Ray Emery Signs In Russia

[IceMunkee 15]

What a waste of a good and exciting goaltender. I refuse to get caught up in thinking all the dramatics were from him. Atleast not last season. He was treated like a pile of crap, he minded the net for the Sens to the finals. Then he was booted from his job as soon as 07-08 started. Coach Paddock (i think that was his name) treated the entire team like crap, which eventually costed him his job for the remainder of the season. With the right leadership, guidance, purpose and motivation anyone can improve "attitude". I think he was kinda left out in the cold. Oh well Emery, Good Luck!

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

What a waste of a good and exciting goaltender. I refuse to get caught up in thinking all the dramatics were from him. At least not last season. He was treated like a pile of crap, he minded the net for the Sens to the finals. Then he was booted from his job as soon as 07-08 started. Coach Paddock (i think that was his name) treated the entire team like crap, which eventually costed him his job for the remainder of the season. With the right leadership, guidance, purpose and motivation anyone can improve "attitude". I think he was kinda left out in the cold. Oh well Emery, Good Luck!

He wasn't booted from his job at the start of the season, he wasn't fully recovered from his wrist surgery. And there was talk that his recovery was delayed in part by his poor work ethic. Then he never won back the starting job.

There was also all the other crap he pulled. Emery's problems are mostly of his own making.

Emery said coach John Paddock told him to "beat it" after arriving late for practice on Friday. The tardiness occurred a day after Emery engaged in a stick-breaking tantrum during an on-ice workout.

When Emery returned to practice Saturday and tried to smooth things over with Paddock and the team, he acknowledged to reporters that he was having trouble getting motivated.

"I've never been a guy that's on time all the time, but I was disappointed in not getting here on time [Friday]," Emery said, according to The Canadian Press. "I didn't know who saw [Thursday's tantrum], but I just got mad, mainly at myself, because I've been having trouble getting motivated on the ice."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...&id=3174891

[puckloo39 5,686]

that synopsis of playing in Russia is a horror show, in anyone's book. I always liked Ray-Ray but like many, shake my head over his antics. If this doesn't teach him that he had it good with Ottawa, then nothing will. Hope he grows up and rebuilds his NHL career.

[IceMunkee 15]

He wasn't booted from his job at the start of the season, he wasn't fully recovered from his wrist surgery. And there was talk that his recovery was delayed in part by his poor work ethic. Then he never won back the starting job.

There was also all the other crap he pulled. Emery's problems are mostly of his own making.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...&id=3174891

You got me. Damn you and your intelligence!!!!

Not all of my post is bull poopy. With the right guidence he could be great...

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

You got me. Damn you and your intelligence!!!!

Not all of my post is bull poopy. With the right guidence he could be great...

honestly I still hold out hope for him. Maybe a year playing in Russia will adjust his attitude and wake him up. He's young and I think he can be a very good goaltender.

Plus the guy's a badass fighter!

Edited July 9, 2008 by haroldsnepsts

[IceMunkee 15]

honestly I still hold out hope for him. Maybe a year playing in Russia will adjust his attitude and wake him up. He's young and I think he can be a very good goaltender.

Plus the guy's a badass fighter!

That is probably my favorite thing about him. One year in Russia with all the hookers.... He may never come back.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

I'm sure he won't stand out walking on a crowded street in Moscow.

[sibiriak 84]

I don't know if these guys have any idea what they are in store for... check out Lecavalier's experience in Russia:

For four months, those sheets of ice were in Russia. The 24-year-old moved from his swanky place on sunny Harbour Island to a hotel room in eternally overcast Kazan, a depressed industrial city of 1.2-million people in the middle of Russia.

Each day was a struggle with a strange, harsh language, the brutally cold winter and his friends, family and girlfriend eight time zones away. But Lecavalier refused to give in to the surroundings and isolation, choosing instead to look for the bright side of this experience.

...

The city of Kazan is surrounded by poverty. Most folks make, maybe, the equivalent of $100 a month. Bedsheets cover the windows of the homes, themselves little more than a pile of two-by-fours held together by a few rusty nails. They are so tiny and dilapidated that it appears a stiff wind or small child could level them in seconds.

But inside the city, the environment changes. Lecavalier's hotel is across the street from Kazan's breath-taking Kremlin, where Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Kahn once lived.

Ak Bars Kazan ("The White Bear") is owned by the government and sponsored by Tatneft, a big oil company, and, if the rumors are true, the Russian mob. "I don't know about that," Lecavalier said with a smile.

...

When Lecavalier is in Kazan, Russia is tolerable and, dare we say, occasionally pleasant. Lecavalier's hotel suite inside The Mirage - a five-star hotel as posh as any $1,000-a-night room in the Big Apple - feels like a small apartment. There's a spacious living room full of furniture, a television and high-speed Internet hookup.

...

Most of the arenas in the Russian league aren't too bad. They seat 1,000 to 4,000. The nicest is in St. Petersburg, which holds 14,000 and almost feels like an NHL arena. Kazan is constructing a 12,000-seat arena that should be ready for next season.

