov speak both English and Russian, so they help out.”

As mentioned earlier, the presence of the other import players was a key in Letowski’s decision to play in Kazakhstan.

“They’re all nice guys with whom we travel back and forth to practice. In total, the team holds seven import players including three Slovaks or Czechs, who all speak English. I can’t imagine being here as the lone guy speaking English and say we had three Finnish guys who didn’t happen to speak English. That’d be really hard for me.”

Whereas the player at least has team mates to communicate with, his wife who travelled along has a bigger adjustment to overcome.

“Shortly after we arrived, we went into training camp and such. My wife was left here for two weeks by herself. That was pretty tough for her. She knew no one here and she can’t go to a store and talk to people. Even now that’s the worst part of everything, not being able to communicate the regular day-to-day stuff.”

He is surprised about the level of play and is quick to point out the differences with the NHL.

“For sure, the skill level is very high here, pretty much throughout the line-up. Also there is a lot more goal scoring than I’d have thought. In the NHL the roles are very, very defined. There are six high-skilled guys that play on your power play all the time. Your third line is your checking line and the fourth line provides the energy. Over here all line-ups, from top to bottom, are very skilled which impresses me. We’ve got one power play unit but you can also see our fourth line on the power play, which is unheard of in the NHL. Let’s say it’s different.”

courtesy of www.kazhockey.narod.ru

So is the travel.

Being the lone team from Kazakhstan, there’s no such thing as a game in the local area.

“Travel has been pretty good. We have our own plane which is really nice and the meals are good. In the NHL everything is taken care of while here things take a bit longer as we pack and get our own bags before getting on the bus, yet overall it’s been fine.”

Even schedule-wise he prefers the KHL schedule over the NHL’s.

“There are three or four road trips followed by three or so home games. In the NHL it’s better in the east than in the west. There you play one at home, two on the road, two at home etc. You get the feeling you’re never at home. You’re just home for a day or so. I kind of like it here. You’re home for a whole week or so.”

Then again there are also some drawbacks.

“My one complaint is, because we’re in Kazakhstan, customs stuff takes time. We always have to clear customs with severe passport controls and things like that. It’s frustrating at times.”

For some reason a conversation with an import player in Russia always brings up the subject of flights to Khabarovsk – the city which is located in the far east of Russia holds a KHL team named Amur and their players are easily the most travelled in the world.

“Flying to Khabarovsk was an experience. It was an eight-hour flight in which we flew through five time zones. We had a game at five o’clock and left Astana at seven o’clock at night. We then landed at eleven in the morning, on the game day. We travelled all night had a nap for an hour and half, ate some and then were off the rink. It was unbelievable. It’d be like flying from Toronto to Stockholm and then playing immediately. I can’t imagine the travel their players go though. It’s remarkable. I’m not even sure I could do it myself.”

Despite the raving stories, Letowski is unsure whether he will commit for another season with Astana.

“I’ll try to have a good season here. It’s hard to say what’s up next year. At this stage of my career it’s probably a time to re-evaluate every summer and see what comes up.”

Staying or leaving, his time in Kazakhstan will add richly to his experience as a person. In order to survive on a different continent, it’s necessary to no longer look at things from a North American perspective.

“That’s for granted. Culture, food and such stuff is a part of your life. It’s different over here. But I’m glad I made this change. I’m 31 years old. I can see this for a year. There are not many Canadians who can say that. My wife is here and it’s nice we can experience it together.”

“It’s not any worse. It’s exciting.”

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