Speaker 1: 0:09

Hey there, welcome to how Do you Skate, the ultimate destination for all skating enthusiasts. We cater to everyone, from beginners to pros. Whether you love inline and ice skating or prefer quads and skateboarding, we have it all covered, and we bring you exclusive interviews with professionals, talented amateurs and influencers in the industry. So sit back, relax and get ready for an exciting journey into the world of skating.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Welcome to how Do you Skate? I'm your host, sean Egan, and today my guest is Nikita and I'm going to have him pronounce his last name, because it is a doozy.

Speaker 3: 0:54

It's Cremo Krasov, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Well, thank you for coming on. So now I like to always start is how did skating start for you? When was your humble beginnings?

Speaker 3: 1:09

I was three years old when I got put on skates. My father played professionally as well and it was just kind of natural for them to put me on skates pretty early. Hopped on, went to the store, got some skates Supposedly. I started walking around them pretty quick and next thing you know the rest was history. I started skating, enjoyed it a lot. I started out here in Florida, in Boca Raton, in a small rink called the Rink on the Beach. Now and yeah and then I lived in Russia out there for a while, so that's where I continued skating and continuing my path.

Speaker 2: 1:46

Now is your father from Russia and then he played in the nhl, or how did that all work?

Speaker 3: 1:50

yeah, my, my whole family is russian, both parents, uh, mom's from moscow, dad's from siberia, the hard, hard part of russia, um. So he started out there and then he played through the red army and then he got drafted in the nhl in 92 so he came over here and started playing. He was out here for about 10 years in the nhl before he went back home to russia to finish out his career.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Okay, and then so did you start playing hockey immediately, or was it just getting the basics down and learning to skate before you picked up a stick and started playing hockey?

Speaker 3: 2:32

Well, I think I was always playing. Honestly. I hopped on skates fairly early. It was obviously doing the skating part. I was always messing around at home with the stick. Whenever my dad would come around, we'd play with mini sticks. He'd always bring back broken sticks that he would have from the games with the guys around him. So there's pictures of me playing around at home all the time in his gear and his helmets. Yeah, lots of good memories. So I think I just dove into it pretty quickly. I didn't take it too seriously, honestly, with hockey until about nine or ten. That's when I started fully playing competitive hockey, but prior to that I was put on hockey or practicing with some friends here and there on some teams, but other than that it was just more for recreational.

Speaker 2: 3:18

Okay, it seems like when you start off where it's more recreational, you enjoy it and you pick up a lot of skills that you don't realize you have until you actually start playing competitively and get into serious training. Was that true for you?

Speaker 3: 3:33

Yeah, I think, like, honestly, being a kid and all the stories I've heard of guys who I've played with, guys who play in the NHL, I think it's just more so. You just go play with buddies, like you go on ponds, you know, you go in the backyard play some roller hockey. For me it wasn't the same because I grew up in Russia, it was really cold so I was more in the pond. But yeah, no, it was just the love of the game. You go out there, have fun with your friends, family, and then you just develop those skills just by enjoying it.

Speaker 3: 4:04

You know, eventually, when I was nine or ten, I think, started taking it a little bit more seriously. I was around my dad a lot more, started realizing what the NHL was, realizing what pro hockey was, seeing how he carried himself all the time. So I was just like thinking to myself all the time this is where I would want to be, this is what I want to do for for a living. One day It'd be pretty fun job, honestly, yeah, when you just play a game.

Speaker 2: 4:33

So now how long? So you started at 10 with the highly competitive.

Speaker 1: 4:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:40

Did you compete as far as like? So that was all in Russia, right?

Speaker 3: 4:45

No, I no sorry. I had moved to the States at that point. So my dad had retired and I want to say it was 06, 07. They started coaching professionally for a couple of years and then, you know, I was in Russia. We were in Moscow with my mom, my sister, and he just kind of asked, like asked if I wanted to take hockey seriously and see what's up in Denver. I had an uncle who has a hockey school out there. It's called Crivo School of Hockey. He was just like let's go visit him see how things go.

Speaker 3: 5:22

One thing led to another. Came out to Denver, loved it. I tried out for a hockey club called the Colorado Thunderbirds. Okay, and just from there, like ended up taking it more seriously because it was triple-a hockey. It's a higher level you could play for for kids starting out 10 and above and um. Yeah, from there on it was just like a little bit different. I guess being around my dad all the time, guy who played like that, that level um teaches you a lot of great things that maybe a lot of kids aren't lucky or fortunate enough to have um at the age that I did um. So that helped build into the foundation of me wanting it more too, because I knew it was a little bit of a cheat code yeah so yeah, and then I just started out playing in Denver.

