From Russia with love

I happened to browse some news, posts and comments on Matt Bradley's alleged radio criticism towards former Washington Capitals teammate Alexander Semin. This study led to more comments on Semin's inconsistent performances, lack of commitment and so forth. This rung a bell in similarity on articles about so many other Russian players. Alexei Kovalev comes to my mind first. Is it really a national characteristic of Russians to pull this kind of spotlight for themselves or is this just some last remains of the good old cold war in the minds of US-centric media?

In regards of Bradley's comments after leaving the team, I believe that's part of being rather young and inexperienced and getting lured into this kind of talk by the interviewer. Stupid, against the players' code of honor and outright bad for karma and career for sure. But somewhat innocent in the end. He'll be hearing about this for a while and will learn to keep his mouth shut on topics like this. Players in general stand for each others like in any team sport, only highlighting the most outrageous behavior of certain individuals. Rest of the yapping remains in the rink and locker rooms.

What comes to Russian star players in the NHL. It seems like forever since the first guys jumped over to play in the States. Since that the Soviet Union has collapsed and borders have opened. KHL has come in to offer an local language alternative. The world has changed a lot. Still, some of the writers, many of the league elderly statesmen, owners, GMs etc. are old school and don't realize that nationality isn't very important these days. It's just a job and a business. Where wouldn't we be outsourcing tasks these days?

So, I'm leaning on the side of prejudice. Guys like Semin and Kovalev have proven to be world class players. You don't score almost a point per game in NHL without extreme talent. Of course these individuals are mostly offensive weapons and save themselves for those tasks instead of grinding out the pucks in the corners or finding lanes to deliver massive checks. They have the softest hands in the league and those skills will go out in a puff of smoke after few broken wrists or separated shoulders. Not to mention the flying speed that can't really take that many torn knee tendons before the career is over. There's different shaped guys for the hard work in all teams and it's hard to put these two types of players in comparison.

Stats tell that regular season favors the guys with offensive skill and speed, but playoffs turn the scales towards hard work and never-die attitude. That shouldn't really be much of a surprise to anyone in the business. It's a long season and everything is on the line in the end. It would be hard to not get the jitters on the final push towards the ultimate reward. Guys are also banged up and tired after 82 games of regular season. There might not be enough left in the tank to pull off some of the fastest spurts or finest moves in the postseason.

If you compare Semin and Kovalev to fellow countrymen Ovechkin and Malkin, what makes a difference in the public attitude? Ovechkin loves the spotlight, he's at home as a hockey celebrity. And he has a nasty edge, some Canadian blood perhaps? Malkin is a shy and silent guy too, but has won the public over with simple talent and undeniable productivity on the rink. Another bad season for him and he'll be in the same doghouse with Semin. Be it injuries or anything else, it's just going to be unfair.

The teams are paying millions to the coaching teams that seem to fail in getting everything out of these star players at times. I wonder how their professionalism is evaluated in those spots. They should be gutsy enough to tell who's going to jump in the box at what times and not whine about it later if they've played 25 minutes some guys who don't seem to have the energy. If it's grind time, don't throw in the artists.

I see another massively productive season for Semin, even playing on the second line behind Ovie and Backström. And Washington will make a big mistake if they let this guy leave instead of talking things through along the season. Get a freakin' interpreter if the kid doesn't speak English.

Kovalev already left when he had enough. He has nothing more to prove in his age and he'll be happy playing out his career in Russia.

I'd like to end this post with an opinion that the NHL would be way less entertaining as a league without the Russian (and other Eastern block) players. The media should realize that and embrace the differences in the playing style instead of judging without looking any deeper.

KHL angle

I got a chance to watch the KHL all stars game the other day. If the NHL's annual lazy Sunday skate looked to be a bit pointless, this made it look like a gruesome playoff grind in comparison. Russian league's stars practically let each others take breakaways while at the same time refusing to pull the trigger even on wrist shots and always looking for the tic-tac-toe to the empty net. The players seemed to enjoy the scoring fest. Goalies, on the other hand, had hard time summoning smiles to their faces. The game ended 17-16 and the hungriest guys scored 5 goals and up to 7 points.

The skills event before the game seemed to imitate NHL's just as well. Of course they managed to clock the all-time hardest shot by Denis Kulyash, beating Zdeno Chara's blast clearly. Not that either of them had much of use for that talent in the game itself.. I've always been a fan of the Russian skating and stickhandling skills, so the skills competition suits them just fine. Homecomer Maxim Afinogenov took the fastest skater's title. No news there, having seen him play in NHL and internationals several times. That guy sure can fly.

In general, it was fun to see the top talent in KHL. It's a good combination of some very good Russian talent, choosing to play in Russia rather than NHL, some elderly statesmen with great NHL pedigree, like Jaromir Jagr and Alexei Yashin and the cream of European players who haven't been able to lock a permanent NHL roster spot. Good players in general, definitely the second best level on the sport. It's going to be interesting to see how much these leagues will blend in the coming years with players moving back and forth between those.

While the all star game was just foolish, it's great to see this other major league for hockey. It may be extracting some talent from NHL but at the same time it keeps NHL as an organization alert and active in improving. From money perspective it may have the downside that all the rest of the world's leagues have to settle with third grade talent and local juniors on their way up. Well, can't please them all.

From my subjective viewer's point of view, however, the intensity of NHL games in a smaller rink keeps the NHL as the undisputed top of the sport. KHL may have speedier highlights here and there, but the whole package of NHL with heavy hitting, reaction decisions and seizing the moments simply cannot be beaten.

Honorable mention goes to Dominik Hasek. I thought this guy had already retired after winning it all. But there he was, at age of 45, between the pipes on among the KHL's best of the best. With the same weird style that brought back many memories from the past.