Life in KHL not all premium vodka and caviar

Posted: 3:00 AM CST Monday, Nov. 9, 2015

IN CASE you were under the impression Alex Burmistrov left Winnipeg in 2013 to get away from intense pressure and unkind forces, he'd like you to know it didn't quite turn out that way.

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IN CASE you were under the impression Alex Burmistrov left Winnipeg in 2013 to get away from intense pressure and unkind forces, he'd like you to know it didn't quite turn out that way.

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This article was published 09/11/2015 (3618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IN CASE you were under the impression Alex Burmistrov left Winnipeg in 2013 to get away from intense pressure and unkind forces, he’d like you to know it didn’t quite turn out that way.

The 24-year-old signed a two-year contract with Ak-Bars Kazan of the KHL, returning to play in his hometown. In the first season of his deal, he led the team in scoring with 10 goals and 37 points in 54 games. In Year 2 (2014-15), he scored the same 10 goals and had 26 points in 53 games, and Kazan went to the KHL final.

But the returning-hero narrative only went so far, he said during a weekend interview.

Winnipeg Jets Alex Burmistrov at group B practice Friday afternoon at day 01 of training camp at the MTS Iceplex.

In his own words:

“It was tough, actually. It was not easy. When I went back at the start, our team had lots of big names. It’s one of the best teams in the KHL, lots of big names and lots of fans and people, reporters, talked like maybe I would be the third-line centre, something like that. At the start season, training camp, we had a pretty good line going, Tim Stapleton and (Mikhail) Varnakov and after that we started to be the first line, scoring goals and stuff like that. The fans started cheering for me.

“But especially a guy from Kazan, if you grow up and play like, a bad game, well, they’re after you. They’re all over me. That team was in the past years improving and won a couple of times, so they always want to win. Especially when they see a guy from their hometown making money, they see this and (think) ‘Why does a young guy even play in this team and make this money?’ There were lots of Russian fans who don’t understand when you talk about the money in the KHL.

“When they’re saying ‘Hockey players are making too much money,’ just athletes really, nobody thinks … they don’t (understand) that after work, you can’t go and get drunk wherever. We can’t do that.

“Basically your day is working out, like morning breakfast, practice, go back home, eat, nap, wake up, eat, go back to sleep because there’s a game the next day. It’s a routine. You can’t do anything like that (partying) and many people don’t understand (why) we miss a lot of things, that you can’t go out with your friends all the time.

“You’re focused on your career, but people don’t understand that; they’re still talking about athletes shouldn’t be making this much money.

“That lasted two years… when I signed the contract, it was for two years and I knew I’d want to go back to the NHL. The owner of the team, the general manager, they all supported me with that. They were happy I was there. And that was nice of them.”

— Campbell