Speaker 2: 6:08

I stayed there till about 15, 16, and then I left home to play in Canada okay, and now I'm local to Denver, being in North Glen, so just a little north of Denver. Is your uncle still running the school out here?

Speaker 3: 6:23

Yeah, he is. I'm pretty sure they're based out in Littleton right now.

Speaker 2: 6:28

Okay.

Speaker 3: 6:30

So he's got a good hockey program out there. I don't know how many teams he's got by now, but it's got to be close to a dozen. You know he's running the whole organization underneath himself, so he's doing really well with that. I know he's had a couple kids move on to higher ranks uh, whether it's the junior leagues that I've played in, or, you know, a couple kids got invited to nhl camps, so he's doing a great job out there with it. Um, so yeah, it's pretty cool that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 6:57

We'll have to promote it, since it's local yeah now, did you play because I'm not familiar with all the schools out here, because my kids go to an academy yeah, Did they have hockey in the high schools out here at all? Or did you play in high school or the college level at all?

Speaker 3: 7:18

Yeah. So I know a lot of the public schools have the teams. I had buddies that I played with on the on triple a teams that played high school hockey for fun. Um, it was never really my thing, I'll be honest with you. I went to a charter school so we didn't have a hockey club, we had lacrosse.

Speaker 3: 7:37

I did that for a little bit, which I really enjoyed, um, but at that point, especially in the direction I wanted to go with with hockey, I took it a little bit more seriously and just focusing in and on that and making sure I was doing the proper work, uh, whether it was workouts, obviously not getting injured in those things too. Because you know, high school hockey it's a little different than organized hockey, yeah, uh, yeah, people were really competing and it's just a different mindset. I think I never played college because at that point I didn't want to go that route. I wanted to go to junior hockey straight away. So I left to play junior at 16 in order to skip college and try to pursue professionally or obviously the NHL was the main goal and try to pursue professionally or obviously the NHL was the main goal, but as long as I was able to at least go and compete against the best kids from 16 to 20 at that time.

Speaker 2: 8:33

Now you've played two sports where you need to have serious hand-eye coordination lacrosse and hockey. So you're looking at a ball that's above you and a puck that's below you. So how? I can't even comprehend that right now. I mean, I played a little bit of rink hockey and I'm still trying to keep an eye on where the ball's at, and half the time I have no clue. So explain to us how you can develop those kinds of skills, because it's just one of those things, that those kinds of skills because it's just one of those things that, like I said, it's still hard for me to comprehend.

Speaker 3: 9:08

Yeah, it's a great uh point you bring up, I think I think I never looked at it that way. Lacrosse and hockey in some sense are really similar because you know, in lacrosse you have to cradle the ball, in hockey you have to stick handle. Um, it was different, maybe keeping the head up a little bit more, and I obviously went into lacrosse, never playing, it just showed up one day. I was like let me try. And my high school said yeah, for some unknown reason, given the fact that I had no experience whatsoever, but I think it's more, not necessarily skill based, I was just more motivated. It was something new for me to try and I wanted to push myself. So when I tried to do lacrosse, I was like, okay, well, I just need to practice a lot now.

Speaker 1: 9:50

That's all it was.

Speaker 3: 9:53

So in that sense, I don't think it's really a skill issue. I think it's just a practice and motivation issue that people probably have. If you put your mind to something I'm a true believer you can just work through it, whether or not it's going to take you five months, five years.

Speaker 3: 10:10

You've got to practice, but I enjoyed it. It was so much fun. I wish I would have continued playing lacrosse honestly at that point, but I was already leaving to Canada to go play the following season so I knew I had to take hockey a little bit more seriously at that point now.

Speaker 2: 10:26

Did the handling of the ball in lacrosse come pretty naturally to you, or did you have to put an extra effort to well, it was funny because in lacrosse you can go to, like you can go two ways.

Speaker 3: 10:40

You can go left or righty, yeah. So I know a lot of guys are, I don't know, dual-handed I don't know how to even explain it. Um, for me. I'm a lefty in hockey so it was natural for me to cradle with my left um it was. It was in some sense very similar um the. The trajectory of it was different, the shooting wise was really hard, I guess the follow-through, but overall I would say it was pretty similar in that sense. You know, you use the bottom wrist to cradle. Same thing for hockey. I was a righty, so using the top hand to stick, handle the puck was very, very familiar to me and I think in hockey one of my skill sets is my hands. So it was really fun for me to cradle the ball. Honestly, I would just practice at home all the time.

Speaker 2: 11:34

Very cool. Now, when you got to Canada, what was that feeling like? Knowing that you were going to play, because was that just a junior league, or were you already like working into pros in Canada?

