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Ben Scrivens keeps trying to figure out what he is doing wrong.And it has nothing to do with playing hockey.Every once in a while in the Kontinental Hockey League Mark Giordano Jersey , the former NHL goaltender offends someone and has to figure out what Russian superstition or custom he broke. There are plenty.”You’re supposed to bring cake to the rink on your birthdays,” said Scrivens, a Canadian. ”If you step on someone’s shoe, you’re supposed to put your foot out and they step back. It’s like a tit for tat type of thing. They’re super superstitious and so they have a lot: you can’t whistle in doors, you can’t shake hands through a doorway. And obviously you would never just guess these things, so you have to make the mistake.”Dozens of North American players returned to the KHL last week after playing in the Olympics, where they learned different cultural lessons in South Korea. For foreigners unaccustomed to Russia and other places in the KHL, life on and off the ice can be a bit of a shock that never quite goes away.”Pretty much every day there’s something that I shake my head and I can’t believe what’s going on,” said American forward Ryan Stoa, who is in his fourth KHL season after stints with the Colorado Avalanche and Washington Capitals. ”There’s pretty much something every day that I can’t believe that just happened.”That’s the KHL Youth Matthew Tkachuk Jersey , where former NHL defenseman James Wisniewski said, ”The normal’s abnormal and the abnormal’s normal.”That explains a lot, like when a sheep was sacrificed on the ice earlier this season before a Barys Astana practice in Kazakhstan, which made a few North American players vomit at the sight of it.”That’s probably one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard of, honestly, in hockey,” Canadian forward Gilbert Brule said. ”I couldn’t believe when I heard that.”Sheep sacrifice is up there in the pantheon of the unbelievable in the KHL, though there are countless stories about everyday life in what’s considered the second-best hockey league in the world. Wisniewski said saw players giving themselves their own IVs and Wojtek Wolski keeps notes in his phone of the strange stuff he has seen so he doesn’t forget to share stories with friends back home.”You’ve got to be ready for anything,” Wolski said. ”I always say anything is possible and everything seems impossible at the same time and in the same day, in the same hour.”Life in the KHL also means some more serious issues. Some players have not gotten paid because teams can’t make payroll. Old planes being used for travel came to light again when 44 people were killed in 2011 in the tragic Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crash.Scrivens said he can live with 99 percent of the cultural Michael Frolik Jersey , personal and professional things that bother North American players and tries to ignore the rest.Former New York Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy’s first day in the KHL was also his birthday, and his new teammates all wondered where the cake was. He and Stoa have gotten used to the Russian custom of shaking hands with everyone each day if you didn’t sleep under the same roof the night before – from players to the bus and Zamboni drivers to rink attendants.So much for keeping germs in check.”I think guys get sick quite a bit because of it,” Scrivens said. At the Olympics, which saw an outbreak of norovirus, officials recommended players fist-bump instead of shaking hands.Asked if he’d been stiffed on pay, Scrivens hedged by saying: ”I don’t have any stories that haven’t already been publicized. I don’t have any worse stories than what’s already out there.” Some players were not willing to share stories because they either still have KHL contracts or could return to the league in the next few years, but Chris Bourque said, ”Every story you hear is true.”That includes the strenuous two-month training camps.”Training camp is one of the hardest things there that I’ve probably ever been through in my life,” Brule said. ”You’re basically going for almost two months straight, two-a-days Authentic Mikael Backlund Jersey , three-a-days. You’re on the ice twice, you’re working out all day, you get a break for lunch and you’re back at it all afternoon.”For all the horror stories and head-scratching, Stoa pointed out that some guys have positive experiences in the KHL. Playing for Helsinki-based Jokerit or high-powered and wealthy SKA St. Petersburg or CSKA Moscow is a much different experience than living in Togliatti, Magnitogorsk or Chelyabinsk.Gilroy said the language barrier is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome, though teams have interpreters to help. Some practices are run in Russian, but for all the craziness that goes on around them, North American players have one place they feel just fine.”When you’re on the ice, it’s kind of all the same game all over the world,” Gilroy said. ”You feel the most comfortable when you’re on the ice. Off the ice Mike Smith Jersey , you’re kind of a fish out of water, but when you’re playing the games it was the most comfortable you could be.” WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) Kyle Connor hasn’t looked ahead all season and he’s not about to start doing it now.The 21-year-old rookie scored twice Thursday night to reach 25 goals, and the Winnipeg Jets rebounded from a quick deficit for a 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.”Going into the season I didn’t really set any expectations numbers-wise,” said Connor, who has 44 points in 65 games. ”I just went into it with an open mind and try to work hard and improve every game.”It feels pretty good. Right now I’m just in the moment.”Bryan Little and Jack Roslovic each had a goal and an assist as all four Winnipeg lines produced goals. Joel Armia and Paul Stastny also scored.Connor Hellebuyck turned away 25 shots in his 36th win, increasing his franchise record for goaltenders.Patrick Laine extended his club-record point streak to 14 games with an assist on Stastny’s goal. The 19-year-old star has 16 goals and eight assists during that span – most of which came during the Jets’ recent road trip – helping the 2016 second overall draft pick earn NHL First Star honors for a second time this season.Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp scored for Chicago.Saad opened the scoring just 11 seconds into the game. Following a much-longer-than-usual video review stemming from a coach’s challenge for a possible offside, the goal stood.”Sometimes the first shot goes in – that’s not that big of a deal,” Hellebuyck said. ”I actually prefer it that way so I can shut them out the rest of the way.”The Jets took over from there with three goals over the next 9:15, chasing Blackhawks goalie Anton Forsberg as he allowed three goals on six shots. J.F. Berube made 30 saves in 2 1/2 periods of relief.”It’s tough Artemi Panarin Jersey , especially after the initial start of that game, (Saad) scoring that goal as quick as I’ve seen,” Sharp said. ”And then it was five unanswered pretty quickly, felt like everything was going in. Leave the puck in a bad area and it’s a scoring chance or a goal against. It’s a dangerous team over there and a tough first period.”Winnipeg had been outscored 7-2 in losing its previous two games against Central Division rival Chicago this season.”You score six, hey, it feels easy,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. ”I don’t think we had a lot in the tank. Our drivers worked hard.”NOTES: Connor scored his second goal into an empty net. … Laine ranks second in the NHL with 40 goals and leads the league with 18 power-play goals.UP NEXTBlackhawks: Complete a two-game road trip in Buffalo on Saturday.Jets: Fresh off their longest road trip of the season (six games), the Jets continue their six-game homestand with a Central Division matchup against Dallas on Sunday.—