Click here to see a video of the first Oil Barons practice in Russia!
(Country 93.3 and Rock 97.9’s Tyler King is on location with the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in Russia for the first-ever World Junior Club Cup – he’ll be providing regular updates on the team’s historic trek. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/tyler_king for the most immediate info and pictures!)
The Barons have hit the ice!
It took another long bus ride across the traffic maze known as the Russian capital, but Fort McMurray had its first practice at the Mytishchi Arena just outside of Moscow.
The entire day was a fascinating introduction to the international game. The Barons’ opponent in their first exhibition game, Atlant Moscow, took to the ice about an hour before the Barons did. The team crowded at the glass to see how their future rivals looked, while Associate Coach Bjorn Kinding took a seat high in the stands, pen in hand and notebook in lap, for some advance scouting.
The differences were palpable, and in a post-practice interview Kinding confirmed them – sound is the biggest difference. This team’s practice was near-silent. Compared to the chatter and cheers that dominate a Barons practice, Atlant was near-silent throughout their drills.
The practice had a much more free-form style to it as well, and there weren’t too many drills beyond a couple of breakout patterns. That said, the team had apparently just come off of an off-ice workout (which is apparently how they do these things) and was much lower on energy than the Barons.
Fort McMurray’s practice was upbeat and incredibly energetic. So much so, that Kinding says the coaches had to stop halfway through to “bring them back to reality”. It had really only been a day without ice time for the team, but their reaction to getting on the rink made it seem like it had been a lifetime.
The practice wasn’t the best-executed, compared to what had been seen at the Casman Centre, but a jet-lagged team on unfamiliar ice couldn’t have been expected to do much more. Coaches Keca & Kinding seemed happy with the practice, which lasted just over an hour.
The arena in Moscow is absolutely phenomenal. Lunch was served in one of the private boxes at the corner of the rink, which seats 9,000 people for Atlant’s parent team in the KHL.
It’s impossible to predict how this first game is going to go. The only certain thing is that it’s going to be exciting.
The practice was followed with some fascinating sight-seeing through Moscow, including a walking tour of the Kremlin and Red Square on Friday morning before the first exhibition game. There’s no question that the players are getting about as full a Russian experience as is possible. Yes, there was Borscht at the post-practice meal. Yes, that stuff is delicious.
Don’t forget, the Barons are broadcasting their games through an internet audio stream at oilbarons.com – the first game goes at 8:30am Friday morning, and the second, much more high-profile game against the Red Army will be Saturday morning at 7am – trust me, it’ll be worth the early wakeup!
Tyler King
Moscow, Russian Federation
1:24 PM Moscow Summer Time / 3:24 AM Mountain Daylight Time
August 26, 2011
