[gvitaly]

Sharangovich

• So, Yegor Sharangovich

  yes

• Your teammate, the guy who rewrote the Belarusian record last season. Now that record has been overtaken by Aleksei Protas. Yegor had a somewhat quieter season, probably due to injury. But still, he's a star of Belarusian hockey, a great player who's on his way to setting new records. What’s it like in the locker room? What’s Sharan’s status in Calgary? Do all the guys know he's a top player for Belarus? How does he carry himself, and how do his teammates treat him? It's interesting to hear this from the inside.
  

  He’s definitely a leader on the team, one of the key players. And you asked how people reacted to him rewriting that Belarusian record—well, when he did it last season, he didn’t exactly break it; he tied Grabovsky’s record. The coach congratulated him in front of the entire team.

• The whole team knew it was a Belarussian record?

  Yes, and they all congratulated him, of course. Yeah, and the guys treat him well and respect him a lot because he’s one of the key players.

• And it's not because we all sit around in Calgary reading news about Sharangovich—it’s because, within the organization, in the locker room, he’s truly top-tier.

  He makes a serious contribution to the game, he’s been in the NHL a while, and it’s clear he’s earned a different level of respect.

• Is that also felt in the media and among fans in Calgary—like, do they see him as a star?

  Of course, they love him in Calgary. Well, sometimes not so much—when he has a rough game or two. But that happens to everyone. But yeah, you’ve seen the pictures—fans were even trading LEGO for his stick, for pucks, for who knows what else.

• As a fellow Belarusian, and probably one of the people closest to Sharangovich on the team. When you’re in the NHL, you Belarusians probably stick together the most, right?

  Of course.

• So you can joke with him poke fun of him, and you guys have a special bond. Can the Canadian players do the same?

  Yeah, definitely. There are no boundaries like "where you're from"—it doesn’t matter. Everyone jokes around. I get teased too. Though I can’t really tease the veterans just yet—it’s not my place, status-wise.

• But Sharangovich can?

  Yeah, Sharan can—he can do whatever he wants now.

• Was it a kind of support for you, having another Belarusian in the locker room when you made your debut?

  Definitely. He was the first to find out when I crashed my car.

• You told him?

  Yeah, I had to tell someone. My wife was getting ready for the game. I was going to call her but then thought—it’s better not to worry her. I figured she’d get scared, so I didn’t tell her. I went to Sharan and told him.

• He probably just smiled, right?

  Yeah, he smiled, teased me a bit. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he said something funny and encouraging, and I just kind of forgot about it after that. Then he told the entire team I hit a car

• So everyone knew by the time you arrived?

  No. It was before the second game against Edmonton, we had a team hangout—not really a meeting, but you know, just a chill get-together. It was after my debut game. The next day we flew out, and that evening we were just hanging out because we had the next day off. So we had a few days off before the next game.
  
  I left the room—I don’t remember, maybe to the bathroom or something. I came back, and suddenly everyone knows. Everyone’s laughing, looking at me, cracking up. I asked Zadorov—he was still with us then—I asked him, “Why is everyone laughing at me?”
  And he said: "Yeah, Sharan told them how you drove to your first game. Now they’re all dying laughing."
  
  They said I should’ve saved that story for the Rookie Party.