Andrei Svechnikov rememebers what it was like to skate with his heroes as a kid. Saturday he tried to make those memories for young hockey players at the Hurricanes First Goal program.
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My kids are interested in hockey, so I took them to work Saturday morning. Not only did they get to see other kids playing, they met one of their heroes, Andrei Sveshnikov, making a surprise appearance, a moment my kids and all the other little number 37s out there won’t forget. Somewhere in this sea of number 37s could be the next Andrei Sveshnikov. Look hard enough and you might find the real thing. I remember myself, you know, I tried to skate with some professional guys or something like that. That was best memories as a kid, you know, you can have it, and I try to make those memories for the kids. Svech back after a month and a half in Russia to work with kids in the hurricane’s first goal program. I was a kid and we had we had a small town but we had a few famous guys from my city and in the summer time we always had a camp and that was the best memories you can imagine. Svech is a sponsor of the program which is run by the Kees, the NHL and the NHL Players Association to help reduce the cost to get kids into hockey. All the kids on the ice are wearing number 37 Svenikov for a reason. They’re looking up to him as their heroes to one day maybe put on a Hurricanes jersey and be just like him. Former Cane Shane Willis is Carolina’s director of youth hockey and community outreach. He’s seen the impact first goal was made in its eight years. We know not all of them are going to continue on. It may not be for them, but we’ve seen a huge boost in our numbers both on the boys’ side. And on the female side as well, Svech is coaching up the kids today, but soon he’ll be in training camp with the new and improved Hurricanes roster. We got a lot better this half season and we got to get together and build the chemistry, all that stuff, and you guys got to learn the system, but excited to have them and see how it’s going to work for us. Thank you.