Speaker 3: 11:46

so it's. It was a junior league but a lot of the players in the league were either NHL draft picks or any guys who had played some games, some guys who were even signed in the NHL. Um, it was a big wake-up call for me. I came in at 15 first time, getting called up playing against. Uh, I played against a guy who went second overall my first game in the western league.

Speaker 3: 12:12

Um, going against a player like that, who you know is already at the peak of where you want to be, and on top of that being a second overall pick, it was just a hard adjustment because I knew, like now I have to adjust, not being maybe the guy or a person that's going to go and put the puck in the net. I have to work my way up and, you know, try to push through guys. And, at the same time as it was exciting because I I wanted to see where I was compared to those guys who are already at that level or close enough, guys my age who are, you know, at that point, considered the top players either in Canada or even in the States. But, yeah, it was a cool experience. I couldn't thank all my coaches, all the teams I played for enough for the experience that I got. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 13:01

How many years were you in Canada for?

Speaker 3: 13:04

I was there for three. No, I was there for four and a half years. No, four years, four years, sorry. So I was about 19. And then COVID happened, so our season got shut down, yeah. As we all did right. So it was under question what was going to be next, what was going to happen? The league was, uh, going through a lot of rule changes and regulations of how they were going to follow through with the years because, um, because canada was really strict with covid yeah, so what happened was my 19 year old.

Speaker 3: 13:43

I ended up coming back to the States during COVID and waiting to see what was going to happen going forward in Canada. At that point, there was rumors that the season may happen, may not, or, if it does, it's going to be a 20-game schedule compared to like a 60. At that point, we were playing 68 games in a year, so it was a big drop off. Um, and I had a discussion with one of the teams that I was playing for at that time and me being a american player, they just said hey, like you know, I think it's best that you don't come back. It's 20 games. Um, you know, you're older player.

Speaker 3: 14:24

I was graduating the following year from the league because the age limit is 20 okay, so um, they ended up placing me on waivers so I could become a free agent, and then I ended up staying in the states for the 20 year old season. I ended up playing at iowa for the sioux city musketeers okay um it, the league was called the USHL, so I ended up playing there the year because it was a full season, really no regulations or rules going forward with COVID, so it was a better option for me to at least get a full season of hockey and then see what was next.

Speaker 2: 15:06

Yeah. So now when you got to Canada, from the start of Canada till Iowa, how do you feel that you developed, I guess technically as far as the sport of hockey goes, your skill level Did it increase tremendously between year one and year five?

Speaker 3: 15:26

I think the first year was a big wake-up call. I'm not going to lie, I had a really tough time my first year. I was out of the lineup a lot, not playing much, had to learn a lot about how to play big boy hockey, so to say. You know, you're playing against some guys who are 18, 19, 20, and on top of that they're either draft picks or guys who are 18, 19, 20, and on top of that they're either draft picks or guys who are signed under nhl deals. So you're playing against kids who are really, really good. Um, and I I just wasn't there at that time, I'll be honest. So it was a big, I think, mental and maturity, uh, development, me, learning how to deal with adversity. So then, going into year three and four, when I was there, I think I was more confident because I knew what I had went through and I knew I was older at that point, so I knew I had to perform. There was no real reason for me not to, as well as taking the responsibility of being an older guy on the team. So I think it wasn't really a skill necessarily, because the skill is always there. Um, I think it's more of a mental and I guess, um mental battle that you have to fight through in order to mature as a human, say, okay, like now, I have to step into the shoes that I walked into when I was maybe 15 or 16 and I was really lucky to be around great older guys when I came into the league I had, you know, I had a couple actually my first roommate. He's playing for Ottawa. He just got traded to the Avalanche. Actually he's playing. His name is Parker Kelly. Like he was one of my first ever roommates in Canada and just watching him the way he was practicing, carrying himself off the ice, it was good to have those role models that I could look up to and say like, hey, this is how I need to be when I'm at that age and this is how I need to play and perform night in, night out.

Speaker 3: 17:20

So, yeah, it was in the sense of mental battle and mentally maturing that was more crucial in me coming in as a 16 to 19 year old compared to the skill wise, because I knew the skill, the skating, the shooting, all that stuff that we do on an everyday basis. It's it never really leaves, and that's with any athlete I think a lot of people don't realize. You know you go in and you have a bad game. It's not really about oh, I lost all my skill, you can't lose all that stuff, it's just natural, right. It's more so you mentally gotta handle yourself and say, okay, like today was just not my night, or today is my night, but how do I keep this consistently going? Um, that's what makes players like crosby or mcdavid or bedard so special compared to guys sorry, not to knock on anyone playing in the NHL, but guys who are maybe not making as much money or playing as much.

