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Interview: Mika Kandinsky Goes 10OA to the St. Louis Scarecrows
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(2x draft media)

Mika Kandinsky Goes 10OA to the St. Louis Scarecrows



A dream come true for the young Russian centerman, Mika Kandinsky! Mika rose through the ranks and shot up those draft boards and found himself the target of the St. Louis Scarecrows first round draft pick.  The Scarecrows drafted Mika Kaminsky with their 10th overall pick.  The 6’1” 220lbs skilled Russian center is now with his team and looks to make an immediate impact on the roster.  After the Scarecrows latest championship, they have lost a few players to moving up to the SHL and in the draft found their replacements and hopeful future stars.  The team picked up a center in Mika, but also drafted two defenseman in later rounds of the draft.  The team is excited for the new rookies to join the team at training camp and start learning the ropes.  They are hopeful that the rookies will help the team win a 4th straight championship in the upcoming SMJHL season.

Mika has just recently come over from Russia to start his professional career.  He was relatively unknown just a week ago but has been rocketing up the scouting lists for the past week.  This was heavily aided by a star performance in the Prospect Showcase.  Mika helped lead the Vipers to the Finals and has put up very impressive numbers while doing so.  Faceoffs are still his weakest point, but even then he does his job well enough to not be a detriment.  What he brings in all other areas of the ice really make a difference for the team in a positive way.  Mika looks to continue this level of success at the next level of the game.

We were able to sit down with Mika after his draft and speak with him about what it’s like going in the first round of the draft, his new team, and what his future might hold.

Reporter:  Mika, thanks for taking the time to sit down and speak with us, we know you are probably very busy and need to get back to work training.

Mika:  No worries, I’m just happy to be here.  I didn’t know if I would be anyone worth talking to just a few days ago.

Reporter:  Well that all has certainly changed now.  How does it feel being selected in the first round by the defending champions?

Mika: Wow, yeah.  I don’t know what to say.  I was shocked.  It was getting close to the end of the first round and I had not heard my name be called out yet.  I was pretty nervous, I’m not going to lie.  I set the goal for myself to hopefully go in the first round and I really wanted that to happen for me.  So when it was getting to the last pick I pretty much thought that there was no chance and I was not going to be able to be picked.  

Reporter: But then you heard your name called…

Mika: Yeah, I heard the Scarecrows say my name and I was so excited.  It’s an honor to be drafted by such a great team.  They have a lot of great players over there and I can’t wait to get on the ice with them.  I was so happy to be a first round pick.  I always thought I had the talent to go in the first round so it makes me happy to get my professional career started on the right foot.

Reporter:  How has the team been since you’ve been drafted?  Has anyone reached out to you yet?

Mika:  Oh yeah, definitely.  Everyone has been really friendly.  I keep getting messages from teammates welcoming me to the team and telling me how excited they are to have me on the team.  I feel really welcome and I think there’s a really good group of guys here.  I’m happy about that.  The GM reached out and he’s helping me get settled.  I spent a long time talking with our Captain and he was helping me a lot in getting settled.  He was telling me a lot about what it takes to be successful in this league and all of the little things I can do to help myself and my career going forward.  He’s letting me know what to expect and things like that.  It’s really helpful and goes a long way to making me feel comfortable coming over from Russia and everything to play here in North America.  It’s really great so far.

Reporter: Where do they see you fitting in?  Have they put any expectations on you?

Mika:  Well obviously I want to come in and have an impact right away.  But the team isn’t putting any pressure on me, really.  They are just being helpful and making me feel comfortable so I can go out on the ice and play my game.  They understand what type of player I am and they want me to be that for this team.  At the same time, I’m a rookie and there are a lot of great players on the ‘Crows.  So I know I’m going to have to work my way up through the lineup, and that’s ok.  I’m a hard worker and I want to prove myself.  I don’t want to be handed anything on this team.  So I’m ok working up from the 4th line if I have to do that.  I hope I can move up quickly, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win.  I know I’ve got to get better and work on my game and I’ll continue to do that.  I think they want me to come in and be a strong defender and put some pucks in the net as well.  They have been telling me about how important being good on both sides of the puck are at this level.

Reporter:  How are your parents feeling about everything, it must be bittersweet for them?

Mika: Haha yes, I think secretly my mother wishes I wasn’t drafted at all and I’d go back home to Russia.  But she understands my ambition and that I want to play in the best league in the world.  But they were very happy to get a phone call from me.  I woke them up and everything and they were super happy.  They are just happy to see me find success here.  They knew it was a big risk to come over as someone who was not too well known and try to make a career here.

Reporter:  Have your parents been a big influence on you?  How were they important for your development?

Mika:  They were huge.  I wouldn’t be here without them.  They kept me on the right track and taught me how to work hard and try real hard at everything that I do.  They encouraged me to spend a lot of time at the local outdoor rink.  They were the best, they spent a lot of time and energy getting me to team practices and games and always very patient with me when I showed up very late to dinner, half frozen, because I just didn’t want to get off of the ice.

