GordonGecko
First Ping Pong Ball
Welcome to the Rangers!
I'll start off by saying I knew nothing about this guy when he signed but now reading everything I can about him I love the guy!
First off he is not a typical hockey player. Playing hockey is expensive, even in Russia. Most players come from families with some money - not Panarin. He comes from a backwater mining town in Russia where he was dirt poor and raised by his Grandparents. His Grandmother would sew his lunch & bus ticket money into his pants so he wouldn't lose it when gangsters tried to rob him on the way to the rink.
He could not afford equipment, so he got his gear from scavenging dumpsters and picking up sloppy seconds where he could. One of his pairs of skates were so big he had to wear sneakers inside them to be able to use them. And this is the incredible thing, they say having to make due with crap equipment is part of what made him so good. When he finally got decent skates he was flying.
The gloves he had found were worn through and he patched them with boot leather he could find. All the other kids made fun of him at the rink but he powered through. When he got a tryout at a good boarding school they fitted him with proper equipment and it was a revelation how he could suddenly feel the stick and puck in his hands so well. All those games with the thick boot leather on his hands were the equivalent of training with weights on a baseball bat or sprinting with a drag line behind you - he now had skills nobody else developed.
Now he's getting the payoff, could not have happened to a better guy. Looking forward to many good years
I'll start off by saying I knew nothing about this guy when he signed but now reading everything I can about him I love the guy!
First off he is not a typical hockey player. Playing hockey is expensive, even in Russia. Most players come from families with some money - not Panarin. He comes from a backwater mining town in Russia where he was dirt poor and raised by his Grandparents. His Grandmother would sew his lunch & bus ticket money into his pants so he wouldn't lose it when gangsters tried to rob him on the way to the rink.
He could not afford equipment, so he got his gear from scavenging dumpsters and picking up sloppy seconds where he could. One of his pairs of skates were so big he had to wear sneakers inside them to be able to use them. And this is the incredible thing, they say having to make due with crap equipment is part of what made him so good. When he finally got decent skates he was flying.
The gloves he had found were worn through and he patched them with boot leather he could find. All the other kids made fun of him at the rink but he powered through. When he got a tryout at a good boarding school they fitted him with proper equipment and it was a revelation how he could suddenly feel the stick and puck in his hands so well. All those games with the thick boot leather on his hands were the equivalent of training with weights on a baseball bat or sprinting with a drag line behind you - he now had skills nobody else developed.
Now he's getting the payoff, could not have happened to a better guy. Looking forward to many good years