The worst are the ones in the farthest outposts, such as Siberia. One rink was so cold that Lecavalier never broke a sweat and his feet were frozen for the entire game.

...

"They had one shower," said Kazan goalie Fred Brathwaite, a native of Ottawa and former goalie for four NHL teams. "And when I say "shower,' I mean like a spigot you would find in a kitchen sink just sticking out of the ceiling. Take one guess if the water was hot or not."

The hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg are endurable. Everywhere else in the 16-team league is hit-or-miss. Sometimes the food is inedible. Often the bathrooms are small and dirty.

...

Players often bring their own towels on road trips. Before one trip, the players were told they might want to bring a toilet seat. On another trip, Lecavalier needed his own toilet.

After a road game in Siberia in January, Lecavalier was hit hard by the flu at a decrepit airport and needed a bathroom. Immediately.

Pointed to a room, Lecavalier raced through the door only to find a hole in the floor. When he was done, Lecavalier, with no Charmin in sight, had no choice but to sift through his wallet and find the smallest denomination of bills. It cost him about 100 rubles, or about three bucks and change.

Lecavalier's flu became so severe he had to be hospitalized for a day and treated with IVs in Kazan.

"That hospital ... I felt like I was in the 1930s in some old Hollywood movie," Lecavalier said. "It was really old. Some general came and got me and brought me into the room. I was the only guy with a room. All the rest, the military people, were in one big room with the beds lined up next to each other. They were carrying people on old stretchers. I felt like it was World War II."

...

Not this much hockey. Unlike the NHL, where teams practice once a day for 45 minutes to an hour and usually are off once or twice a week, Russian hockey is like CNN: all day, every day. Ak Bars, like most Russian teams, practices at least once a day and often twice a day.

From his arrival on Nov. 25 to the last game on March 22, Lecavalier had three days off. Two were in December when the league was supposed to be on a 10-day hiatus.

...

Even the night before home games, teams are locked away in a military-like base (the players say bah-say). They eat dinner at about 7, go to bed by 11 then head back to the rink the next day for a morning skate. Then it's back on the bus and back to the "bah-say" for lunch and a nap.

"That's the way Russian hockey is and, really, the way Russian society is," Kasparaitis said. "Everything is structured. When I was in kindergarten, for nap time, all the kids had to lay the same way - on your side with your hands next to your head. That's just the way it is."

Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, a former Olympic star of the former USSR and an assistant coach for the Phoenix Coyotes, coaches Ak Bars with what would seem like an iron fist if this wasn't Russia. He speaks fluent English but not around the team. During practice and before, during and after games, Bilyaletdinov addresses the team only in Russian, occasionally leaving Lecavalier alienated in the one place he is supposed to feel most at home.

When Bilyaletdinov speaks, Lecavalier isn't sure if the coach is praising or criticizing, motivating or pleading, joking or threatening. Even when Bilyaletdinov is diagraming plays on a grease board, Lecavalier is lost, not sure if the coach is talking about defense or offense, his team or the other team. Video sessions? Forget it.

So Lecavalier stares straight ahead, acts as if he follows and keeps a serious look on his face.

"I never go first during drills in practice," Lecavalier said. "I couldn't. I just wait and do what the guy in front of me does."

...

Despite the reputation international hockey has for being free-flowing and exciting, the Russian game plods along with few scoring chances, an emphasis on sitting back and playing smothering defense and more clutching and grabbing than a football game.

Few penalties are called by referees, who might or might not be on the up-and-up.

"Much of the time, the referees are paid off," Kovalev said. "You can tell a few minutes into the game. If you see a bunch of penalties early in the game against one team, then it's, "Oh, looks like someone got to him.' If it's even early, not too many penalties, then you know the game is on the level. Still, it's dirty out there, way more dirty than the NHL. And it's slower.

"Overall, it's not as fun or exciting as the NHL, but it still can be good when it is played right."

...

The difference between the top and bottom is more than location in the standings. The top teams fly charter planes, play in decent arenas, stay in hotels.

"Fortunately, Kazan is a first-class organization," Lecavalier said.

The bottom teams are lucky to get paid. One team hasn't been paid since March 2004, so the players went on strike. They were replaced by unknowns and played against Lecavalier's team.

"Some of those guys were like (13 years old)," Lecavalier said. "Seriously. But they played us tough."

...

"It is a different game over here," Lecavalier said. "The ice is bigger, but the buildings are smaller. You're used to playing in front of 18,000, and some nights you might play before a couple of thousand or a few hundred. I like the NHL better. With all the hooking and slashing and clutching and grabbing over here, I'll never complain about the NHL again.""

Who knows? Maybe it will be good for him?

To summarize, poor Vinny had to deal with:

a) cold weather. Him being Canadian, that must have been a shock;

b) language barrier. Oh no, he must have expected everybody there to speak pure Parisian;

c) lots of practice. He is a pro athlete, what exactly does he think they pay him to do?

d) living in a luxury hotel away from his family for a few months. Yeah, that's really tough;

e) playing at smaller older arenas. He must have done so in juniors, shouldn't be a big deal;

f) slightly less talent and lower tempo of the league. Yeah, but it's still much better then the AHL or the Swiss league, where the other NHLeers spent the lock-out;

g) poor officiating, OK that's true, but it's not like he were a physical player like Artykhin or Naszarov, who were whistled for just about any contact, I don't think Vinny suffered too much from the Russian refs.

