BUFFALO — Martin Marincin and Zdeno Chara will be teammates at the upcoming Sochi Olympics.

Yet prior to Saturday, the Edmonton Oilers rookie defenceman had never met the Boston Bruins captain.

Following the Oilers 4-0 loss to the Bruins, Chara went out of his way to meet up with Marincin, giving the young Slovak some valuable advice.

“It was great for me to meet him,” Marincin said Sunday following practice. “He’s a big guy for me, I really liked him growing up. We just talked about Sochi and how the season was going. I had never met him before, so that was exciting.”

Marincin was named to the Slovak Olympic team and will be heading off to Russia at the conclusion of the Oilers’ four-game road trip, which started in Boston.

“Being on a team with Zdeno Chara will be great for me,” Marincin said. “I will try to learn from him and hopefully it will help me.”

Called up from Oklahoma City earlier this year, Marincin is getting some serious on-the-job training. Marincin was expected to stay in the AHL for most of the year, but thecall-up has turned into a stay.

The Olympics is an added bonus.

“Playing in the NHL is big for me and the Olympics are big for me as well,” Marincin said. “I’m young so it’s going to be great for me.”

The Oilers also feel going to the Olympics is a great thing for their second-round pick – 46 overall – in the 2010 draft.

Head coach Dallas Eakins knows spending a couple of weeks with Chara will do wonders for his development. Eakins was in on the meeting between the two defencemen.

“I was calling in a favour,” Eakins said. “I’ve gotten to know Chara over the years. I saw him at a very early age with the New York Islanders. I was there at training camp with him the one year. I saw him starting to put in the work. He was obsessed with it.

“He’s turned into, for me, one of the top players in the game — a guy with extremely high character great work ethic, extremely humble.”

Essentially Eakins asked Chara to take Marincin under his wing in Sochi. He’s also instructed Marincin to take in as much as he can from Chara.

“I asked (Chara) to help this young man,” Eakins said. “He was great, he said he would spend lots of time with him. If Marty takes that level of commitment that Chara had with his body, that will speed the process of him being a very good player. The qualities in Chara, that’s the one that you really want to go after if you’re a guy like Marincin.

“Coming in here, I didn’t know the player very well,” Eakins said. “But he’s played much better than I expected him to play. I think there has been a few nights where his (lack of) strength has probably caught up to him and that’s a good thing. It’s a great reminder of the work he has to do.

“You see his progress, you can see where he’s going to go,” Eakins said. “The next step for him is going to be his body, his mass and his strength, that’s going to be the big step for him.”

derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca

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