New team, new connections: Blazers bonding during pre-season

By Dave Dormer

Even though he’s lived in North America for the last couple of years chasing his dream of playing pro hockey, Mikhail Cherepanov is still experiencing some cultural firsts.

His latest came soon after the 18-year-old Russian import arrived in Kamloops ahead of the Blazers training camp, when he joined his new teammates for an afternoon of baseball.

It was his first time playing the sport.

“It was a great experience,” he said with a beaming smile after the Blazers won their pre-season opener 4-3 in a shootout over the Penticton Vees. “It was so much fun because all the boys were there. I was a pitcher, then I hit the ball. They tried to explain me all the rules, but I didn’t get it.”

Hailing from Yekaterinburg — Russia’s fourth largest city, located 1,600 kilometres east of Moscow in the Ural mountains — Cherepanov played youth hockey there, then moved to New Hampshire, where he played one year of U16 hockey before joining the Mountain Kings in the NAHL last season.

This year the 6-ft.-1, 192 pound defenceman is making the jump to Major-Junior after the Blazers took him in the first round of the CHL import draft. There’s also a Dallas Stars connection as he was a seventh-round pick by them in this year’s NHL entry draft.

Baseball is a niche sport back home, Cherepanov said, and ball diamonds there are almost non-existent. Instead he spent time swimming and playing soccer, along with playing plenty of hockey.

“He told me he hit the ball so he must have good hand-eye coordination,” said Blazers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston.

The ball game was just one activity the Blazers have taken part in during training camp and pre-season to get players re-acquainted. They’ve also been going out for dinners, playing pickleball and golf, and exploring the city.

“It’s been a ton of fun to get to know everybody, obviously there’s a couple new faces,” said 19-year-old forward Andrew Thomson. “It’s important for us to connect together as a group.”

Some players being billeted in the same neighbourhood also shared a cake — topped with a Blazers logo of course — on the night they arrived.

“Already early, there’s no specific groups, we’re all bonding,” said Thomson, who is entering his fifth season with the Blazers and will be looked to as a leader. He’s one of 15 returning players.

Clouston has engaged performance coach Tyler Makepeace this season and he spent training camps working with some of the older players who, like Thomson, will be looked at to fill leadership roles.

“I think he’s going to be a great asset to our staff,” said Clouston. “We had a meeting with that same group in the middle of camp and said, ‘we need a little bit more, you guys have to push each other out there,’ and there was a drastic difference.

“I believe our culture is strong, I believe we have players returning that have grown up here that understand the importance of how we want to play, the importance of being a strong team, making connections, getting everybody pulling in the same direction. We’ll continue to work on those things, value those things and figure out a way to be competitive.”

The Blazers are on the road against Penticton and the Prince George Cougars on Sept. 8 and Sept. 12, then they close the pre-season with a home stand against the Cougars on Sept. 13.

The Blazers open the regular season on Sept. 19 when they host the Victoria Royals at the Sandman Centre at 6 p.m. Tickets go on sale Sept. 14.