I don't think that Lecavallier himself was whining or complaining. I think that the writer of the article did a very poor job, got most of his facts wrong, even the easily checkable ones, like how the team's name is translated. And he seem to have gone out of his way to portrait Russia as a gloomy and horrfible place to live. Not a professional job at all.

About 1/3 of the teams play in new large modern arenas. About 1/2 play in older 5,000-10,000 seaters with decent facilities and a few teams play in small rinks that require renovations. There are modern luxury hotels in at least 18 of the 24 hockey venues.

In short, there are worse jobs than being a pro hockey player in the Russian league.

[Opie 308]

Am I the only one that's a little alarmed by this? First Jagr and now Emery, two significant NHL names to go to Russia. Add that to all the stuff I've been hearing that the rising NHL salaries is in part due to competition from Russia and it makes me slightly uneasy.

Emery, significant NHL name, no Jagr is a significant NHL name, Emery is a never was, not even a has been!!

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

To summarize, poor Vinny had to deal with:

a) cold weather. Him being Canadian, that must have been a shock;

b) language barrier. Oh no, he must have expected everybody there to speak pure Parisian;

c) lots of practice. He is a pro athlete, what exactly does he think they pay him to do?

d) living in a luxury hotel away from his family for a few months. Yeah, that's really tough;

e) playing at smaller older arenas. He must have done so in juniors, shouldn't be a big deal;

f) slightly less talent and lower tempo of the league. Yeah, but it's still much better then the AHL or the Swiss league, where the other NHLeers spent the lock-out;

g) poor officiating, OK that's true, but it's not like he were a physical player like Artykhin or Naszarov, who were whistled for just about any contact, I don't think Vinny suffered too much from the Russian refs.

I don't think that Lecavallier himself was whining or complaining. I think that the writer of the article did a very poor job, got most of his facts wrong, even the easily checkable ones, like how the team's name is translated. And he seem to have gone out of his way to portrait Russia as a gloomy and horrfible place to live. Not a professional job at all.

About 1/3 of the teams play in new large modern arenas. About 1/2 play in older 5,000-10,000 seaters with decent facilities and a few teams play in small rinks that require renovations. There are modern luxury hotels in at least 18 of the 24 hockey venues.

In short, there are worse jobs than being a pro hockey player in the Russian league.

But playing in freezing rinks, getting the flue due to poor health conditions, having to bring your own toilet seat on road trips, and having to pay to use a hole in the floor as a toilet is another story.

[egroen 384]

But playing in freezing rinks, getting the flue due to poor health conditions, having to bring your own toilet seat on road trips, and having to pay to use a hole in the floor as a toilet is another story.

Exactly... I am sure a lot of us would take $300,000 tax free to play hockey in those conditions (vs. working our asses off at a day job for a fraction of that money), but some of these guys can still make really good money playing in the NHL, under sublime conditions.

I dunno -- is $2 million tax free vs. $1 million taxed worth it to play in a country you know little about and have no inkling of the language? Never mind the stark contrast in conditions.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

honestly I still hold out hope for him. Maybe a year playing in Russia will adjust his attitude and wake him up. He's young and I think he can be a very good goaltender.

Plus the guy's a badass fighter!

TBH, the talent is 100% there. If he can just grow up and focus on whats important he'll be one hell of a goaltender.

Whether that's sooner rather than later, or never at all is what's yet to be seen.

Edit: Addition

Edited July 10, 2008 by Never Forget Mac #25

[Chris88 0]

He will be back soon enough. He is a solid goaltender.

[DaKineMaui 8]

In Soviet Russia, team lets down Emery!

Boogers just shot outta my nose, trying to quiet the laughing!

[sibiriak 84]

But playing in freezing rinks, getting the flue due to poor health conditions, having to bring your own toilet seat on road trips, and having to pay to use a hole in the floor as a toilet is another story.

Freezing? Colder than he is used to in Tampa, maybe. Its not like he was playing outdoors.

The temp at the ice level should be in the low 50s.

Flue is caused by a virus. Not any "unhealthy conditions". Diarreah, cholera, e-coli etc. are caused by unsanitary conditions. Which would be hard to find anyway, in the $1000/night hotels that he was staying at.

Own toilet seat is just another "small" detail that the writer got wrong. To be sure, the story about the toilet paper (or lack thereof) is more plausible. But only if Vinny was using a free public restroom in a high traffic area, like a railroad station. If he used a paid one, there would have been an attendant there with all the supplies that may be needed.

Hole in the floor type "Turkish" toilets do still exist in some places. It is embarassing. While they are uncomfortable for a 50-year old fat woman, they should not really be a problem for a fit young guy.

[Elshupacabra 0]

I feel bad for Russia.