[ThirtyFive]

Ottawa wants me to arrive on the 8th.
August 10, 2008.

Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, and I will be training on the ice with SKA St. Petersburg until approximately August 15. I just want to say that none of us is transferring there. It’s just that Barry Smith agreed to let us continue training for the season with his team. Then the SKA players will fly out for their camp, and I’ll fly to Ottawa.

I received an email from the Senators headquarters, which said I had to arrive by September 8 for the start of the main training camp. But I replied that I will be coming even sooner than that. I have to be well-prepared for the camp. By the way, I’ve already gotten a Canadian visa. It’s valid for exactly a year, so it will expire at the same time as my contract with Ottawa. Should they offer me a new deal, I’ll think about the visa then.

But now I’m in Moscow. The first part of the pre-season training under the tutelage of Sergei Gonchar has come to an end. He’s gone to Monaco, Malkin’s gone to Magnitogorsk, and I’m home. But before we separated, Sergei left us both instructions for the forthcoming days.

Today I’m working for almost two hours. First, weightlifting and other strength and endurance exercises, then running on the treadmill, which is the hardest and most tedious, I’ll be honest. It’s a very monotonous exercise, and there’s really nothing to take your mind off it. Perhaps I should buy a music player.

At least here in Moscow the gym has TVs by the treadmills, so you can run and watch. They didn’t have that in St. Petersburg. So you just run and run. And you can’t talk to Malkin on the other treadmill. No time. You must breathe right. We have pretty strict rules. You have to run four-five kilometers in twenty minutes. So I’ll grin and bear it.

The toughest was in St. Petersburg. We gave it our all on the ground. Twice a week we had jumping, quickness exercises, and six series of 200-meter runs. No rest, no pauses. And Sergei said later the load will be even more: we’ll run 400 and 800. Plus cross-country. Five kilometers to start, then ten. I’m convinced I’ll be in perfect form for the training camp.

I’ve watched a bit of the pre-season here in St. Petersburg. Went to the games SKA played with HK MVD and Severstal. I didn’t much like the first game, but the second was okay. There doesn’t seem to be anything special in what each SKA player does, but everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to. And that gives results.

I’m happy the Olympics have started. I don’t have any special preferences, I’ll just be rooting for the Russian athletes. As far as watching, I’ll probably only watch the team sports with our players.