In the headlines of the sports press, the name of Konstantin Volkov began to appear in 2016. Then the young hockey player was recognized as the best goalkeeper of the Western Conference of the MHL, and at the end of the season – the best goalkeeper of the tournament. The success of the goalkeeper was also appreciated abroad: in the NHL draft, the player was chosen by the Nashville Predators.

However, Volkov managed to shine abroad only last year. After several years of playing in the VHL, Konstantin received an invitation to the Finnish club “Essyat” – and at the age of 23 he went to conquer foreign lands, albeit not American ones.

True, Volkov had problems in Finland this spring. But the Russian managed to adequately get out of the situation.

“The League said to remove the flag”

In the spring of this year, Volkov’s contract with Essyat came to an end. Konstantin managed to play 37 matches for the club, reflecting 89.7% of shots with a reliability coefficient of 2.87. The figures are quite good, but the Finns did not renew the agreement with the player.

Konstantin himself quickly found a better option than playing for an outsider team in the local league. The goalkeeper received a promotion at home by signing a two-year agreement with Dynamo: next season, the 24-year-old hockey player will finally make his debut in the KHL. The very fact of this transfer indicates that the player would not have been lost in the Finnish championship… It is quite possible that unsportsmanlike factors played a role in Essyat’s decision.

Konstantin Volkov / Photo: © HC Assät

So, recently the owner of the Petrov Cup-2016/17 spoke about the pressure he had to face abroad. Already in March, the stay of the Russian in the Finnish club began to cause inconvenience to both parties. At some point, local managers began to arrange frank provocations for the player. In an interview with Sports.ru, the athlete spoke about one of these episodes regarding the Russian flag on his helmet:

– I was sitting in the locker room, they approached me and said that the league from above said to remove the flag in order to avoid provocations and aggression.

Hearing of this demand, however, Konstantin did not lose his head. And quickly came up with a beautiful way out of the situation:

– I had two of them on my helmet – Finnish and Russian. Why should I seal my flag and keep yours? Let’s wrap both then. I drew them for friendship, not for enmity.

“The dumbest club in the world”

Such a proposal, fortunately, suited the Finns. Volkov separately emphasized that during his entire stay at Essyat, he did not meet any negative personally in his address. However, the difference in the political and other views of players from different countries periodically made itself felt. Another misunderstanding fell on Defender of the Fatherland Day:

— Hockey club SKA always arranges a holiday for children and families on Defender of the Fatherland Day. Photographs appear on the banned network, where children with weapons, with armored vehicles, and so on. I open an account of Finnish fans of my club and there are these pictures. I never translated what they wrote, but that was the moment when I translated. It was from the series: “The dumbest club in the world.”

Such reactions, of course, did not please the Russian player. Volkov hurried to ask his teammate why the Finns reacted so rudely to the SKA post:

– He emphasized that children with weapons are not allowed. I had to explain that in Russia there is such a holiday and it is celebrated almost like March 8th. It was the first call, because people didn’t understand what it was.