American ice hockey player Weston Tardy is enjoying his first season playing for the Morzine Avoriaz Penguins. But what’s it like to do the job of your dreams in a ski resort? Where are you from Weston? I’m from Duluth in Minnesota where we all grow up playing ice hockey every day. It’s a way of life and I’ve always worked as hard as I can to go as far as I can in the sport that I love. I played college hockey in Colorado so I’m used to living in the mountains. Are you allowed to ski or snowboard during the ice hockey season? Skiing is actually good cross training for ice hockey – you use all the same muscle groups. But we all have to be sensible about things, especially in the days before a match. It would be terrible to get injured skiing! How does the French ice hockey league compare to the American league? In The States the season is a lot longer – we play 72 games compared to 26 in the French league. But in France things are a lot more intense and there are a lot of really amazing teams to play against. At the moment the Penguins are 5th in the league and our goal is to finish in the top 4 so we can make the play-offs. What was the feeling like in the team when you took a 4-1 beating against Briançon in the league cup final? We were all really disappointed but we had big matches in quick succession just after
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For more information on the Morzine-Avoriaz Penguins visit www.hcma.fr
15/01/2012 21:33