Speaker 2: 18:11

Okay, now, when you were going through the mental challenges, was there ever a point where you were? Because I know a lot of us as going through life, we come across our dark periods and sometimes, when you're doing something, was there ever a point where you're like I can't do this, I just want to give up?

Speaker 3: 18:30

Oh, yeah, many times, right, I, I think, um, yeah, I don't know. I'll put it like you, you have those days, you have those months, you have those maybe two, three months, maybe a year. You go through. And what am I doing? Right, you're thinking to yourself, but I had a father who went through it in a sense, and he taught me pretty early on that, hey, like, once you go to this league, once you go play this style of hockey, like you got to realize, you got to grow up, you got to handle these, these adversities. So I always kept that voice in my head and reminded myself that, okay, like, if I quit now, what's what's all this for? Really, what's all this work just down the drain for um, so I kept pushing myself.

Speaker 3: 19:20

I think I maybe overloaded and overdid that. I will be honest. Yeah, I definitely pushed myself a little bit too much. In that sense, I think I let the negative creep in at times too much, but never did I think I was at any point ready to just completely shut it all out. I think it was just more thoughts and mindsets that I was in at times.

Speaker 2: 19:46

Okay, now, what was the next step after playing in Iowa? Where did you go from there?

Speaker 3: 19:54

So I was ready to quit, as we just spoke about not quitting. I was ready to quit because I had a really tough year, my last year in Iowa. Won't go into details out of respect for the, the team and the coach and everything that all my teammates as well but it just I didn't perform and I wasn't really playing much. And at that point, um, I think I was okay with where I was at. I knew at 20, I gave myself, I guess, a gap or a limit of if I'm at 20 and I'm not really somewhere where I think I want to be or should be, that maybe it's time to hang them up. So I was ready to stop playing and at that point we had moved to Denver when I was 16, when my father relocated Denver when I was 16. Well, my father relocated when I left home, so I was training out here in the summers.

Speaker 1: 20:57

Okay.

Speaker 3: 20:58

And I was training with a lot of pro guys, guys who play in the NHL, with one coach down here who played for the Panthers. His name is Ole Jokinen, and Ole was a good mentor for a really long time for me, for I would say six years. He was one of the coaches I trained with down here, believed in me a lot for whatever reason, from a young age, so he was always kind of working through it with me during the offseason, what I could do to be better, whether it was mentally, physically, off ice, on ice, all that stuff. So at that point he had rumblings that he was going to get an opportunity to coach in Liga, which is the Finnish top league, with one of the teams there, and he had given me a call right before I actually um finished out my year in Sioux City and was just asking how things were going, and I told him that I was pretty much done at that point and he just said, hey, like I've been there many times, um, you know I'm getting this opportunity in Finland.

Speaker 3: 22:09

Why don't you come out here and pretty much just see how things go, try out for the top league team? You know, just practice with us, give it a year and then if you still feel the same way, you know you can just leave. Because the plan was I was going to play on the junior team there in Finland and practice with a professional team. And I thought about it quite a bit and I really just looked at myself in the mirror and said I think like if I put the work in that I need to do and really just take this seriously and isolate myself from everything and just focus in, I think I'll be fine. So I ended up coming back to Florida, just taking a week off, and came to the decision that I was going to go to Finland, called him and I was on the next plane out to Helsinki, nice, and I ended up there and next was history, I guess.

Speaker 2: 23:12

So now did you make it to the pro level? Were you on the top team?

Speaker 3: 23:17

Yeah. So I basically had no off-season that year. I came to Finland a week later. That week was my off-season, my break.

Speaker 3: 23:27

I went in straight to training with the junior team and it was very, very different, and not in a good way. It was not to what I expected it to be. The level that I played in the Western League in Canada was way higher, in my opinion at that time. So it was even more of an indicator and more of like a push for me to really say okay, I have no other choice but to make the pro team, because if I'm going to be here for years, it's holding me back and wasting my time. So I had a good off season. I pushed, had a good training, I thought, and then I ended up having a decent preseason with the pro team. I scored a couple goals and then the general manager had offered me a contract to play for the professional team, and so I had signed a two-year deal at that point, and that was when it was official that I not necessarily made the team, but I earned myself a contract to at least make money from playing hockey.

Speaker 2: 24:32

Yeah, and a lot of people don't even get to that level, so that's a huge kudos to you. Now, what was the advice? I know your coach that you're working with was helping you with off-season and stuff. So what is the training like? Um, not on ice during off season? Like, what do you do? Are you in the weight room? Um, are you working with a nutritionist? How does that all work?

