(975 Word Count)

Zarley Zalapski is currently playing for the Montreal Militia in his rookie season. Season forty seven of the SMJHL has been an exciting one for this rookie as he has appeared to gel with his teammates as much as one could expect. Of course, being from Russia and having a slight language barrier can cause some issues but it appears he has overcome those obstacles. I suppose a winning season and playoff push to the Four Star Cup Final makes things easier on any individual. Zarley continues to work and learn about earning TPE. He has had a couple hiccups where he was confused with a point task and decided not to ask questions about how to get the information. He figured it was only 4 TPE and that week he was nursing a sore knee along with a sore ankle. When asked about it he said he had a problem finding the information about send downs and found the task to be too difficult to worry about. He also stated that he struggles with English at times and sometimes life just gets in the way.

Zalapski not only has been getting emails from SHL Teams, Scouts, Fans, Friends and Family but he recently got the call from the Russian Federation who asked him to join the roster for the upcoming IIHF Tournament! Zarley was honored to be included but since he is still involved in a Four Star Cup run he had to put the IIHF situation on the back burner. He was locked out of the virtual locker room from the Russian team but that mistake was corrected rather quickly. Online he made a couple of statements and noticed that he had friends from the Montreal Militia who were going to be on the ice with him in their quest for a Gold Medal. Zarley doesn't know too much about it or the history but it appears that Russia just missed out on the medal round last year and expect to correct that problem this year. The team looks pretty stacked with two elite goaltenders and an impressive defensive core. Zarley did not have enough time to really notice the offensive lineup as he doesn't worry to much about that side of things. He has never had a problem playing with anyone. Zarley feels that the game is pretty simple. Skate, get control of the puck, pass the puck and score. Above all else, make sure that the opposing team doesn't get good scoring chances and never let them have easy access to cross the blue line. 

One Major thing that Zarley talked about was how nice it is going to be playing with his countrymen. Just to be able to speak in Russian to everyone and have them understand is a major plus. Zarley hates failure and anything less than a Gold Medal is going to feel like a missed opportunity but realistically speaking he hinted that he wouldn't be mad with a silver or bronze medal. Although his country and others expect to win at all costs and if you ain't first you're last mentality has its merit, Zarley understands how difficult winning really is. Not only winning but being on top forever is just not possible. Hockey is not an individual sport and you have to have many pieces of the puzzle to actually show constant results. Heck just in the NHL alone you will see that winning 3 or more cups is far above the norm. Not to take anything away from the NHL but this is the SMJHL and SHL which is far more difficult than that popular league.

Getting back to the IIHF, Zarley doesn't want to think about it. He is laser focused on the Vancouver Whalers right now and that is the job at hand. After coming back from a two to nothing hole against the Kelowna Knights, he has the taste of victory in his mouth and is hungry for more. Of course this kind of hunger never goes away and only gets worse but he says that nothing can compare to the rush you feel winning a playoff series. He can't even imagine what winning a cup would feel like but he told us that he wants to find out very soon! Winning four games in a row in the SMJHL is very difficult but six in a row is near impossible and Zarley has told us that he doesn't want to think of it like that. He said that he wants to only focus on the next game. Forget about what happened in the way of wins and loses. He says he learns from his experience of what happened on the ice and doesn't want to think about the final score. Zarley is focused on what he can do in the next game to exploit his enemy. We found that he thinks of the opposing team as his enemy but he was very serious about this idea. He stated that on the ice he hates the other team during game time. When the Puck drops those players are his mortal enemies. When the final buzzer sounds, he says that they all can go back to being friends but during the game on the ice it is kill or be killed. He wanted to make sure that everyone knew he was speaking in a figurative manner and not literal. It is just a mindset that he has and adopted at an early age.

So first, Zarley is worrying about the playoffs and the SMJHL. After they conclude their business he can focus all of his attention to Mother Russia and the IIHF Tournament. He smiled at us and let us know that he is excited about it though but likes to keep a straight face going to the general public. Nostrovia!