Reporter:  Is it true that you had to outskate a brown bear while training?

Mika: Oh yeah that happened.  That’s a real story.

Reporter:  What happened?  How did you do it, and how are you still here to talk about it?

Mika: Well I was practicing and working on a few things and I guess I didn’t notice this bear approach.  It went onto the ice and started coming at me.  I thought about skating away and getting out of there, but then I thought, well maybe I can just outskate this bear and maybe it would be good training on being elusive.  So I started skating circles and figure eights around this bear.  He’d take swipes at me or whatever and I’d dodge them.  It was a great workout actually.  I really felt like I was applying all of the skills I learned and I really had to work my edges.  I’d kind of play this game where I’d try and get as close as possible to the bear without him touching me.  Pretty scary stuff, I think maybe I’m a little bit crazy?  I don’t know, I felt pretty good about my skills so I thought there is no way this bear will get me.

Reporter: So you were toying with this bear?  How long did this go on for?

Mika:  Well, I guess it was about twenty minutes or so before I started to get pretty tired.  I didn’t want to make a mistake and get mauled so after about twenty minutes I skated to a puck and took a shot at the bear.  I hit him and he kind of wandered off.  I think he was pretty tired of me too.  I think he must have respected me enough after all that and just decided to leave me alone.  I didn’t tell my parents about this story so hopefully they don’t read this back in Russia.  They don’t really have good internet in Siberia anyways.

Reporter:  Do you think coming from a place like Siberia helped you in some ways to be a better player?

Mika:  I think yeah.  I think that it’s such a hard place to grow up and play in.  It’s always freezing outside and we trained outside on the outdoor rinks a lot of the time there.  When you have such harsh conditions all the time I think it hardens you and makes you tough.  I think it’s more of a mental toughness that you get from training in those conditions.  You know you are freezing and it’s pretty miserable buy you keep going.  You keep training and living day after day in that world and you just eventually get used to it.  So coming here and being in the indoor rink is a real pleasant change for me.  I think it gives me a bit of a competitive edge now.

Reporter:  How has the transition to smaller North American ice been for you so far?

Mika:  It’s been pretty great so far.  It’s still the game of hockey so I don’t think it was that much of an adjustment.  I was a little bit nervous about it before.  I had my first game in the prospects showcase and I didn’t get any points.  I think I was getting used to the ice and the speed of the game.  It was a little bit different.  I think I adjusted pretty quickly though and in my next game I picked up a few points.  I think I just need to stick to the game that I play.  I don’t think my game was good because I had more ice to work with in Russia, I think I have the hockey IQ and the skills necessary to translate my game to any sheet of ice or league.  But yeah it was great to play in the showcase and get used to the ice before the draft.  I did pretty good in the showcase so I guess the transition went pretty smoothly for me.

Reporter: What was it like playing with all the prospects?

Mika:  It was really great.  There were so many good players in the tournament and I had a lot of fun playing on the Vipers.  Me and Atlas Rush did really well on the line together and it’s a little sad that we couldn’t be on the same team after the draft.  I think he got drafted at #9 which was really cool.  Seeing us go back to back was pretty neat and I’m real happy for him because he’s a good player and he knows how to put the puck in the net.  I think we played together really well.  It’s exciting to come here and see how good the players are.  And I’m excited that I’ve stepped in and can play with all of these guys.

Reporter:  What are you looking forward to the most now that the draft is over?

Mika:  Well I think I’m excited to relax just a little bit and get back to work.  I know where I am now and I feel much more settled.  I think I’m most excited for the upcoming season.  I want to help the team win and see how I do there.  I’m not really looking forward too much beyond that.  You can’t get too ahead of yourself in this league and you need to just keep your head straight and work really hard.  So that’s what I’m going to do, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.  I’m also looking forward to playing with my new teammates and creating some chemistry there with them on the ice.

Reporter:  Thanks for your time, Mika and best of luck to you in the season and congratulations.

Mika:  Thank you very much, it was my pleasure.


Sitting with Mika I realised that he is a very special player.  On top of the well on display skills that he has, his attitude is instantly noticeable.  You can tell he has the drive to make it in this league.  He’s very mature for his age and the story about skating around that bear blew me away.  He speaks with a humility that is almost not warranted with the talent he possesses.  But I suppose in that way, he’s a true hockey player and will fit right in in North America.  It is this reporter’s opinion that the Scarescrows scored a steal at 10OA in this year’s draft.  I think Mika will be a force for the team and we will be keeping an eye on his progress.  Expect to see him shoot up the scouting reports for the SHL real soon.

Mika Kandinsky Stars 


[Image: mika_kandinsky.gif]

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#2

Mika is gonna be a beast! Good luck with the crows. They are a great team with some great players!

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#3

04-17-2019, 02:25 PMRublic Wrote: Mika is gonna be a beast! Good luck with the crows. They are a great team with some great players!

Good luck to you too!  Maybe we will be on the same team again someday.

Mika Kandinsky Stars 


[Image: mika_kandinsky.gif]

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