Flyers' Evgeny Medvedev learning language, culture in America

EVGENY MEDVEDEV walks confidently into an office on the second floor of the Flyers' practice facility in Voorhees, N.J., carrying a smoothie in his right hand. His left wrist sports a bright silver, yet understated, watch. He's wearing a black V-neck T-shirt and jeans.

The Flyers had an optional skate on this morning. Medvedev wasn't on the ice but he did work out. His day isn't done, though. He's in this office to work, too.

He walks in with a smile and says to the people in the room: "Hello. How are you?"

He sits down next to Miriam Gilbert. And as the English tutor begins to start her lesson, Medvedev stops her.

"What is it?" he says, pointing at Gilbert's foot.

"It's a walking boot," Gilbert says slowly, making sure Medvedev can hear every word clearly.

"I understand," Medvedev replies. "Are you OK? All right? Are you sure?"

Gilbert writes the words "plantar fasciitis" on a sheet of notebook paper and shows Medvedev. His expression switches from concern to confusion. For someone so new to the English language, plantar fasciitis is as foreign as you could imagine, from reading, to pronunciation, down to comprehension.

They move past Gilbert's injury and continue with the start of Medvedev's English lesson. They used to meet three times per week when Medvedev arrived in August, his first time ever in the United States, but the start of the regular season has made those visits less frequent and all the more difficult.

Medvedev, 33, signed with the Flyers in May for one year and $3 million after spending his entire life and professional hockey career in Russia. According to ESPN, he's the second-oldest Russian- or Soviet-born player to ever debut in the NHL. Only Helmut Balderis, who was 37 when he debuted with Minnesota in 1989, was older.

A three-time KHL All-Star, Medvedev waited this long to come over for various reasons.

"It was a couple things holding me back," Medvedev said last month through an interpreter, fellow Russian Slava Kouznetsov. "One of them was the Olympic Games at home (Sochi 2014). In my mind it was easier to get ready for the Olympic Games while playing in the KHL."

He decided the time was right, and the Flyers - who were on his trail for a few years - agreed. He was brought in to upgrade the team's skill level on the blue line.

Kouznetsov has long worked with the Flyers' foreign-born players. In addition to being their power-skating coach, Kouznetsov is essentially Medvedev's guardian in the early going of his time in America.

"Per the Flyers' request, basically I'm the guy who's taking him through it, adapting him not just hockey-wise, but lifestyle-wise so he's feeling comfortable," Kouznetsov said.

On the day Medvedev arrived, Kouznetsov was late. The limo carrying him to meet Medvedev at Terminal 4 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was running late. It was stuck in traffic.

Welcome to America, Evgeny.

"It was a zoo," Kouznetsov said. "He was beside himself. He lost himself. There were so many people coming and going. He's never seen that people traffic."

Medvedev is the fourth Flyers player Kouznetsov has worked with. The last was goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. Kouznetsov said the biggest adjustment for him when he arrived in the country in 1995 was simply the lifestyle. Medvedev, who lives in a rental property in Voorhees, has the same answer to that question.

Food is included in the category of lifestyle away from hockey. Medvedev had some trouble early on, but he's taken a liking to the chicken dish at Redstone American Grill in Marlton.

Kouznetsov also has introduced him to television shows to help Medvedev make the adjustment. He's helping where he can. But . . . "Whenever you try to hold the hand of the player all the time, it takes them back," Kouznetsov said. "It does not let them learn the language fast enough.

"He's just living the life. He cannot wait until his family gets here."

That happened Thursday, when Medvedev's wife and 5-year-old daughter arrived from Russia. No better time for Medvedev and the Flyers to have a brief break, without a game until Tuesday.

He's two months into his transition into his new life but now gets to add his family to that process, furthering the comfort level he has with his new surroundings. He said he was excited to have his family arrive, obviously.

"It's not only the hockey," Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said. "(It's) the wife, the child, the living arrangements, new country. I mean, think of us going to Russia and all the sudden you're playing in a different rink (with a) different lifestyle and culture. There's going to be a transition."

