(Courtesy of Jamie Sabau/Getty Images North America)
On the same day the Los Angeles Kings lost a Russian-speaking player they gained another by signing free agent and Ukrainian-born Alexei Ponikarovsky to a one-year deal worth $3 million. Known as Poni, the 30-year-old winger who spent most of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins last year comes to LA with 266 points in 493 games.
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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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Another year, another busy trade deadline period for Ray Shero and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
A day after trading a second round pick in the upcoming draft to Florida for defenseman Jordan Leopold, Shero was at it again, this time with offense in mind. After the conclusion of Tuesday night’s victory over the Ryan Miller-less Buffalo Sabres, the Penguins announced the addition of Toronto left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky.
But at what price?
Veteran defenseman Martin Skoula and 21-year-old prospect Luca Caputi will be packing their bags and heading north to Canada.
The initial thought was that Maple Leafs’ General Manager Brian Burke wanted at least a second round pick for the Ukraine Train but as the Penguins had already spend theirs on defense, Shero chose not to hand out a first rounder.
Caputi makes up the brunt of the deal, and Skoula was essentially the 8th man on the Pittsburgh blue line and needed to be moved to get under the salary cap.
But enough of the blabber.
The Penguins reeled in a mighty fine winger that will most likely be used on Evgeni Malkin’s left wing.
The Maple Leafs received a talented prospect that only further aids their youth movement.
For a moment, let’s think about how this now effects the Eastern Conference playoff race and the Penguins for the rest of the season. First, the negatives. What are the cons about the trade?
First, the Penguins are obviously giving up a very talented young player that surely had a future in the organization. Along with Eric Tangradi, Caputi was considered the best offensive prospect in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and played good hockey in his time with the senior club.
The Penguins have now added yet another soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, bringing the total up to eight players who will complete their contracts in July.
The loss of Skoula, while may not seem extremely large, does have implications on the playoff race. When they won the Cup last year, there were eight NHL-caliber defensemen on the roster. Now with the loss of Skoula, that number is cut to seven, with the odd man out currently being Jay McKee.
Of course, there’s interest in him as well and he may not even be around come 3pm on Wednesday.
The trade has little negative impact on the short term, as Caputi wasn’t likely to play again for the Penguins this year and Skoula was a healthy scratch nearly every night. But in the long run, the true deciding points will be if Shero can resign Ponikarovsky this offseason and how good of a player does Caputi eventually become?
But there are two sides to every story, so let’s look at the other side.
What are some pros? At 6’4″ and 220-some pounds, Ponikarovsky brings both immense size and skill that the Penguins have not had on the wings since Upper St. Clair native Ryan Malone left in the summer of 2008.
The big winger is superb and playing down low and getting to the front of the net. He also represents a finisher that will be a major asset to the success of Malkin over the last month. Truth be told, almost anyone would have served as an improvement to what the Ruslan Fedotenko has provided this season (yes, he had a good game against Buffalo). But Ponikarovsky is not only a guy that has scored 20-plus goals playing for bad teams but a player that can also dish the puck.
But put aside his scoring for a minute.
The biggest reason that Shero liked him enough to make a trade over several arguably more gifted wingers, example Ray Whitney, is the fact that Ponikarovsky also plays very solid two-way hockey, which is necessary for a team that attacks like the Penguins do.
That doesn’t mean we’ll see him on the penalty kill or on a checking line any time soon, but it always helps to have a guy who can back-check well if a turnover is committed.
In the salary cap era, numbers also have to be considered. For the remainder of the season, Ponikarovsky’s cap hit is at $447,000. For a player of his caliber, extremely reasonable.
In terms of losing Caputi, remember a guy by the name of Angelo Esposito?
A piece of the infamous Marian Hossa trade, Esposito had tons of promise as a young player, as many felt that he could have been a Top Five draft pick but fell to the Penguins. But in hindsight, Esposito has still never played an NHL game and while it’s still too early to call him a complete bust, he’s certainly closer to the bust than a boom.
Does Ponikarovsky have the ability to push the Penguins over the top? He absolutely adds another dimension to the team that wasn’t there earlier and his presence should be worth it’s weight in gold to Malkin.
