Sometime in the middle of last September, not long after arriving in Pittsburgh, a stranger to the city climbed into the back seat of a cab and minded his own business as the driver listened to sports talk on the radio. The topics were the Penguins. The driver, not minding his own business, asked aloud if this passenger had heard of their new winger — the one who was part of the Phil Kessel trade.
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The passenger politely nodded his head. The driver took that response as an invitation to audibly mangle the new winger’s surname.
Gal-cher-niak.
Gal-chev-civic.
Gal-ser-sovich.
Now scanning the screen on his cell phone, the passenger posed another pronunciation to consider: Gal-chen-yuk.
To that, the driver responded, “these guys will say it again … they said he’s looked good in camp with Geno.”
The passenger smiled, nodded again and thought to himself that Pittsburgh could easily become a home. This driver, like many of the people he had previously met, reminded him a lot of folks from Milwaukee, where he was raised.
The driver spoke up again. He wanted to turn up the radio to hear the talk show’s co-hosts say that surname.
“I told him I was sure my way of saying it was the right one,” Alex Galchenyuk said. “I don’t think, after getting out, he believed me.”
The Penguins were on the verge of their regular-season opener when Galchenyuk shared that story. He had been then what he was Friday after a practice at Lemieux Sports Complex: one of the last players off the ice, and feeling a little out of place with Stanley Cup heroes Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist to his left and images of other all-time Penguins on the wall above him.
What the cab driver had heard that day back in September was correct. Galchenyuk had looked good skating to the left on Malkin’s line early during training camp. But four months (and only five goals) later, Galcheyuk found himself working with a couple of players the Penguins had recalled from their AHL affiliate.
Hockey can be as humbling as Pittsburghers are welcoming to new Penguins. And though he is well aware that general manager Jim Rutherford could deal away his expiring contract at any point between now and the Feb. 24 trade deadline, Galchenyuk said Friday he still holds out hope for a second-half turnaround.
Actually, he said a lot more than that in this interview with The Athletic.
Did getting away — going back to Arizona for the break — allow you to reset after a first half that clearly didn’t go the way you had thought it would?
I mean, whenever you’re not feeling great about your game or not great generally or whatever it might be, it’s good to get away. We’ve had a grating schedule. You don’t hear us — the players — say that a lot, because they do everything great here in Pittsburgh, but all the flying and the back-to-back games, all that stuff … it was nice, even that first day back home, to wake up, look at the clock and be, like, “Oh yeah, I don’t have anything to do.”
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But you seem to enjoy waking up and going to work. Coaches, teammates, almost everybody says you’re one of the hardest working players they’ve been around. Are you saying not going to work during the break was good for you?
I still wake up at the same time when I’m back home. It’s a normal thing for me to stay on schedule. I just tried reset, like you said. I tried to not think about hockey.
You wanted to have scored more than five goals. Let’s take the numbers off the table. What do you need to see from yourself to feel like a turnaround might be possible?
Creating. For me. For my teammates. For my line. From the left side. I need to create more.
What about shooting more?
You know, it’s about working on those parts of the game that I can do better, that I can improve on. I should bring more offense. I can work harder on all the things to see what will work out for me. Creating. Shooting. Doing more on offense.
Did you come into training camp healthy?
Yes. Absolutely. I felt great coming into camp. I was ready.
You are known for being in excellent condition. That injury in camp seemed to catch everybody by surprise.
It wasn’t great.
You had, like, a week of camp. Then you were gone until before the home opener. Did you rush back before you were ready?
I was feeling it a little bit. I mean, it’s nothing on our doctors’ side, because I was feeling good. It was all me. I wanted to play. And, you know, I was in the gym doing things and feeling good.
But a game is different. Especially when it’s your first one for your new team. I wanted to be out there that first night.
Other players who have been injured in camp have said it’s the worst time to get an injury because you lose all the gains from summer training. Do you feel that happened with you?
It was a little tough. New team. New system. New everything. But I’m not going to sit here and make excuses. It is what it was. But it was definitely hard. It was hard. Coming off an injury with a new team — I think its a little bit more challenging.
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If this isn’t accurate, please say so. But it sounds like you’re saying you might not have pushed as much to play in the opener if you hadn’t been on a new team. Is that what you’re saying?
I don’t think I would have played in the first game, no.
I mean, it was my call. I told everybody I was ready to go. It’s not like it was going like I wanted up to that point. I wanted to come in for the whole training camp. I wasn’t. So, I really wanted to be there with the guys opening night, and I fucked myself.
I’m sorry. It was just frustrating.
You mean getting injured, coming back too soon because you wanted to be part of this new team, and then missing most of October and …
I had to restart everything.
Have you ever had to deal with a similar situation at any point of your career?
In Arizona. Last year. But it was different. Like, I’ve never really dealt with a groin injury.
I don’t know if we’re saying what the injury was.
Everybody knows. Why was a groin injury so troublesome for you, other than it being tough to skate or train while you’re recovering?
It’s not like a knee, where you feel weak, wobbly, whatever. With the groin, you feel good, but there’s a little pull and then you’re, like, “Oh, what’s going on?”
When I re-injured it — it was like the second or third period of a game — and it was, like, “I felt so good in practice.” So, yeah, you practice, you can feel great. But you get in a game, toward the end of a period, and that can happen.
I didn’t know why it happened. It was tricky, something new for me. But I’ll definitely learn from it.
There was this thought when you finally scored a goal that once it happened you might get on a hot streak. It didn’t work out that way. Now you have only five goals. There are stories about you being traded. You’re going to be a free agent. And you’re an offensive player who isn’t scoring. How does anybody stay positive amid all of that negativity?
I mean, I feel like everything is under a microscope. All year, it’s been, “You’re not producing, you’re not producing, you’re not producing — when are you going to?” It’s not fun.
You’ve got to stay positive with everything: life, games, practice. Just try to bring yourself up and work hard and get a break. I hope.
Alex Galchenyuk with his first goal as a member of the Penguins!#LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/LOVwLOloAk
— Hockey Daily 365 (@HockeyDaily365) November 26, 2019
You’ve only been in Pittsburgh for a few months. Teammates say great things about you. It sounds and looks like you’ve fit in everywhere but on the ice …
The season’s not over.
Of course. And even the all-time scorers go through slumps. But the question was going to be who have you turned to for support. It’s one thing to struggle when you’re familiar with teammates and the franchise and the city. That’s not your situation. So, who have you turned to for support?
Just the people that are around me. My girlfriend. My parents. My sister. My agent’s been positive. My trainers have supported me.
What about here in Pittsburgh, specifically on this club?
It’s a great group of guys. I’m not going to lie, it’s a group I want to be part of, to contribute more, to help us win games.
It’s a good mix of guys who have won — not just won, but won consistently. If you win three (Stanley Cup championships) in 12 years, it’s consistency. And they have that here. There are younger guys. There are newer guys, like me. It’s a mix of all cultures. It gels pretty well. It’s a group I was excited to join.
I want to be a part of it and do more than I have so far.
(Photo: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)
