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Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Kovalchuk completes NHL’s power lineup
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Summer acquisitions notwithstanding, any question about Ilya Kovalchuk’s importance to the Thrashers evaporated quickly Tuesday when he joined the team for power play practice. Measuring the importance was difficult only because nobody used a stopwatch.
“I kept him on the ice for probably 10 minutes,” coach Bob Hartley said. “He was the only guy who didn’t come off the ice.”
“He played me 15 minutes — back and forth, 15 minutes in a row,” Kovalchuk said. “That’s OK. He told me it was just to get me ready.”
When the INS granted Kovalchuk his work visa Tuesday, it might have ended the rest of the NHL’s best chance for slowing the Thrashers’ power play in general and Kovalchuk in particular.
In past seasons, a successful power play unit could be viewed as a nice bonus or one of several keys to success. This year, its importance might be closer to that of a Gatorade bucket in the middle of the Sahara. Only those who can drink with an extra skater will survive.
More penalties are being called now, which means power play time, which means a greater emphasis on a team’s skilled forwards. If you play on the third or fourth line, you might want to bring a book with you to the bench — because you’re barely getting more ice time than the Zamboni driver.
Which brings us to the Thrashers. Even without Kovalchuk, the NHL’s best triggerman, the team totaled eight power play goals in two games against Washington. With Kovalchuk, this team has the potential to be the league’s best this year and among the best ever.
Maybe Hartley puts Kovalchuk down low on the left side, with Slava Kozlov and Bobby Holik on the right. Maybe he puts him on the point with Peter Bondra, Marian Hossa and Mark Savard down low.
Maybe he goes with five forwards, with Bondra and Kovalchuk as point men.
Chew on that while spinning memories of Martin Prochazka and Johan Garpenlov.
If you’re trying to kill a penalty against this team, what goes through your mind?
“I’m hoping that my goalie is having a really good night,” Scott Mellanby said.
“It’s intimidating. There might be plays on a penalty kill where they take a chance to try to break up a play. But they also might freeze a little bit because of the intimidation factor.”
The Atlanta Thrashers: Intimidating.
Still chewing?
“I think it’ll be even more intimidating for the guy who’s sitting in the box,” Hartley said. “He doesn’t want to have to go back to the bench [after a goal].
“Our power play could be one of our best tools against [physical] intimidation. If a team wants to try to run us out of their building — like in Washington, we scored on the first four power plays. That sends a message: If you want to be stupid, it could be a long night.”
OK, hockey school is open. In general, the power play accounts for about one-quarter of a team’s offense. (In 2003-04, 27 percent of the goals came on the power play.) Through the first six days of this season, 37 percent of the goals (114 of 308) were power plays. Eight of the Thrashers’ 15 (53 percent) have come with an extra attacker.
Great teams have been led by great players on the power play: Edmonton (Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey). The New York Islanders (Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, Dennis Potvin). Colorado (Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Ray Bourque). Pittsburgh (Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, whoever).
Kovalchuk stepped on the ice Tuesday, looked around and was struck: “Unbelievable. Just the names. Names everywhere.”
He was prepared to miss this. Had negotiations with the Thrashers broken off, Kovalchuk would have signed with a team in Russia and made a nice living. But his mind would be elsewhere.
“I would be reading the [Russian newspaper] Sports-Express every day, looking at the [NHL] results,” he said.
Now he looks on a power play and sees Bondra (who has scored 50-plus), Hossa (40-plus) and Kozlov (30-plus). But he didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping up Tuesday.
“He reminds me of Guy Lafleur when he was young,” Hartley said, referring to the former Montreal great. “He’d come to training camp with a pack of cigarettes and he’d finish first in the [fitness] testing.”
Kovalchuk didn’t have any cigarettes Tuesday, just a stick. And if Hartley wanted to cram an entire training camp into one practice, so be it.
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The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: I fully realize you come to me for answers. (Pause for effect.) But I’m going to be completely honest here. I don’t know how to fix the Braves. Well, yeah, duh, they need a better bullpen and they’ll need a shortstop and a leadoff guy if they lose Rafael Furcal. I’m talking big picture …
9: You know, BIG PICTURE. The owners. The general manager. The manager. There’s a tendency in times like this to say: Get rid of them, dump him, fire him. But, really, can anybody make a case that any of those three parties are at fault here?
8: OK, Time Warner told John Schuerholz to trim the budget. But there’s no guaranteeing that another $10 million or $20 million or $50 million would have made a difference. Evidence: Yankees, Red Sox.
7: Fire Schuerholz? Who could have done more with less? Fire Cox? Dude. Take a pill. The guy should be considered a deity for leading this bunch to a division title. Disagree? Go ahead. But I ain’t buying.
6: Meantime, now THIS is funny: A Final Four of Cardinals, Astros, White Sox and Angels. Those of us who can’t stand how professional sports has completely sold out to television — thereby giving us the midnight seventh-inning stretch — rejoice in having things blow up in the face of Fox and Major League Baseball.
5: By the way, my daughter is very upset about “The O.C.” being off the air for a few weeks for the playoffs. Can’t say I blame her.
4: It’s not about local team ratings. It’s about national appeal and ratings numbers. The Cardinals are the only team that even comes close in that regard. Houston is — ugh. Chicago and Los Angeles are major markets, but the White Sox and Angels are the stepkids of those cities. We’re not talking Cubs and Dodgers. If the teams were cities, baseball got Springfield, not Boston; and Macon, not Atlanta.
3: No Yankees. No Red Sox. Free lithium in the ESPN employee cafeteria!
2: For the record, I can’t believe people are accusing Michael Vick of dogging it Sunday and not playing. (He said the decision was Jim Mora’s, who concurred.) Does anybody really think he wouldn’t want to play against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots if he could?
1: And how quickly do we forget about a performance in Buffalo three Sundays ago when Vick went out with a sore hamstring and led the Falcons to a win with two touchdown passes?
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