GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Misha Danylov is a man of few words. He prefers to let his hockey do the talking and most of the time it does. At only 18 years old he joined the Green Bay Gamblers this season after spending 4 years in Arizona. Living hundreds of miles away from his family has been tough for him.
“It’s not easy, I miss them a lot, obviously,” says Danylov
His sister is in Canada for college, he is in the US for hockey, his mother is living with family friends in Ukraine and his father still remains in Kyiv.
“He had a job there so he didn’t really have a choice. He had to stay.” Says Danylov.
The distance is hard but they make it work in whatever way they can.
“I call them every day, as much as I can.” he says “and I can only hope that when my dad can take those 2- 3 hours to watch me play, he can just watch me play and not worry about anything else.”
Misha says that his family watches every game that he can which can’t always be easy with an eight-hour time difference.
It has always been difficult to be far away from his family and friends but a year ago tomorrow, was the worst.
“I actually heard it from my friend. He called me and I won't remember what time it was but he said ‘call your parents’ they are bombing us,” he said.
“When I first heard I didn’t believe it was true, I was kinda in disbelief, but I think deep down, I knew it was true.”
Its a hard reality that he has to live with. “I know it sounds bad but it's been going on for a year, you kinda get used to it.”
He has now learned to live with it and the conversations about it between his family have dwindled. They prefer to spend their time talking about positive things happening instead. Things like hockey. “Being here has been a great opportunity,” Danylov says. “But, I do miss home.”
However, while he is here, he finds family within his team.
“I don't think it really matters where you are from, here we are a team, we are a family, no matter where you're from.”
