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Sunday, January 27, 2008
Kovalchuk, Nabokov team up for chuckles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
He took nine shots but pulled an 0-fer. Goalies stopped six. Two others bounced off legs. Another flew wide of downtown.
He was stopped on a breakaway, performed a snow angel while flat on the ice after being robbed of another chance in front and — emotional sort that he is — ended the second period by throwing his stick.
On most nights, this would set up a postgame meltdown for Ilya Kovalchuk. On this night, he was Henny Youngman.
“I threw my stick, [then] I gave it to the fan,” Kovalchuk said Sunday night. “But I don’t think he was excited.”
Thank you, he’s here all week. Tip your Zamboni driver.
The NHL All-Stars came to town. One (Rick Nash) scored three goals. One (Eric Staal) scored two goals. Another (Evgeni Nabokov) would’ve kicked out a
Winnebago Sunday if given a chance.
But the best performance — or at least, the best show — was put on by Kovalchuk, who had to settle for an assist in the Eastern Conference’s 8-7 win over the West at Philips Arena.
Despite being blanked, it speaks to Kovalchuk’s performance Sunday and his popularity in this town — as well as his security — that he was brought to the large interview room after the game but teammate Marian Hossa (who had a goal and an assist) stayed in the locker
room.
As a general rule, defense isn’t high on the priority list in NHL All-Star Games. Actually, it’s not anywhere on the list. There were 21 goals scored in last year’s game. There have been fewer than 10 scored only once in the last 17. And in 40 years of picking All-Star MVPs, defensemen have been picked only twice and goalies only five times (largely because they escaped with all of their vital organs, and no significant twitch).
But Nabokov, San Jose’s goalie, seemed determined to rob the attention Sunday, as well as knock a fellow Russian off the stage. He was the only one of six goalies to pitch a shutout in his one period, stopping eight shots in the second period.
“Obviously he was really trying to score, and he wanted it for his own fans,” Nabokov said, smiling.
And you had no desire to make him a hero?
“No.”
With 1:03 left in the second period, Kovalchuk was set up perfectly in the slot from less than 10 feet out, a relative gimme for him. He shot quickly, the puck air-mailed to the upper right hand corner of the net. But Nabokov gloved it. Kovalchuk, exasperated, fell back on the ice and stared to the ceiling.
This won’t make him feel any better: “You can call it a lucky save,” Nabokov said. “The whole top shelf was open and I just tried to swing my glove, and it ended up in the glove.”
In the final seconds of the period, ex-Thrasher Marc Savard sent Kovalchuk in on a breakaway, but Nabokov stopped him again, this time with his pads. Then came the stick chuck.
Kovalchuk and Nabokov were Olympic teammates two years ago in Turin, Italy.
“We’re good buddies,” Nabokov said.
“He’s really good for a small guy,” Kovalchuk said.
He meant that as a compliment.
More from the funny Russian: “I’m going to work on my shot in practice.”
Kovalchuk has scored 37 goals this year. It seemed like he could’ve scored 37 Sunday night. In his last All-Star appearance in 2004, he scored once. Surprisingly, he worked a give-and-go with Carolina’s Staal late in the third period — surprising in that Kovalchuk closed the deal by feeding Staal for a game-tying goal with 7:25 left.
“I think everybody in the building thought I was going to shoot it,” Kovalchuk said.
He had one final chance in the final minute. But a pass intended for him down low on the left side was knocked away by Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf. The East continued to press the attack but Kovalchuk headed for the
bench.
“I broke my stick and so I [went] to the bench,” he said. “I wanted to get another one, but [Alex] Ovechkin jumped [on] and changed [for] me. So I’m like, ‘OK, I need to change.’ “
Soon after he sat down, Savard buried the game-winning goal. It was that kind of night for Kovalchuk. But he didn’t seem to care.
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