By DAN BARNES -- Edmonton Sun EDMONTON --  "Good morning, gentlemens," he said, greeting the media corps in his usual fashion, then heading for his seat on the team bus. 
 Right side. Fifth row. Window seat. Just behind the media. It has been his for five years. It's a rookie seat. Or one taken by the new guy who comes over from somewhere in a trade and isn't comfortable enough at first to sit in the back. Time passes and the new guy drifts south a few rows to sit with the veterans. 
  Not Boris Mironov. Boris marches to his own drummer. Always has. Always will. 
 He's full of personality, full of energy, full of a love for the game that developed when his late father was taking him to a cold, dark rink in Moscow at 7 a.m. 
 It has been two decades since those morning practices started. His father died last Oct. 7. Boris was just 24. He was crushed. And the anniversary of his father's death was a sad day. 
 "My mother called me from Moscow," Mironov said. "She said everybody came over to the house to see her. I said to her I'm sorry I can't be in Moscow because the season is starting. 
 "She's starting to cry when she remembers him. That's difficult to listen to on the phone. It really touches the heart. You feel like a baby. You can't help her." 
 Boris does everything he can to help his mother Valentina, who still lives most of the time alone in an apartment in Moscow. She had to sell the family cottage two hours outside the city. 
 "Too much trouble for her," said Boris, who will try to convince her to leave Russia, just as he and his brother Dmitri have done. 
 "I don't want to live in Russia. I don't like the big city. I'm tired of the crime," he said. 
  GONE BAD 
 Childhood friends of his who could not get out, who did not have his hockey talent, have gone bad. Some are doing jail time for blackmail, others for racketeering. Some have been busted for operating on the black market. 
 "We played together when we were kids," Mironov said. "Good guys, but times change. Life has changed. Everything is so expensive now. Nobody wants to work at McDonald's for two dollars an hour. 
 "Everybody's trying to make big money. That's a big problem." 
 He has moved on. His wife Katrin and son Brandon are happy in Canada. Boris is taking steps to become a Canadian citizen. 
 In his fifth season as a pro, he is enjoying the good life more than ever. He joined the million-dollar club over the summer, then took his sweet time starting to earn it with a poor start. But over the past three games he has three goals and is once again winning the admiration of coach Ron Low. 
  CARES A LOT 
 "He cares an awful lot about the team and the guy really wants to win," Low said. "But after that is said and done, sometimes the means doesn't fit the end. You wonder if he cares. 
 "But you know he does and that's the one thing that keeps saving him, besides being a huge talent." 
 He does care. Some Europeans are criticized for being detached, for doing their jobs, collecting their pay and not bothering to make an emotional investment in the team. Not Boris. He's different. 
 And he's taking a more vocal role in the room now, trying to justify the contract and the A he had on his sweater in the pre-season. 
 It's important to him to have a larger impact on his Oilers family. He's more experienced. They need him to lead.