Golin wants his Golf back

From The Daily News of Wednesday, March 12, 2008. . . .

Sasha Golin always is quick to smile.
However, the Kamloops Blazers defenceman’s smile has been hurtin’ the last
little while, what with the WHL team’s on-ice struggles and the fact that,
well, his pride and joy is battered and bruised.
“Hey, we’re on a streak . . . we’re on a streak,” Golin, a 19-year-old from
Summerland, said with a rueful grin after Tuesday’s practice at Interior
Savings Centre, referring to the fact that he and his mates halted a 10-game
skid with a 1-0 victory over the Cougars in Prince George on Saturday.
The Blazers hope to extend the run tonight when they entertain the Spokane
Chiefs. Game time is 7 o’clock.
“It’s potentially a first-round (playoff) matchup so we need to send a
messaage,” Golin said. “We beat them once already and we need to put it in
the back of their minds that just because we’re the eighth seed doesn’t mean
anything.
“Playoffs is different hockey, completely different.”
The Blazers go into tonight’s game in eighth spot in the Western Conference,
44 points behind the Chiefs, who are tied for first overall with the
Tri-City Americans.
As tough as things have been for the Blazers of late, they’ve been just as
bad for Golin’s car.
He and his mates returned from their sorry East Division swing — they went
0-6-0-0 — to find his car, a 1994 Volkswagen Golf, right where he had left
it, tucked away in a corner of the ISC parking lot, but not as he had left
it.
“We got off the bus,” Golin said, “and one of the guys asked if I always had
that huge dent in the back of my car. I thought they were just playing
around. I got to my car and the entire rear hatch was caved in.
“This was right after we got off the bus after a swing that we wish hadn’t
happened.”
Yes, his pride and joy — it is his first car, purchased in Portland during
the 2004-05 season while he was with the Winter Hawks — had been drilled to
the tune of about $2,300.
“I bought it myself . . . saved up for it,” Golin said. “The Golf is good on
gas and we don’t get paid too much.”
“It looked like a big truck that did it,” Sasha’s father, George, said from
the family home in Summerland, leading some to wonder if it had been damaged
during the Strauss Canada Cup of Curling, which was in the arena while the
Blazers were away.
“My Golf is about half the size of Jordan Rowley’s truck,” Sasha added. “His
was right beside mine and mine was probably six feet further in. They must
have squeezed in between and hit my car. My rear bumper wasn’t touched. . .
. it must have been a truck.”
Golin went to police but there weren’t any witnesses. He talked to security
but they hadn’t seen anything.
“It’s kind of upsetting,” his father said. “We don’t know when it happened.
They were gone a week and a half so who knows when it happened? But it
happened right in the parking lot there.
“The team was pretty down in the dumps already and he sees that . . . he was
pretty distraught.”
Yes, the car is insured, but Sasha is on the hook for the $300 deductible.
And, as his father said, “It’s not fair to a kid who has no money. That’s
about a month’s wages.”
The Golf now is in Summerland where Sasha’s folks are having it repaired.
Sasha is driving their car, a 2004 Pontiac Grand-Am. As his father said: “He
doesn’t have the time to deal with this. “He has schooling, practices,
community service . . . so we’re doing it.”
In the meantime, Sasha is trying to concentrate on learning a new position.
A right winger through much of this season, he has been moved back to
defence, which is where he worked out yesterday.
It is “by far” his favourite position.
“There’s a lot more thinking,” he explained. “It’s all patience and
composure. I enjoy it a lot. When I play defence, I’m not an offensive
defenceman. I’m a defensive defenceman.
“I get more joy out of stopping them from scoring, or taking a 2-on-1 or
3-on-1 and stopping it. That’s almost like my goal or my assist.”
Golin never played defence during minor hockey. He got a taste of it on the
power play during his first two seasons with Portland. He actually spent
about two months of last season playing defence in Portland, before injuries
precipitated a move back to the forward ranks. And then he was dealt to the
Blazers. . . .
“This is the opposite of last season,” Golin said. “When I got traded here,
we were almost in the CHL’s top five. I remember being ecstatic when I got
traded here. And then we got swept in the playoffs.”
The Blazers, who won 40 games last season, were bounced from the playoffs by
the Prince George Cougars, who won four one-goal games, three of them in
overtime.
“I’m hoping this season will be just the opposite,” Golin said. “We go in at
the bottom with no expectations. We view it as us against the world.”
BLAZERS BANTER: The Blazers trail the seventh-place Chilliwack Bruins by
three points. The Bruins play the Rockets in Kelowna tonight. . . . Tri-City
is in Everett to play the Silvertips. . . . The Blazers will hold their
awards banquet Monday, 6 p.m., at the Colombo Lodge. Tickets, at $40 each,
are available through the Blazers office (828-1144).

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca