From Eurohockey.net: Don't talk to Alex Westlund about tough road trips. The American 27-year old goaltender plays for Amur Tigers Khabarovsk of the Russian Professional League. Look at a map of Russia and you'll realize that there is no other hockey team in the world that travels more than Westlund's Amur.

Khabarovsk, with a population of about 700,000, is 9,000 kilometres east of St. Petersburg, the most western of Russia's major cities. It's an eight hours flight to the capital Moscow, where Amur goes to play CSKA, Dynamo, Soviet Wings and Spartak. The closest away game is at Sibir Novosibirsk, which only four flight hours away. Khabarovsk is in the same time zone as Japan, and located just on the Chinese border.

When not on the road, Alex is 8 hours ahead of Central European Time and 14 hours ahead of Flemington, New Jersey, the place Alex calls home.

Alex Westlund lives in three places: the rink, the apartment-hotel and the airplane. He is not sure where he spends most time because after keeping the count to 300 hours airtime sometime during late autumn, he just lost the track.

"This is a unique experience", says Alex to over a phone line as crisp as if he were standing in a room next door. "This schedule is as demanding as it could be. The sleeping patterns are ridiculous and the mental fatigue is very tough. You have to battle mentally all the time, to tell yourself that you are not tired. Luckily, I have no problem sleeping on flights."

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All photos taken January 9, 2007 at Germain Arena, Estero, Florida.