Pelino returns to Russia for eighth season, as assistant
Hockey lifer reopens KHL chapter of decades-long career after call from former coaching colleague
Mike Pelino’s seven-year itch wasn’t scratched until midway into what will be his eighth season in the Kontinental Hockey League.
While the hockey lifer thought he had closed the Russia chapter of a decades-long coaching career, after returning to his home in the Peterborough area in the spring, a long-distance call from a friend and former colleague prompted Pelino to reconsider.
“I had fully anticipated staying home this whole year. I wasn’t looking to go back,” the onetime head coach of the Brock University men’s hockey team and an Olympic gold medallist for Canada in 2002 said.
“I loved the idea of being able to spend more time with my family, with my parents, with life in Canada. After the seven years in Russia, I thought I owed it to my family, and I owed it to myself, to be here in Canada.”
While it seemed to be the right decision — “especially, with the way the pandemic affected us all” — Pelino began receiving calls from Russia after the KHL season started Sept. 1.
The one that piqued his interest — and prompted him to book a Wednesday night flight to Russia — was from Ilya Vorobyov, head coach of Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Pelino first met Vorobyov during his first season in the KHL, in 2013, when both were assistants on Mike Keenan’s coaching staff in Metallurg.
“It grew into a great friendship and working relationship,” he said.
The 61-year-old Welland native, who also coached in the National Hockey League, American Hockey League and with the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Hockey League, is returning to Russia with his family’s blessing.
“We discussed it as a family and thought that, in light of everything, with how we were handcuffed to the home and things like that, it was a good decision to go over and do something that I am good at, do something that I love to do and continue to support my family,” he said.
Did the decision involve golf clubs as much as it did hockey sticks?
Kim Pelino quipped in a post on her Facebook page the end of the golf season in Canada factored in her husband’s decision to rejoin Vorobyov.
“Yes, his retirement/sabbatical has been cut short,” she wrote. “Should I be suspicious that it coincides with the end of golf season? But we are really excited and hope you’ll join us in cheering on Metallurg for the second half of the season.”
Pelino laughs when asked about the Facebook post.
“Maybe I didn’t go earlier because the golf season was still on!”
Last season, Pelino led Lokomotiv Yaroslavl to a 29-14-5 finish and a playoff berth as head coach after starting the year as an assistant to one-time Edmonton Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish, who was fired eight games into the season.
Third-seeded Jokerit Helsinki defeated No. 6 seed Yaroslavl four games to two in the opening playoff round.
Pelino enjoyed being a head coach for the first time since 2011-12, which was his second season in Peterborough.
“I loved it. We were very successful,” he recalled. “We climbed up to a playoff position. We had a very good year. It was a really rewarding experience for me to be the head coach of that team.”
That said, Pelino doesn’t think it will be difficult returning to the KHL as an assistant with Metallurg after putting up coach-of-the-year numbers as MacTavish’s successor with Lokomotiv.
“I think that I’ve got enough experience in this game and in coaching over the last 35 years that I am comfortable with any kind of role.” MIKE PELINO WELLAND SPORTS WALL OF FAME, CLASS OF 2013
“I think that I’ve got enough experience in this game and in coaching over the last 35 years that I am comfortable with any kind of role,” he said. “Having been an assistant for so many different situations over the years, whether it be at the world championships or at the Olympics, it’s just a minor adjustment. You just continue to do the best job you can and give your team every opportunity to be successful.”
Mike and Kim Pelino consider themselves fully recovered after testing positive for COVID-19 in the spring. “We recovered officially back in April.”
They both developed symptoms while self-isolating at their home in Millbrook, Ont., after he arrived in Canada on March 15. Pelino doesn’t know if he was infected in Russia or at JFK International Airport in New York City.
So far, neither believes they have suffered any long-haul effects after coming down with the coronavirus.
“Well, I hope not. I don’t think so, but we’re learning something new all the time,” he said. “Little things that make you wonder if it’s part of a long-term effect.”
He likened the COVID situation in Magnitogorsk, a city of 420,000 about 1,700 kilometres east of Moscow, to what Canada is currently encountering.
“There have been spikes over the course of the past number of months. Magnitogorsk is probably similar to what we’re experiencing right now in Ontario,” Pelino said. “Moscow is probably a little more similar to what the United States is going through. Obviously, I’ll continue to stay safe and wash my hands, practise social distancing, wear a mask, but I also feel pretty fortunate that I have gone through COVID already. I’d like to think I have some immunity built up.”
He has been “fortunate enough” to donate convalescent plasma to Canadian Blood Services.
“Even to this day, they would still like me to continue to donate if I could, which is an indication that my antibodies are pretty good,” he said.
KHL players don’t need to wear masks on the ice, nor do coaches need to have face coverings on the bench, but the pandemic is being monitored on a daily basis at many arenas in the 23-team league.
Whether stands are filled from 25 to 50 per cent capacity or before no fans at all varies from location to location.
Players and team personnel are tested every five days.
“Anyone who comes up with a positive test is automatically forced to quarantine for 14 days,” Pelino said. “If a team has players who aren’t eligible to play because of having contracted the virus, then they have to find replacements through their minor organizations or their junior organizations.”
After parts of seven years in the KHL, his grasp of the Russian language has become stronger. “It’s actually gotten pretty good. I can’t communicate fluently, but I have a really strong understanding of the language, a good grasp of the vocabulary,” he said.
Pelino can get by when it comes to reading Russian. He learned the Cyrillic alphabet during his first year in Russia
“I’m pretty comfortable with reading and recognizing the words. I can’t read ‘The Brothers Karamazov,’ by Dostoevsky in Russian, but I can read the signs of the stores,” he said.
Pelino has access to a translator. And, if all else fails, there’s Vorobyov.
“Ilya can speak English very well, so I’ll just let him do all the talking,” he said with a chuckle.