Some Nhl players cant communicate with teammates but they still make it work

[hockeykicker]

http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...on-how-players-bridge-hockey-language-barrier
This article has some great info on how players from russia and sweeden communicate with teammates who dont know their language

small sample from it:

During their two seasons together, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin were lauded for their chemistry on the Chicago Blackhawks' second line. Kane, who won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2016, racked up a league-high 195 points during that two-year span. Panarin led all rookies in scoring in 2015-16, and was among the first people Kane thanked upon winning the Hart. The duo dazzled with their slick, no-look passes and countless one-timers. There was only one problem: They could barely understand each other.
Panarin, a Russian, spoke so little English that the team hired him an interpreter. Kane was born in Buffalo, New York, and his Russian was limited to davai, which means "let's go," and a few curse words. So when Kane needed to speak to his linemate -- on the ice or in the locker room -- he devised a plan.
"If I was talking to Panarin," Kane says. "I would speak to him in [English, but with] a Russian accent."
Their third linemate, Artem Anisimov, served as de facto linguist -- being that he is Russian and proficient in English. "Yeah, [Kane] try the fake accents," Anisimov says. "[Jonathan] Toews does the fake accent too sometimes. It gets worse, honestly, I don't understand them when they do their accents sometimes. But they try anyway."

Click to read more...

 

[dragonballgtz]

Yahoo sports is crapping on Seguin for his comments on the matter

“Guys always talk in different languages. Sometimes you just put your foot down. We’re in North America, we’re not going to have a team of cliques.”

EDIT: https://sports.yahoo.com/tyler-seguin-makes-tone-deaf-comments-nhl-language-barrier-200406446.html
The response from yahoo sports

No one has any right to tell another human being what language they get to speak, and they especially don’t get to put their foot down.

This is pretty self-explanatory.

North America is not exclusively a place for English speakers.

Seguin was born in a country (Canada) with 7.2 million people who speak French as their first language, according to the 2016 census. South of the border it was estimated that 38.3 million people speak Spanish as their primary language in 2012, that’s a number that’s undoubtedly grown.

Personally if someone would have told me to not speak in my native tongue I would have told them to f off, not that they would be able to understand me.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Yahoo sports is crapping on Seguin for his comments on the matter

Rightfully so. I'd feel more uncomfortable with some guy saying that than a couple Finns talking in Finnish.

 

[tny760]

Rightfully so. I'd feel more uncomfortable with some guy saying that than a couple Finns talking in Finnish.

i get what you're saying but i mean speaking as a white and oddly enough, finnish, guy in southern california, it gets a little weird when you're around a couple mexican dudes that speak english and suddenly they start speaking spanish to each other. it's sometimes a thing where they don't want you to understand what they say. it's especially funny to me though because i speak spanish, but i keep that in my back pocket for just such occasions.

kinda goes both ways, it's a team so you should all be open in communication but you also shouldn't single guys out for speaking a language they may be more comfortable in. i know growing up my mom made an effort to speak english in public but in private it was full-time finnish.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Yahoo is interpreting Seguin's comments wrong. He's not saying people can't speak other languages, he's saying sometimes they shouldn't. And in the context of a hockey team, there are definitely instances where players who are able to speak English proficiently should definitely not choose to speak in another language. It's very easy for people in competitive environments to get cliquey, and one of the biggest ways that happens is if there's something that separates people. Language does that. It doesn't matter if people should feel like that, it's the fact it does happen. It's totally understandable for a team leader to get upset if they're trying to rally a team during a tough stretch/game but a group of players start speaking in another language when you know they're fluent English speakers. It doesn't even matter what they're talking about, it's rude, and it's excluding your non-fluent teammates. Not something that is okay in all circumstances.