Alexander Romanov believes one of his NY Islanders teammates is picking up on the Russian language

The NHL is a global game with players hailing from countries across North America and Europe. There is endless diversity among team locker rooms whether it be their customs, style of play, or spoken language.

The NY Islanders locker room is no different, with players from four countries uniting under one banner. Among those countries, four players call Russia their home (Alexander Romanov, Ilya Sorokin, Semyon Varlamov, Maxim Tsyplakov). Naturally, when speaking amongst themselves, these players typically talk to each other in their native tongue. Spending the amount of time together that these players do, players tend to pick up on the languages of their teammates.

A man of many languages

Mat Barzal has demonstrated he has a strong grasp of the French language, often giving interviews in what is not his primary language. Now, it appears that he’s picking up on some of the Russian spoken in the locker room. 

“He knows everything,” Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov told Uggg (@uggg_uggg) on X. “‘Hey, what’s up bro?’ He just walks up to you and says it.” 

Barzal is entering his eighth NHL season, coming off his best year since his Calder Trophy winning campaign in 2017-18. His 23 goals were a career-high, finding more of a goal-scoring touch since moving to wing last season.

Romanov is preparing for his third season with the Islanders and has become one of the teams most valuable blue-liners since being acquired for a first-round pick at the 2022 NHL Draft.

Maybe we’ll see Barzal and Romanov communicating on the ice in Russian at some point this season, throwing off opponents.