Speaker 3: 25:00

Um, I think growing up you're used to just the traditional weightlifting go pump a bench press a couple, a couple of squats, you know leg pressing. You think you're all set for the year right. When I went over there, the team that I signed with they had a sponsorship slash contract with the training program that had trained all the NHL guys Heiskanen, saros, valimaki, so all the top guys, finnish guys in the NHL. So the program was all study-based off of our testing results. Okay, that would lead to our program.

Speaker 3: 25:42

So it was a big switch for me, not really necessarily knowing what to specifically work on, to just working on my weaknesses, and it was a huge change for me. I realized how many things I was doing wrong off the ice in the gym and whether or not it wasn't in the gym. There was a lot of other things I could have practiced. That would translate to skill-wise stick handling, shooting on the ice. So then it went from our testing results to our specific programs where I had to sort of say me specifically work on cardio a lot, because we did a test called the vo2 test. It's a bike, let's basically go as long as you can and the levels progressively get harder depending off of your body weight and your body fat. So that was a big indicator for me. To work on Lower body strength, meaning wise, isolating each leg, to be a little bit more stable, because I was going to be playing against bigger guys, being quicker, a lot faster, was a big one for me. So everything I did in the gym was very explosive. I went from doing 10 to 12 reps on certain exercises to just doing three to five, but with max effort. All the weights and weeks that we were training were programmed, so we were upgrading in weight every week and that was based off of how many reps we needed to do and how many reps in reserve, whether it was maxed out or if you were able to do like two more, you should have three more in reserve. So that was huge for me because I started to feel it more on the ice.

Speaker 3: 27:30

To be honest, with you start to understand what training properly means, more so than just training. Um, nutrition was a big one for my coach. Um, he not, I guess, would say pushed me to be uh, you know not, I wasn't fat, but I would say I was a little chubby, like I needed to lose body fat. Um, he was just kind of giving me guides and tips on saying, hey, like if you do this properly, eat this, it's going to make you feel better on the ice. So that went into a factor for me personally. And then just like the skill stuff that I that I worked on um doing drills, like the footwork ladder with stick handling or, you know, shooting the pucks properly off the ace, just those little things. And now you see why guys, the superstars sort of say, are so good because they've been doing these types of training since they were 10, 11, 12 and so on.

Speaker 2: 28:28

Okay, Now we've been talking about your whole hockey career. What was your life like outside of hockey during all these years? Did you have a social life or was it just strictly hockey?

Speaker 3: 28:47

School was a good, I guess, detachment from hockey for me. I had a lot of friends, um that I went to school with. That were, uh, I guess, helpful in the process, but in a weird way I liked being isolated at the same time.

Speaker 3: 29:07

It was really no social hour for me I I wasn't really interested in anything else besides just training or going to school to do my work and then coming straight home and just practicing. It was early mornings with my father on the ice going to school, either getting picked up early from school or finishing school and then going straight to the gym with him coming home, shooting pucks, stick handling, um, going to practice, obviously, games, but it was never, never being pushed, I would say, it was just me wanting to do it, um, out of the joy of it. That's what really, I guess, gave me a purpose. So I was the quiet kid in school. I was the kid who was to myself a little bit more, but I never looked at it that way because it was just one focus for me and that was hockey. So I was okay with it.

Speaker 2: 30:08

Because, you see, I have an associate or a colleague that did a documentary called. Trophy Kids, where you see these parents pushing their kids so hard for stuff, where the kids just give up and it's very cool to see that it was your own personal drive that took you to where you want to be. It wasn't your dad pushing you, it wasn't your mom, it wasn't outside influences, but it was all you.

Speaker 3: 30:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:28

I mean.

Speaker 3: 30:29

I think a parent should push kid to a certain extent. I'm not gonna say that my dad didn't push me, because that's not the story at all. He was really hard on me the first two years we lived together, maybe even three um 10, especially when I first moved in. It was it was pretty hard, but he understood where I wanted to be and he knew how to get me there. So he just said pretty much every day like hey, like I'll get you there, but you have to be willing to take it and want it and.

Speaker 3: 31:02

I think once he saw that that was the case, then he got a little bit more lenient with me and, if anything, at one point he had to start pulling me back because he was like this is just too much. Like you got to relax and and that's where I I was saying like I think I was a little bit overboard with maybe mentally wanting it so much yeah, basically so much to get there, because it was just like I didn't know how to stop at points. But the the whole, you know, parent pushing a kid non-stop, the breaking point, that's how you get the kid to just be miserable and messed up for the rest of their lives until they're, you know, grown adults, and then they don't know what to do with themselves because they've only known one thing.

