HABS’ SERGACHEV A NATURAL
Learned to skate only 9 years ago
It’s an impressive accomplishment for Mikhail Sergachev to make the Canadiens as an 18-year-old defenceman. It’s even more impressive when you consider that he didn’t start playing hockey until he was 9.
As a youngster growing up in Nizhnekamsk, Russia, Sergachev had no interest in hockey. He was a swimmer.
That changed when he was 9. The father of a girl in his class at school coached a hockey team. He noticed Sergachev was a big kid and suggested he try hockey.
“I went there and I didn’t like it,” Sergachev recalled after practice on Wednesday at the Bell Centre. “First of all, because everybody else started playing at 5 or 6 and they had been skating a lot.”
Sergachev held onto the boards while trying to stay on his feet when he skated for the first time.
“The other kids were calling me ‘Big Paw’ or something like that and I was pretty pissed,” Sergachev recalled. “That’s why I didn’t like it.”
But he stuck with it and quickly learned how to skate and shoot the puck, which he really enjoyed. Only nine years later, the Canadiens selected the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder in the first round (ninth overall) at this summer’s NHL Entry Draft.
Defenceman Nathan Beaulieu wasn’t aware his new teammate only started playing hockey nine years ago.
“It’s pretty impressive,” Beaulieu, 23, said after being informed. “Guys all start at different ages, but that’s kind of when the game starts to kick in (at age 8 or 9) and if you’re a natural at it, it doesn’t surprise me too much. He’s a big guy starting late ... he probably just picked it up pretty easily.”
Beaulieu said he was 5 or 6 when he started playing hockey, but he learned to skate before that. He also didn’t like hockey at first.
“I didn’t really like it at the beginning,” he said. “I just wanted to sit in the penalty box or lie on the ice. I wasn’t really into it, but it grew on me.”
Beaulieu was the Canadiens’ first-round draft pick in 2011 (17th overall) and is part of the team’s No. 1 defence pair with Shea Weber.
Sergachev is just getting his first taste of the NHL. He had 8:30 of ice time in Tuesday’s 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, including only 1:22 in the third period. Sergachev had 11:48 of ice time during his NHL debut in the season opener last Thursday in Buffalo. After two games, he is still looking for his first point and is even in plus/minus.
Canadiens coach Michel Therrien was pleased with Sergachev’s performance against the Penguins — adding it was better than his first game — and that his limited ice time was a result of all the penalties in the game, meaning the power play and penaltykilling units played a lot. Weber logged 11:40 of ice time in the second period alone en route to a game-high 28:09.
The Canadiens will soon have a decision to make on Sergachev. If the teen plays more than nine games in the NHL, the first year of his contract automatically kicks in, which would have an impact down the road in terms of when he would become eligible for free agency. Therrien said the club hasn’t made a decision yet on what it will do, adding that the Habs are taking it “day-by-day.” The coach said there’s a “good chance” Sergachev will be in the lineup again Thursday when the Arizona Coyotes visit the Bell Centre.
Sergachev will most likely be returned to his junior team in Windsor before playing in a 10th NHL game, but Spitfires head coach Rocky Thompson has no idea what the Canadiens have planned for the young defenceman.
“But I’m excitedly watching Micha to see how he does,” Thompson said Monday. “We’re rooting for him, obviously.”
Thompson had never seen Sergachev play before he arrived in Windsor to start last season after coming over from Russia. Sergachev went on to post 17-4057 totals in 67 games, along with a plus-15 rating, and was named the Ontario Hockey League’s outstanding defenceman as a rookie.
“We obviously saw that he was a big player who could skate really well and his head was up,” Thompson recalled of his first impression of Sergachev. “He looks kind of effortless on the ice, in a rocking chair, but it doesn’t mean that he’s not moving quickly or accelerating. He’s just got a very powerful stride and he floats across the ice almost when he has the puck.”
Thompson added that the strongest parts of Sergachev’s game are his ability to skate and move the puck.
“His offence from the blue line is extremely good,” the coach said. “He’s got a huge shot from the point. So those are areas of his game that really stand out. He does have a feistiness and mean streak to him as well … a competitiveness and passion that’s in his game that you love to see as a coach. It’s not something you can teach somebody. It has to be inside their heart to start with, and he definitely has that.”
Sergachev said he understands why his ice time was so low against the Penguins and was happy with the eight minutes he did play with his parents and younger sister watching in the Bell Centre after making the trip from Russia.
“Obviously, I’m in a learning process,” he said. “I’m just sucking it in. It’s pretty good.”
It really is remarkable how far this kid has come since learning how to skate only nine years ago while holding onto the boards with other kids calling him names.
“Yeah, it is,” Sergachev said with a big smile.