Time will tell. The Ukraine Train should make his Black and Vegas Gold debut against the New York Rangers on Thursday.
(Courtesy G Fiume/Getty Images)
The month of January has been very good to the Washington Capitals who are on the verge of breaking a franchise record for consecutive wins that has stood for 26 years. Fittingly Alexander Ovechkin, who was named captain on January 5th, had his best month of the year notching 9 goals, 26 points for a plus-16.
With Ovechkin’s new captaincy, Washington has surged to the top of the Eastern Conference with 80 points while making their Southeast lead a joke leading the Florida Panthers by 23 points.
While all the attention as usual was focused on Ovie, Washington’s other Alex(Semin) had himself a big month finding the net 11 times for 23 points in the month’s 15 games. Semin finished the month on a nine-game point-scoring streak earning himself honorable mention from the league.
The timing couldn’t be any better for Russia’s top forwards with the first game against Latvia just 15 days away.
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Without making a separate post for a lone highlight we decided to include Evgeni Malkin’s shootout goal from yesterday’s 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings just to get you excited for the Olympics a bit more. Jimmy Howard as you can tell was not amused.
(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”
There aren’t too many good ways to slow down the NHL’s leading point man from a season ago. But already twice in the young 2009-10 season, Evgeni Malkin has been held off the scoresheet. However, there’s nothing like an Eastern Conference Finals rematch with the Carolina Hurricanes to get him going again.
As we all remember, Malkin registered nine points in the first three games of a series to remember with the Canes, including an epic hat-trick in Game Two at the Mellon Arena.
Although Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice had all summer to figure out how to stop the Conn Smythe recipient, they apparently had very little success. No. 71 bamboozled the Carolina defense for most of the evening, leading the Penguins to their fifth straight road victory.
When it looked as if the Carolina was finally gathering some momentum, Malkin brought the puck up the ice and feathered a pass to fourth-line winger Mike Rupp. Rupp then broke in alone, scoring his first of the season and first in a Penguin uniform.
But he scored another signature goal in the second period. On a give-and-go with Pascal Dupuis, Malkin rifled a shot top-shelf on Cam Ward from an acute angle leaving Ward to wonder what he has to to stop the man from the Magnetic Mountain.
Congratulations, Evgeni! You are the Comrade of the Night!
(courtesy of The Washington Post)
(courtesy of The Washington Post)
Here the latest shots of Simeon Varlamov’s new mask for the upcoming season. Varly has taken the patriotic route combining Mt.Rushmore with the bald eagle and the Russian Coat of Arms. The chin combines the Capitals logo and both country’s flags. This is definitely one of the finer masks in the NHL. Below is a video of close up.
On Thursday, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins visited the White House and President Barrack Obama days after meeting Russian President and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Obama congratulated Malkin for becoming the third youngest player to win the Conn Smyth but he was was too busy trying to take a picture of the President on his cellphone.
Malkin also made it a point to say hi to his mother and father via the television cameras in hopes this was broadcasted back home. Below is a video of the event courtesy as always of the NHL and NHL.com.
(courtesy of AP)
courtesy of Getty Images)
In and after game 2, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar both sent a message to Detroit on and off the ice. First it was Malkin who decided to drop the mits with Henrik Zetterberg earning him a game misconduct for instigating. However his match penalty was overlooked by the NHL who decided not to enforce their mandatory one-game suspension on one of the games brightest stars.
On Monday, Gonchar told Sovietsky Sport that his team can play against the Wings system and win while stating the series is not over. In game 3, both players let their sticks do the talking propelling the Pens to a 4-2 lead and making the series worthwhile.
Malkin would assist on three of the four goals while Gonchar would give the Pens the game winner on the power play midway through the third. Gonchar would lead his team with 22:29 minutes of ice time and his goal came on his lone shot of the game.
Malkin assisted on the first three Penguins goals, giving him 33 points in 20 games, the most in the playoffs since Joe Sakic’s 34 in 22 games for Stanley Cup champion Colorado in 1996.
Below is Gonchar’s goal courtesy of the NHL.
