This is Russia: Life in the KHL - Doctors, bazas and millions of air miles Author: Risto Pakarinen | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HPTS5WO | Format: PDF
This is Russia: Life in the KHL - Doctors, bazas and millions of air miles Description
The Kontinentalnaya Hokkeynaya Liga (KHL), founded in 2008, has quickly established itself as the second best league in the world, behind only the National Hockey League.
Bernd Brückler spent two seasons playing for Torpedo Nizhny Novogorod, and a season with Sibir Novosibirsk in Siberia. In his memoir, he tells us what it's like to be an import player in Russia, and the challenges he faced with the language, the culture, and the game.
He tells stories about life at the "baza", a training base, and how they'd have to spend big parts of the season away from their families. (Unless they sneak out). His driver was also his buddy and a bodyguard. There's the travel, with hours upon hours on planes that are often antiquated, and there are the teammates, the doctors, the pills, the training camps, the saunas, and the money, oh, the money.
"What an awesome book. If you're a hockey fan, you will love it."
- Thomas Vanek, New York Islanders
"This story has heart and soul. As a reader you can really appreciate the inside stories about Russia, through the eyes of a westerner."
- Joe Laimer, coach, ATSE Hockey Club Graz
"It's been a long time since I have thoroughly enjoyed a book so much."
- Michael Lorber, sports journalist, Kleine Zeitung, Austria
- File Size: 3174 KB
- Print Length: 248 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1494379287
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HPTS5WO
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,294 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Hockey - #23
in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hockey - #60
in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Winter Sports
- #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Hockey - #23
in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hockey - #60
in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Winter Sports
This book has something for everyone, if you love hockey and history too. Bernd Bruckler provides a rare peek, behind the curtain, of the life of a hockey professional in Russia. It is clearly written, engaging and insightful. He brings you with him, not only inside the KHL but also on his journey as a young player in Austria, playing junior hockey in Canada and then college hockey in Wisconsin. If you play hockey, you will be inspired and encouraged to work hard, and never give up.
By Val Simson
I've only been to Russia once, but I've spent quite a lot of time in China, which is another place about which both foreigners and locals explain things by shaking their heads and saying, "This is China/Russia." Because there's no other way to explain it. [And in the book, the explanation "This is Russia" is one often given to Bruckler by his Russian teammates, when he queries something strange he has seen or experienced.]
In his account – with journalist Risto Pakarinen –?of three years playing for two teams in Russia's professional ice hockey league, Austrian goaltender Bernd Bruckler covers not only his on-ice life as a goaltender-for-hire, but also pulls back the curtain on life as a "VIP" professional athlete in the crazy place that is modern Russia. We hear about the Soviet-style training camps, the garbage bags of cash handed over on payday, the 2011 air crash that killed all but one member of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team (Bruckler played for another team, but his predecessor on that team had moved to the ill-fated Lokomotiv Yaroslavl during the offseason), and the tenuous hold players have on their jobs.
The story is fast-paced, and (for me) provided just the right amount of detail, and more than a few laughs (which did not come from a balloon full of nitrous oxide –?a joke you'll have to read the book to get). As another reviewer has said, you don't have to be a hockey fan to enjoy this book. This is a story about a man who takes a job in a foreign land, has some good experiences and bad ones, makes some money, gets screwed over, and survives with his sense of humor intact. Recommended!
By Roberto
This is Russia: Life in the KHL - Doctors, bazas and millions of air miles Preview
Link
Please Wait...