Alexandar Georgiev, who holds a dual-citizenship of Russia and Bulgaria, is very much a product of Finnish coaching.
Starting from TPS (Liiga team from Turku), he know plays for the Colorado Avalanche and is coached by Jussi Parkkila.
Their work together can be colorful at times.
“He is an interesting personality. I think you could say that goalies are their own breed.”, Parkkila laughs in an interview with Iltalehti inside Ball Arena.
The two have been working together close to two years now.
“He’s been a different person to work with. I always try to learn new things from goalies, that’s how I develop too, partially with their help. I have to learn to get the message across the right way.”, Parkkila continues.
**Do you sometimes butt heads with your players?**
“We’re together so much during the season that it can’t be all smiles every day. And it can’t always be that the players shut up and just go ‘yes, coach’.”
“Never had any big fights of course. But I’ve said to Alexandar that you have to show your emotions and have a dialogue. And we try to find the right thing for him. Alexandar is a challenging player to coach, who teaches me new things too.”
Georgiev trains a lot.
“Physically he is in excellent shape. He’s done a lot of work for years and likes doing that work. That will never be an issue.”
“Technically he has better and worse sides, like everyone. We do a lot of work all the time with him. This year has been challenging because he plays so much, almost every other night. A little bit like walking on a tightrope, when we can’t practice as much.”
“He would like to take some time to practice, too. We do go through videos and try to bring in things to his game, but it is difficult when you can’t get the reps in on the ice. It’s mentally tough to play that much.”, Parkkila says.
**Through Finland** Georgiev came into Frederik Norrena’s ice-hockey school in Pietarsaari, Finland at about age 10.
After that, the kid living in the Moscow region visited the hockey camp during many summers with his parents.
As a junior he played for the Himik Voskresensk, but at age 18 he moved to TPS for the 2014-15 season.
“That was a bold move. We didn’t promise him anything at TPS, besides quality day-to-day operations.”, Norrena remembers.
In his first season he played both for the TPS U20 team, the men’s Liiga team and the Russian U20 national team.
He played for TPS for 3 seasons before moving on to the New York Rangers as an undrafted free agent. From there he went to Colorado.
Georgiev is now at the top.
“I knew he had the potential for the top, but this is a result of hard work and a lot of sacrifices. His whole family was ready to sacrifice everything for the kid’s playing career.”, Norrena says.
Things didn’t get to full speed in the Rangers organization.
“The start wasn’t easy in the NHL. Rangers had lots of good goalies ahead of him. After that he got to a championship team in the NHL and has shown that he can be a number 1 goalie there.”, Norrena continues.
**Neural training** Georgiev lives in Raisio, Finland during the summers. His physical trainer is Marko Yrjövuori, meaning Georgiev has Finnish coaching both during winters and summers.
“The great thing about Alex is that he’s very receptive to new things. He’s a man with a thirst for knowledge.”, Yrjövuori says.
“Neural training came in as a new thing for Alex last summer. That means we train balance, reactions and processing speed. Training the brain. We test him in the beginning of the summer and testing is done throughout the summer as well.”
**Where’s the limit?** The 28-year-old netminder has not yet met his limits.
“His limits are the same as other top goalies in the NHL. Physicality, skills and dedication are all at the top level. Will experience bring the last step, that remains to be seen.”, Norrena ponders.
**Can Georgiev be a starting goalie for a Stanley Cup champion?**
“Nobody has a crystal ball, but I believe he can do it. When you look at goalies who have won the Cup, he’s in the same category.”
“To be the best in the world requires a lot of things falling into place at the same time. Have to stay healthy.”, Norrena says.
“He’s still developing and is for sure a better goalie in 5 years.”
**Ismo Lehkonen** follows Avalanche’s games very closely.
“Georgiev wants to be the best goalie in the NHL, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He will either get there or won’t, but with his attitude great things are done in competitive sports.”
Georgiev focuses in his work 100%. Even the occasional arguments with the goalie coach tell of that. He will not leave a stone unturned.
“I obviously don’t coach him at the moment, but we do talk about things from time to time. He sometimes trains with the TPS A-juniors (U20) in the summer. He’s kind of a serious guy, good at math and interested in, among other things, investing.”, Norrena says.
Right now Georgiev’s mission is to take the skilled Avalanche team to the Stanley Cup. Jussi Parkkila is helping in the project.
