Former Kings goaltender Ben Scrivens welcomes new adventures. After his NHL career stalled following the 2015-16 season he ventured to Russia's Kontinental Hockey League, where he spent one season with Dynamo Minsk and this season joined Salavat Yulayev in the city of Ufa.
At the moment, he's enjoying an adventure he didn't plan: playing for Canada's Olympic hockey team.
When it became apparent that NHL players would not be allowed to represent their homelands in the Pyeongchang Olympic hockey tournament, executives of all the participating teams had to scramble.
Hockey Canada called on Scrivens, and he was delighted to get the thoroughly unexpected chance to compete in the Olympics.
"You always want to play hockey to the highest level of your ability, but you're also kind of a realist at times," he said. "It's an opportunity. It's all anybody asks for. We're part of the select few that get to take this chance and do what we can with it. I'm certainly excited. It wasn't a dream before but now it's a dream come true."
Scrivens, 31, played 19 games for the Kings in the 2013-14 season, mostly after Jonathan Quick was sidelined by a groin injury. His wife, Jen, whom he had met when they were both freshman goaltenders at Cornell University, is a native of Camarillo, so it was a homecoming for her. And he thrived, too, compiling a 7-5-4 record, 1.97 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.
The emergence of Martin Jones made Scrivens expendable to the Kings, and they traded him to Edmonton for a third-round draft pick on Jan. 25, 2014. He went on to play in Montreal before heading to Russia.
He said living in Russia and not knowing the language or customs has given him new respect for European players who come to the NHL without being familiar with North American customs.
He had to learn not to shake hands through a doorway, not to whistle indoors, and that he was supposed to bring cake to the rink on his birthday. That last custom was one he ignored, though.
"The language barrier is probably the biggest things. Some customs that take getting used to and some friction that you kind of don't want to get, you choose not to conform to everything," he said. "The food's different, but part of it is that you go over expecting it to be different."
Scrivens shared the practice nets on Saturday with Justin Peters and Kevin Poulin, and he said the three are supporting each other strongly. He said he has played with or against most of his new Olympic teammates at some point in his career. "The hockey world's really small," he said.
But his own world has been expanded by this Olympic experience.
"I came in with expectations open. Kind of like going to Russia. You know it's going to be maybe a circus at times, pulled in a lot of different directions. You know it's going to be busy," he said. "You know you're going to face more media than you normally do in Russia, so I kept my expectations open and so far I've been pleasantly surprised. It's been a great time."
