AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 05
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Showdown at the I.K. corral?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you haven’t see it yet, check out the quote from Ilya in Craig’s story from practice today!
Holy cow! Believe me, that “this year” is intentional. I know Ilya is not a native speaker, but he knows what he’s saying. And, to me, that’s a clear challenge to Monsieur Hartley. Wow. Big-time talk. Hartley praises the OTHER team’s Russian star, and our Russian star responds with, “He’s the coach … THIS YEAR.”
That’s back-page tabloid material in a lot of places. Kovalchuk: Me or him!
Let’s hope this doesn’t fester too long here, because it could be disastrous.
On the other hand, Ilya has a long and well-documented history of coming back from insults with big performances. In fact, knowing hockey coaches as I do, it wouldn’t surprise me if Hartley came INTO the game thinking he’d do something to prod Ilya a little bit just in time for the postseason. Mike Keenan made a science of it, but believe me, most coaches understand the value of pushing the buttons of your temperamental superstar.
So let’s see how this plays out over the next few days … and maybe into the offseason.