1 Comment
Alexandar Georgiev, who holds a dual-citizenship of Russia and Bulgaria, is very much a product of Finnish coaching.
Starting from TPS (Liiga team from Turku), he know plays for the Colorado Avalanche and is coached by Jussi Parkkila.
Their work together can be colorful at times.
“He is an interesting personality. I think you could say that goalies are their own breed.”, Parkkila laughs in an interview
with Iltalehti inside Ball Arena.
The two have been working together close to two years now.
“He’s been a different person to work with. I always try to learn new things from goalies, that’s how I develop too, partially
with their help. I have to learn to get the message across the right way.”, Parkkila continues.
**Do you sometimes butt heads with your players?**
“We’re together so much during the season that it can’t be all smiles every day. And it can’t always be that the players
shut up and just go ‘yes, coach’.”
“Never had any big fights of course. But I’ve said to Alexandar that you have to show your emotions and have a dialogue. And
we try to find the right thing for him. Alexandar is a challenging player to coach, who teaches me new things too.”
Georgiev trains a lot.
“Physically he is in excellent shape. He’s done a lot of work for years and likes doing that work. That will never be an issue.”
“Technically he has better and worse sides, like everyone. We do a lot of work all the time with him. This year has been
challenging because he plays so much, almost every other night. A little bit like walking on a tightrope, when we can’t practice
as much.”
“He would like to take some time to practice, too. We do go through videos and try to bring in things to his game, but it
is difficult when you can’t get the reps in on the ice. It’s mentally tough to play that much.”, Parkkila says.
**Through Finland**
Georgiev came into Frederik Norrena’s ice-hockey school in Pietarsaari, Finland at about age 10.
After that, the kid living in the Moscow region visited the hockey camp during many summers with his parents.
As a junior he played for the Himik Voskresensk, but at age 18 he moved to TPS for the 2014-15 season.
“That was a bold move. We didn’t promise him anything at TPS, besides quality day-to-day operations.”, Norrena remembers.
In his first season he played both for the TPS U20 team, the men’s Liiga team and the Russian U20 national team.
He played for TPS for 3 seasons before moving on to the New York Rangers as an undrafted free agent. From there he went to Colorado.
Georgiev is now at the top.
“I knew he had the potential for the top, but this is a result of hard work and a lot of sacrifices. His whole
family was ready to sacrifice everything for the kid’s playing career.”, Norrena says.
Things didn’t get to full speed in the Rangers organization.
“The start wasn’t easy in the NHL. Rangers had lots of good goalies ahead of him. After that he got to a championship team
in the NHL and has shown that he can be a number 1 goalie there.”, Norrena continues.
**Neural training**
Georgiev lives in Raisio, Finland during the summers. His physical trainer is Marko Yrjövuori, meaning Georgiev has Finnish coaching
both during winters and summers.
“The great thing about Alex is that he’s very receptive to new things. He’s a man with a thirst for knowledge.”, Yrjövuori says.
“Neural training came in as a new thing for Alex last summer. That means we train balance, reactions and processing speed.
Training the brain. We test him in the beginning of the summer and testing is done throughout the summer as well.”
**Where’s the limit?**
The 28-year-old netminder has not yet met his limits.
“His limits are the same as other top goalies in the NHL. Physicality, skills and dedication are all at the top level.
Will experience bring the last step, that remains to be seen.”, Norrena ponders.
**Can Georgiev be a starting goalie for a Stanley Cup champion?**
“Nobody has a crystal ball, but I believe he can do it. When you look at goalies who have won the Cup, he’s in the same
category.”
“To be the best in the world requires a lot of things falling into place at the same time. Have to stay healthy.”, Norrena says.
“He’s still developing and is for sure a better goalie in 5 years.”
**Ismo Lehkonen** follows Avalanche’s games very closely.
“Georgiev wants to be the best goalie in the NHL, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He will either get there or won’t,
but with his attitude great things are done in competitive sports.”
Georgiev focuses in his work 100%. Even the occasional arguments with the goalie coach tell of that. He will not leave a
stone unturned.
“I obviously don’t coach him at the moment, but we do talk about things from time to time. He sometimes trains with the
TPS A-juniors (U20) in the summer. He’s kind of a serious guy, good at math and interested in, among other things, investing.”, Norrena says.
Right now Georgiev’s mission is to take the skilled Avalanche team to the Stanley Cup. Jussi Parkkila is helping in the project.