Speaker 2: 31:43

Yeah, it sounds like, with everything that your father, as far as the NHL and playing pro goes, that he knew when you were getting to that point and pulled you back. That's just, that's, that's just good coaching right there, just on your father's part of pulling you back from you going to a point where you shouldn't go um mentally and physically Cause.

Speaker 3: 32:05

when you get to that point, um, I'm not 100% sure, but I could see you getting injured more because you're overworking, overdoing and just pushing yourself way too hard yeah, that was kind of the story of what ended up happening towards the end of my career I think I wouldn't even say career, I don't even want to call it that.

Speaker 3: 32:24

It was a short career, um, I would say my time in hockey. Let's put it that way. I think that's just what killed me in general. I think, um, I didn't know the off switch and, uh, this past year, the injury that I ended up sustaining my father was just like when it, when my father started being concerned, yeah, I think that's what it kind of struck me as okay, like this is the only person that's ever been hard enough on me to know what I've been through, for him to say that and not say, hey, just keep pushing through. That's when I knew, okay, like this is the ending point for me, like I got to stop because I just didn't know the fine line of pretty much how much further I could take until I couldn't take it anymore.

Speaker 2: 33:11

Yeah, so do you mind sharing the injury with us? That didn't end your career then, or just?

Speaker 3: 33:19

Yeah, it was. It was a concussion, so I had started sustaining them pretty, pretty early on. I think I was like 18 when I got my first one, and they're all mild in the beginning, like you don't feel it right, you just yeah, whatever. I got shaken up a couple times I would say more than anything, um, and then it was. It was in Finland, my first year.

Speaker 3: 33:49

I ended up dressing and I got smoked pretty good. I ended up cutting my eye, couldn't see out of the right eye for a while and the guy blindsided me, so I didn't have the puck. Really Not enough puck possession time for me to get hit, so it was a late hit. Not enough puck possession time for me to get hit, so it was a late hit. And he went directly to my eye with his elbow, straight to the head, sorry, and he ended up getting seven games of suspension. I think he ended up getting fined and so that for me, like looking back at it now, that was a starting point for it all, because what happened was I ended up going to get stitched up after um, I ended up getting stitches and the doctor asked me if I was fine to go back out, which, in any nature. We all say, yeah, I think that's where I went wrong, because I think that's where I was probably concussed at that point and and I went back and finished the game. I went through the checkups, seemed okay, and then the next day I came into the rink. We had a morning skate and I just felt off completely and so after that it just carried over of me not being fully cleared to play. I didn't get the proper, I would say, care in order for me to see what the issue was or how long I needed to sit out for in order to be back to normal. So that whole year I was just in and out One week, okay, one week not. One day, good, one day not.

Speaker 3: 35:29

So I ended up finishing the year and then the following year I came back and I thought that off season was enough for me to kind of say, hey, like I'm good, cleared, all set to play, um, and then I came into the games and I just still didn't feel like myself. So I ended up getting checked up and the doctor was just like you're done for for a good three, four months in the midst, in the beginning of the season, okay, so that was a big slap in the face because I just put in all that work for nothing, really the way I looked at it. So I ended up sitting through, coming back and I started to feel like myself again playing, played two games and then we ended up going to a tournament called the CHL just like it is in in soccer the champions league tournament, yeah and went to Prague to play against a team called Praha Sparta so it's a big club. It was on on TV like big tournament. So I was really looking forward to playing and it was probably second period. I think it was okay.

Speaker 3: 36:37

Same same play. Kind of went to get the puck, didn't have full puck possession and the guy just blindside in the, in the head to the uh, with the elbow to the head, sorry. And at that point the rink that we had played in was an old barn, so the glass wasn't plexi, it was full on glass. So when I whiplash through the hit, my head made contact through the glass and in my eyes I think that's what did it. So I ended up passing out and next thing, you know, I was on a stretcher and I just remember waking up in the hospital. I'm just like you're in check. No, no language. Everyone's trying to speak to me. I'm like what are you guys saying? Obviously, yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:26

Then it was just like a big low point for me. I was just asking myself so many questions right, you know where you are. So I ended up again, you know, coming back to Finland just seeing the doctor, and it was the same process over and over again. And at that point I was just like OK, I think I'm done. You know, I was just going to finish out the year, finish out the contract and see what happens.