Jakub Voracek was 17 when he traveled from the Czech Republic to Canada to begin his junior hockey career with the Halifax Mooseheads, of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He didn't speak a word of English or French.

"I think everybody from Europe has been there," Voracek said of the barrier.

He said it took about five months until he really started picking up English words and phrases.

"When guys are talking to each other, you think it's so fast and you don't have time to pick it up," Voracek said. "But then you pick up one word, then a second word and you start hearing it better and start putting it together. It's actually pretty fun when you start understanding. It makes you feel very good because you're learning. It's actually awesome."

One year after arriving in Canada, he was talking to reporters at the NHL draft in Columbus, where the hometown team selected him.

Medvedev, who has an assist and four shots on goal, has already had two different defensive partners in the Flyers' four games. He started with Luke Schenn for the first two games and has been paired with Radko Gudas in the second two.

Schenn downloaded an app - which many players and Flyers staff members have - on his iPhone that translates words from English to Russian. They'd pass the phone back and forth when communicating off the ice. But phones aren't allowed inside the boards when the pads are on.

"I'm learning," Medvedev said in English. "Takes time."

Gudas speaks five languages. None of them is Russian. He speaks his native Czech, English, German, Swedish and Finnish.

Czech and Russian have some similarities but they're different.

"It's not drastically different," Gudas said. "We have a couple words similar, but Evgeny is getting pretty good in English so he's going to make it easier for all of us."

In the preseason, Medvedev spent a lot of time paired on the blue line with Michael Del Zotto. Del Zotto said the key to everything was trying to make Medvedev feel comfortable.

"It's obviously a learning experience for both of us," Del Zotto said. "We're both going through the same three, four words . . . 'Over.' 'Reverse.' Each other's name."

The process works the other way sometimes, too, English-speaking players going overseas. Many were forced to do so during the two lockouts that occurred over the last 10 years.

Flyers defenseman Nick Schultz played in Kassel, Germany during the 2004-05 lockout. But luckily for him, Germany is a nation where many people speak English. Medvedev isn't afforded that luxury with Russian while in the United States.

"It's a lot harder here," Schultz said. "He's kind of forced into learning. Over there you can get by on English.

"It's good to keep it simple for him."

Miriam Gilbert has been an ESL teacher for more than 30 years and has been working with the Flyers' Europeans since 1999. She has taught Bobrovsky, Jiri Dopita, Radovan Somik and his wife, Stefan Ruzica, and the wife of Oskars Bartulis.

She has tutored students from Japan, Kuwait, South America and Central America.

As an ESL teacher, she's not really forced to be multilingual. She doesn't know Russian. And that's all the better for the purpose of her teaching.

"If you speak the language of your teacher, sometimes they rely on you too much," she said. "He's forced to speak English."

She said Medvedev knew a couple of things in English when she first got him in August.

When they started their lessons, she first taught him body parts, names for clothes, hockey game terms, emotional phrases, how to count money and how to tell time.

Gilbert found on the Internet the 1,000 most common Russian words and their English equivalent. She also found a glossary of hockey terms translated from Russian to English, listed in alphabetical order. They've done some of it in their sessions.

Flyers assistant coach Gord Murphy, who works with the defense, provided her some hockey language that defense players need to know. She also watches games, listens to commentators and writes down expressions.

This is where their lesson began on this particular day. Gilbert goes through phrases like "the shot is blocked, the puck bounced off, great pass, relieves pressure." Medvedev refers back to his iPhone app for some of them before saying he understands.

Gilbert mixes in a few mock interview questions, an important part of the process in a media market like Philadelphia.

"You're surrounded by flashbulbs and cameras and everybody wants something," Gilbert said. "And you're also afraid, you don't want to say the wrong thing and you don't want to feel like a fool."

They eventually get to the hockey phrase, "spinning." Gilbert says she observed Medvedev spinning in a game. Medvedev doesn't recognize the word. It's not quite plantar fasciitis, but it's just as unnatural.

A Flyers staff member in the room demonstrates, twirling in a circle in the middle of the office.

"Ahhh," Medvedev says with a laugh. "I understand."