At some point during my season with Kunlun Red Star in the KHL, the GM came to me with a plan. He wanted me to go through the full KHL player physical — as a potential emergency backup goalie.

I was their goalie coach.

The reason this was even a conversation: KHL travel. The distances are nothing like North America. Beijing to Helsinki. Fuel stops somewhere in Siberia. Soldiers boarding the plane to check passports instead of going through customs. Alex Kovalev was keeping track all season — we did over 138,000 kilometers of travel. You can't just call up a backup and have him fly in when you're deep in Russia.

So the GM came up with another option.

I went through the full physical in St. Petersburg. All day. Ten rooms. Including one I still don't fully understand.

This is also the video where I talk about the hotels — because if the travel tells you something about the scale of the KHL, the hotels tell you something about the range. The Ritz in some cities. Something else entirely in others. One hallway I walked down that I will never forget.

Episode 2 of the KHL Series. More to come.