(Courtesy of The Hockey News)
The A-Train arrived in Newark today as the New Jersey Devils announced the signing of defenseman Anton Volchenkov giving the Russian bear a six-year contract worth $25.5 million ($4.25 million per season). Known for more of his stay at home style the 6’1 235 pound Moscow native adds a realm of physicality and shot blocking last seen when Scott Stevens led the Devils defensive corp.
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(Courtesy of The Hockey News)
It did not take long for the NHL’s premier power play guru to find a new home.
Only 14 minutes after the free agency period opened at noon EST, Sergei Gonchar had inked a three-year, $16.5 million contract with the Ottawa Senators. Eager to improve on a 21st ranked power play from last season, the Senators had made the 36-year-old Russian their unquestioned No. 1 priority in free agency.
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A relatively busy day in the realm of Russian hockey this Monday afternoon when it comes to defensemen as newsworthy headlines have appeared throughout today’s blogosphere. The biggest is of former NHL player Darius Kasparaitis retiring from his KHL club SKA St. Petersburg in order to become an assistant coach with the team he spent his last playing days with.
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(Courtesy of Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images)
After failing to score in 16 games before recording a hat-trick against the Carolina Hurricanes on December 12th, Alexei Kovalev snapped his latest goal drought, this one for ten games, by netting four goals against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.
Kovalev, who also added an assist, got on the board twice in the first period and then again in the third. He would score on both Michael Leighton and then Brian Boucher who came in relief. Kovalev became just the fifth Senator in team history with a four-goal game. Kovalev now has 12 career hat-tricks. Below are all four goals courtesy of the NHL and NHL.com
(Courtesy of The Hockey News)
On Wednesday night with Team Russia GM Vladislav Tretiak in attendance Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin recorded his fourth career hat-trick again the Ottawa Senators.
Malkin became the second Russian this season to record a hat-trick after Alexei Kovalev of the Senators recorded one two weeks ago.
Malkin had only two goals in his previous 10 games and was held off the score sheet in each of his past two but had his first multiple-goal regular-season game since March 17 against Atlanta.
His performance will most likely be noted by Tretiak who probably has Malkin on his roster already seeing how he is the leagues reigning Conn Smyth winner.
Each goal came per period two of which were assisted by Sidney Crosby. This is Malkin’s second COTN nod of the season. Below are all three of Geno’s goals courtesy of the NHL and NHL.com
(Courtesy of The Canadian Press/Pawel Dwulit)
On Saturday night in Ottawa Alexei Kovalev became just the 82nd player in NHL history to reach the 400 career goal plateau. Kovalev notched three goals on the night against the lowly Carolina Hurricanes halting a 16 game skid without finding the back of the net in the process.
Kovalev got the Sens on the board in the first period redirecting Nick Folignos pass behind Manny Legace. Career goal 400 came with the score tied 2-2 in the second period with Kovalev’s shot deflecting off Carolina defenseman Jay Harrison’s skate.
He would add an empty-net goal to cap off his hat-trick and sealing the victory for the senators. Kovalev became the first Russian to record a hat-trick this year, his last one came in 2003 with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Congrats to Alexei on his achievement and as always his comrade of the night nod.
Below are all three of Kovalev’s goals all courtesy always of the NHL and NHL.com
When Andrei Markov injured his ankle back in early October it would start a wave of Russians to be bit by the injury bug with some of the most notable stars having to miss extended time.
First it was Pavel Datsyuk who recently returned to Detroits line-up to try and make up for lost time in hopes of helping a sub-par Red Wings team regain the momentum from last year.
Then within a few days of each other players such as Anton Volchenkov of Ottawa, Ilya Kovalchuk of Atlanta, Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh all have been placed on the shelf as their teams are forced to compete without their biggest helpers.
From shoulders to wrists to ankles the players have racked up a wide range of knocks to miss a small but important chunk of the season. Most players are expected back before mid November with plenty of time before the Olypmics in Vancouver.
Last night Alexander Ovechkin joined the party when he sustained a upper body injury after being involved in a scrum forcing him to leave mid-game and not return.
According to Capitals beat writer Tarik El-Bashir and Sport-Express’s Slava Malamud Ovechkin is likely to miss Wednesday’s game vs the New Jersey Devils which has one writer on here who has tickets very upset at the moment.
UPDATE: Ovechkin has been listed as week to week but will travel with the team. When asked about traveling but not playing Ovechkin responded with “Get some nachos, coke and enjoy the game”
So we here at fromrussiawithglove are recovering from our first professional hacking from someone located in Iraq who has clearly mistaken us for American sympathizers.
We are back and running now and to cheer everyone up we decided to share some videos from Team Russia’s Olympic orientation in Moscow.
Here are the players coming out of the locker room to the anthem of Russian/Soviet hockey
Here are the players following their shootout loss.
The only recognizable people are Simeon Varlamov of the Capitals and Alexei Kovalev of the Senators.
(courtesy of The Hockey News)
There seems to be some unwritten code between NHL GM’s that no business can be done during the July 4th holiday and so it took the Ottawa Senators just hours to announce their first big signing of the off-season by nabbing Alexei Vyacheslavich Kovalev on Monday.
The one they call Kovy inked a two-year deal worth $10 million after being with the Montreal Canadiens since 2004. The 36-year-old Togliatti native will be entering his 17th NHL season with just his fourth club.
Kovalev who was the captain and MVP of the All-Star game in Montreal last year has notched 394 goals and 547 assists in 1151 NHL games. He will look to feature in Russia’s Olympic squad in 2010 having donned the national jersey since 1992.
It will be interesting to see if the Sens pick up anyone else to help Kovalev produce with the imminent departure of Dany Heatley. He will join fellow countrymen Anton Volchenkov and possibly Ilya Zubov.
