“Can’t give up” – Georgii Merkulov busy working out to earn spot with Bruins
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Georgii Merkulov
The 21-year-old center, Georgii Merkulov fixed himself a goal of learning 50 words in English each day, starting with small words like cow, goat, and grass. YouTube videos contributed a lot to his lessons, especially the “Big Bang Theory”. The Ryazan native is trying to jump ships from college hockey at the Ohio State University to the NHL boat with the Boston Bruins.
It’s been three years since he arrived in the U.S and signed an entry-level contract with the Bruins with an annual cap hit of $925,000 on April 9th, as announced by Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. Last season he led the Buckeyes with 20 goals and 34 points in 36 games before his signing with the team.
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Georgii Merkulov working to perfect his “D” zone
At the Bruins development camp last month, Georgii Merkulov stated, “You’re like a baby. You can’t speak, you can’t understand. You’re just quiet and you listen”. “And a couple of months go by and you start to understand more. A couple more months and you try to express yourself. You have [bad] pronunciation and no one can understand you, but you can’t give up.” “You just keep working, working.”
Other than his lacking defensive side, his power play and offensive play earned him praise from Bruins director of player development Jamie Langenbrunner. About his defensive weakness, he commented, “That’s been an issue since I was like 13 years old,” Merkulov said. “I’ve been working on that in school and juniors.” “They always say ‘D’ zone, ‘D’ zone, ‘D’ zone.” “I want to get the puck and go [on] offense as quick as possible, and sometimes I force it. So I think that’s the biggest issue.”
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According to nhl.com, former Bruins defenceman and current player development coordinator Adam McQuaid stated, “He’s playing the middle of the ice”. “You know, especially here, you have to be good in your own end to play the middle of the ice and play that 200-foot game. So those will be things that the staff here will be working with him moving forward.” “It’s nice that he recognizes it himself. He wants to work at it.”
He further stated, “Super skilled. Pretty competitive”. “We had him in Providence at the end of the year. Fairly seamless transition. Obviously, still working on details in that part of his game, for sure. But the skill level is there. Things that you can’t teach. That’s what excites us about him.” It’s not only McQuaid, but the team believes there lot to his play and he will bring his best to it.
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Kaushani Chatterjee
(2162 Articles Published)