Everett Silvertips Russian forward Yan Khomenko looked at me today as he walked to the locker room after practice.
He nodded and said, “Hello. How are you doing?”
I was dumbstruck because I was under the impression Khomenko didn’t speak English.
“Good, man,” I think I stammered, then asked, “How’s the English coming?”
“Good,” Khomenko said with a smile as the locker room door swung shut behind him.
I later asked fellow Silvertips forward Spencer Gerth about it and Gerth told me that Khomenko had not spoken a word of English when he arrived for training camp in August. But clearly the English lessons he’s taken are doing him well. Perhaps a chat with the only Silvertip I haven’t yet interviewed can still happen this year.
Backup goaltender Mario Petit was at practice today, so the illness that afflicted him last weekend seems to have abated.
It sounds like forward Brandon Ralph’s hand injury is worse than originally thought. It involves a fracture and head coach Kevin Constantine said he thinks Ralph could be out “at least a month.”
My story today looks at the Silvertips being the most disciplined team in the WHL when it comes to avoiding penalties. Of course, the story comes when Remi Laurencelle is awaiting punishment from the league for his hit on Seattle’s Jerret Smith in Saturday’s game.
It seems as though the league is waiting to hand down a punishment to Laurencelle until we find out how long Smith will be out. I was told Smith was at the ShoWareCenter Sunday with his arm in a sling with what sounds like a shoulder injury.
As is usually the case I wound up with far more quotable anecdotes for the story than I can use after talking with Constantine, Gerth and Noah Juulsen.
Gerth and Juulsen are two of the more physical players with 29 and 24 penalty minutes, respectively.
“I think on this team for sure that’s part of my role,” Juulsen acknowledged. “I’m a big part of that physical play on the back end.”
Said Gerth: “(Physicality) is something that I like to bring (and) it’s something that I feel like I need to bring in order to be consistently in the lineup. I think it’s something that (for) our team is part of our identity, and that’s to be hard to play against.”
Portland comes to town Wednesday as the Silvertips will look to break out of a mini-slump in which they’ve lost four of their last five. Then comes a home game Friday against Kamloops and a quick trip to Kent Saturday for another match-up with the T-Birds.
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