Speaker 3: 37:56

And then at the end of the year, oli, my coach, he had pretty much said that I wasn't going to be re-signed, I wasn't going to get the contract. So he's like, if you feel okay enough to play, we'll give you an opportunity to go play in the second league and just get some games in and see how you feel, and then maybe you'll get a chance to come back or maybe you'll get a chance somewhere else. So I said that's fair. You know, I didn't want to say my sorry ass anymore. I wanted to go and play at least, whether or not it was my last chance, whether or not I'd get something out of it. I just wanted to know for myself that, like, at least I finished out the year, my career, knowing I played a couple games before. So I ended up going to play in the second league and I, just as much as I had fun playing, I knew it wasn't me.

Speaker 3: 38:56

I knew it wasn't myself, you know, and at that point the doctor had pretty much told me like I could play. But playing at a highest level possible or playing at a level where you would want to, is probably unlikely, because you have to be careful the way you play yeah and I said so. If you're telling me I can play but I have to be careful, that's you pretty much telling me it there's no point of risking it yeah and at that point I was still in it wanted to play.

Speaker 3: 39:31

My agent had told me I had a couple offers. So the dream was still there even after I came back in the offseason to Florida. And then, after having a conversation with my father, we sat down, just talked logistically and, you know, after hearing what the doctor had said he's just like dude, you got to stop. He's like you're going to end up handicapped one day had said he's just like dude, you gotta stop. He's like you're you're gonna end up handicapped one day. He's like you want to have a family. He's like you want to have a life, you want to be happy.

Speaker 3: 39:57

And I looked at myself in the mirror and I just said, you know, at the end of the day, like hockey's been great to me, hockey's been fun, but it's not, maybe it's just not in the calling and that's fine, I'm okay with that now, not at the time, honestly, um, but yeah, I just had to make a decision that if I couldn't play the highest level possible, or at least try to push for that, then it was really the end of the road for me yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:29

so then you came back to Florida, you had the conversation with your dad. What happened after that? What are you doing now? Because when I got a text or when I talked to you on Wednesday, you were at the rink. So obviously you're still involved in some way, shape or form with at least ice and skates.

Speaker 3: 40:52

Yeah, I mean. So now I came in and I just coach. I coach hockey, I coach younger players. I've gotten the chance to work with a couple NHL guys in the summers, which has been fun. College players, you know, junior players, um, and then throughout the year, um seven months of the year, like going from September starting like May um, I usually just coach the younger kids here in Florida who either play recreationally or play for travel program. I have here and there a couple older guys come in, guys who come in during the season, whether it's their time off. So there's really no set job. I just I'm on the ice coaching lessons. But yeah, I'm on the ice a lot with the kids older players now, giving some of my experiences and skill sets that I've learned throughout the years and trying to help them translate and move on forwards for their careers.

Speaker 2: 42:01

Okay, so now is possibly coaching in the NHL a possible future for you at all, possibly coaching in the NHL a possible future for you at all?

Speaker 3: 42:15

Realistically no, because you have to have some kind of NHL background for that. It's really hard to get a job in that field if you've never played in the NHL, or at least have some kind of ties to it. Would I want to coach in the NHL? At least have some kind of ties to it.

Speaker 3: 42:35

Um, what I want to coach in the NHL would be a dream. Sure, I think it's pretty obvious answer. But I don't think coaching is for me either. I enjoy doing it, but, um, you know, being a player and not not being a player um, in such a short period of time, I think I'd like to do something away from hockey at one point. Um, it's great for now. I've gotten to meet a lot of great people, a lot of great kids love working with them, um, but it'd definitely be nice to be known as something else than just a hockey player.

Speaker 2: 43:07

Hockey coach, yeah, I think that's kind of my life is to to try to explore something new okay because things are always changing and can't always just be a one-dimensional and you're still young enough where you can make that transition a lot easier, and I'm working on transitioning into a new career in the near future and I'm doing it at 52. And how old are you? Like 24?

Speaker 3: 43:35

23.

Speaker 2: 43:36

So yeah, so you're still young. You're like most people haven't even figured out what they're going to do with their life at your age, and you've already been through more at your age than a lot of people have as far as you know what you want to do. So I don't think you'll have a huge problem finding something that you enjoy and moving on.

Speaker 3: 44:00

Hopefully not. I have a couple of good friends who have been helping me out with it and talking to me. A lot about opening up my mind to new things, which I've been really fortunate enough I've been fortunate enough to meet. A lot about opening up my mind to new things, which I've been really fortunate enough. I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of good people down here, away from hockey as well.

Speaker 2: 44:18

Very cool. So now one of the questions I like to ask is actually a couple that I kind of finished the show with is who was your biggest influence? I think I know, but just from the conversation we've had but who was your biggest influence for skating? I know, but just from the conversation we've had, but who was your biggest influence for skating and playing hockey?

