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Leadership? This is the guy who throws the team under the bus every chance he gets. He's behaving now because they're winning, but he's never been a leader. He and Samsonov were co-malcontents in Montreal. Kovalev just has so much talent that they put up with it.
edit: Google "Kovalev unhappy" and see how many results you get for evidence.
European leaders are rare as hell, and the few there are seem to all be from Sweden: Sundin, Alfredsson, and Lidstrom.
I better see these tick tack calls made the other way in the third. The Devils have had a slight edge in territorial play, shots, and faceoffs, and yet they have had less than a minute of PP time? Not when their guys have been going down every time pressure has been sustained with no call.
What the fuck? In-between periods, the talking heads are saying that Gary Bettman wants Colin Campbell to be the new Toronto GM. Since when does the shitty commissioner get a say in team decisions? Fuck the Leafs. Fuck Colin Campbell. And definitely fuck Gary Bettman.
He's been a leader for them all year. You can close your eyes to all things European all you want, but to deny that he's been their leader this year is like denying the earth is round. I remember him winning a cup with the Rangers, too, and no one talked about him as throwing his team under the bus in any of his years as a NY Rangers. Sure, he was criticized for not passing enough and being enormously talented, but never as a malcontent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
Malcontent? He was quoted (which was later rescinded) in Russian newspaper for criticizing the Canadiens. Putting stock in what a Russian newspaper prints is almost laughable and, if anything, Samsonov was the culprit and Kovalev a victim by association.
95% of these are about that stupid fucking article that the writer provided no proof for and later said "whoops, it never happened".Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
I want to see Chico on the "Diarrhea Cam" on one of these episodes.
You can close your eyes to the fact that being the most talented player and being a leader are completely different things all you want. Kovalev has been a me-first player his entire career, on and off the ice. Reports of his bullshit go all the way back to his Ranger days, and they weren't just about not passing the puck. My favorite example is when he kept extending his shifts until Keenan finally wouldn't let him come off the ice to teach him a lesson. He had something like an 8 minute shift. Unfortunately, the message never sunk in.
Here's Keenan describing "the shift".
Ottawa has passed the torch on getting every call to Montreal. God damned 5-to-1 in a game where they are being out-possessed and out-shot?