Stepping Into the Locker Room: Saskatoon

[caltroit_red_flames 28]

Stepping Into the Locker Room: Saskatoon

-Saskatoon, Canada

 

Anton Edvin has lived his entire life in Estonia. He's spent the last season playing and practicing with the national team in Estonia and has left the country only five times. Each of those trips were with the national Estonian team to play hockey against a different nation (Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Finland). Now, for the first time in his life he has left the continent of Europe to come to North America where he will refine his game to the point where he can become a true hockey player. Having been contacted by a single team from the VHLM, the Saskatoon Wild he jumped on the opportunity to sign on the dotted line and immediately got on the next plane to Saskatoon. He knows very little English and only one person in the entire country, his general manager. This has made interviewing him rather difficult as he is barely able to understand the questions he is asked, and if he does understand the questions he doesn't exactly give the most informative responses.

 

(Anton Edvin gets interviewed after his first practice with the Saskatoon Wild).

 

Reporter: "Anton we're really excited to have you here in Saskatoon. Have you been enjoying yourself so far?"

Edvin: "Aaaaa... Jah."

Reporter: "Fans don't really know much about you. You're from Estonia and you played for the national team there you tell us anymore about yourself?"

Edvin: "(whispering) ma teen hoki... ma teen... I do aaaaaaa... hockey. I do hockey!"

Reporter: "That's exactly what we wanted to hear! Anton thanks for taking a moment to talk with me, we're excited to see you skate. Good luck!"

Edvin: "Thank!"

 

One good thing that came out of this interview wasn't the content, but rather the public backing of Anton Edvin after seeing how hard he tried to speak in the interview and understand the language the fans of the Wild were both upset with  the reporter for asking him to do the interview in the first place and have begun buying Anton Edvin jerseys! Since none are available from the Saskatoon Wild they have actually begun buying Estonian national team jerseys as well as Estonian flags.

 

(Fans of Anton Edvin at Saskatoon WIld game).

 

The interview went viral recently and now Native Estonians across Canada are showing their support on Twitter and Instagram.

 

(Anton Edvin fan goes a little overboard with her support).

 

It's been a little crazy considering the fact that Edvin hasn't even played a game for the Wild yet, but considering how tough the transition is going to be for him going from one country to another the fan support is very welcome. In the future when he learns more English, maybe we'll actually be able to get him to do some interviews. For now, we'll let his play on the ice do the talking for him.

[Stoffiday 127]

This is awesome!!! This is exactly what I love to see in a VHL.com article! Kudos!!