Speaker 3: 44:37

fair answer. My father, I have to give him credit.

Speaker 3: 44:41

He's listening to this one. Um, but on a deeper level, I think, uh, I think what kept me going was just the self-drive, so I think it was myself in a way as cheesy as that sounds I became my biggest influence, whether it was waking up in the morning, you have to push yourself to get there, and you have to push yourself to do those things on a daily basis, and you have to be crazy enough to think that you can do it. Push yourself to do those things on a daily basis, um, and you have to be crazy enough to think that you can do it in order to accomplish a dream. So, um, to start off my dad, but eventually became me, and the battles that I had gone through in order to keep going.

Speaker 2: 45:25

I like that answer. And now the next question is what? What was your skate of choice? What was your? Because everybody's got their own preference of like what kind of skates, what kind of blades or wheels or whatever, depending upon your type of skating. So what was your? Your favorites?

Speaker 3: 45:48

so I'm a big bower guy. I love bowers, even though they kill my feet now and my ankles are probably not the best looking. Um, bauer owes me money for that one, actually. But uh, bauer was always my choice, I don't know, I just I started with them as a kid. I think I tried to switch a couple times, but I always went back to bauer. And then blades um, I don't know the specific brand that I use. If I'm being quite honest with you for steel, uh, there is a steel that I do like. It's called black steel, so it's fully blacked out. Um, it's got this nice gloss looking effect to it, so it like shine okay, but um, more brand wise bauer. Bauer is, in my opinion, the best boot on the market, and I know they do rollerblades as well. I have a couple buddies who play perfect or just for fun, and they love the bower, so I'm actually thinking about buying myself a pair of roller skates, so maybe we'll have to hop on the roller rink one time?

Speaker 2: 46:52

yeah, definitely, when you make it out to denver. So, um what?

Speaker 3: 46:56

kind of was that I haven't been in a long time, but I'd love to come back.

Speaker 2: 47:02

I love denver well, I mean your uncle's still out here.

Speaker 3: 47:05

So exactly there you go, no excuses exactly um.

Speaker 2: 47:11

Now, what kind of stick did you prefer to use? What was your stick of choice?

Speaker 3: 47:16

so I was bauer at first, but then I switched to ccm when I went to canada and I just loved those things. Okay, I love ccm. And then when I went to finland I had to switch back to bauer. So I wasn't too happy about that because I'm a little superstitious, um, but yeah, no bauer, and in that sense towards the end of my last two years, but ccm is my favorite I still stay when I coach now nice.

Speaker 2: 47:46

Now what advice do you have to kids that want to get to the NHL or play pro hockey? Sorry, completely wrong sport. So what's the advice?

Speaker 3: 48:05

There are so many that I could give. There's no right or wrong answer. I think one cliche answer is work hard. As simple as it sounds, you have to. The answer that I think a lot of people wouldn't really recognize or think of first is find something that drives you in order to do it um, because if you don't have a purpose behind what you're doing whether that's in sports it's not about hockey, I know we're talking about it, but it's just in general, in life too like if you don't have a purpose of what you're doing and why you're doing it, then there's no point of even starting um. For me, it was a lot of personal things that I'm not going to get into of my drive um.

Speaker 3: 49:00

I played hockey through a lot of hate and anger, um, but I used it for good, if that makes sense yeah um, I, I wanted, I wanted it so bad because of the things that drove me through the battles I was going through. It was an escape. So I think for a device for anyone is find something that drives you and what motivates you, um, to pursue that energy into something good, because a lot of people they'll use their, I guess, adversities to go and drink smoke or you know cope with it whatever way they cope. I coped with it in the sense of I'm going to go out there and perform and work as hard as I can and see how far this can take me. So that was my outlet and the biggest advice is find something that drives you crazy enough to go and perform the way you want to perform.

Speaker 2: 49:59

Exactly Find your why.

Speaker 3: 50:01

Yeah, that's the best answer I can give.

Speaker 2: 50:05

So now, how can my listeners follow you if they want to follow you and see how your future endeavors and career goes?

Speaker 3: 50:16

My Instagram is Creevo, double underscore 25. So they can follow me there. I know you have my Instagram handle, but that's probably it right there on Instagram. I don't really have much other platforms. I'm trying to start maybe a hockey platform, but we'll see. That's under the question. Okay, so that if I do come up with it, it's going to be NK hockey. But as of right now, instagram is good. Feel free to reach out on there.

Speaker 2: 50:52

That works. I appreciate you coming on the show today and I hope your story inspires a lot of young hockey players.

Speaker 3: 50:58

Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me as well. You Thank you, thank you.