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Kovalev Vs Gainey


Habby1197

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Im not sure if anyone else saw this, but after the game Kovalev was greeted by reporters saying that Gainey said that Kovalev and his line didn't do enough in the series... Kovalev responded " I don't care what he says, I'm never appreciated anyways, It's been like this for years... I really don't care what he has to say".

Did Kovalev just play his final game in Montreal?

Edited by Habby1197
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If he did say that, why hasn't the media jumped all over it? Inflammatory stuff like that is media-fodder.

I find it more likely that he said"you" instead of "him." I wouldn't be surprised if his comments were directed at the interviewer. I can't imagine him saying that about his GM.

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If he did say that, why hasn't the media jumped all over it? Inflammatory stuff like that is media-fodder.

I find it more likely that he said"you" instead of "him." I wouldn't be surprised if his comments were directed at the interviewer. I can't imagine him saying that about his GM.

I'm not one to make anything up, I saw it... I'm sure other people did too.

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I'm not one to make anything up, I saw it... I'm sure other people did too.

I found someone else who heard it...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did anybody hear Kovy reply to reporters that if BG thinks he didn't do enough then he's going to start arguing about it. He sounded angry that BG would single him out and suggest he wasn't doing all he could. The thing that makes me angry is that BG NEVER said that. Asked if he thought Kovy could play better he said yes. We are saying the very same thing on this board. Of course he could play better if he was surrounded by guys that could keep up with him. The reporters made it seem that BG said he didn't try when BG said he could do better. Nothing like the media to cause a problem where there is none. Now BG has to make sure Kovy knows he didn't single him out. What a waste of effort and time.

Link-----> http://forum.canadiens.com/forum/eng/viewt...=8752&start=625

Looks like the reporters didn't really tell Kovalev what was really said... But Kovalev was still very upset.

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They spoke about it on CJAD this morning. Gainey said that he found eveyr player did a greta job in Game 6 and worked hard. He specifically mentioned Kovalev in answer to a question saying that he couldn't ask for any more from him. There was also a short clip of Kovalev talking but as you can see I wasn't paying full attention.

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They spoke about it on CJAD this morning. Gainey said that he found eveyr player did a greta job in Game 6 and worked hard. He specifically mentioned Kovalev in answer to a question saying that he couldn't ask for any more from him. There was also a short clip of Kovalev talking but as you can see I wasn't paying full attention.

If you watched any of the replays of sportscenter on tsn this morning they played it. Kovy didnt sound happy and I think he and Bob should sit down and have a talk. Cause kovalev has nothing to feel bad about he was our only consistant scoring threat the whole series. Nobody should blame him for the loss. If you want to blame anyone blame Cam Ward.

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First off, if we've learned anything about Gainey, its that he won't say shit to the media before he pulls the player into the office for a 1 on 1 talk. And I'm quite sure right about now, or sometime during this summer, Gainey will be sitting down with each memeber of the Habs and telling him exactly what he though of their effort this year and what is in store for them over the summer.

Gainey doesn't go through the media.

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Gainey didn't blame Kovalev for the loss. After game 5, he just identified him, among others, as being someone who needed to give more. A reporter likely put his slant on it (the blame thing), and threw it at Kovalev after a frustrating game 6 loss. This is a media-invented controversy.

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Gainey didn't blame Kovalev for the loss. After game 5, he just identified him, among others, as being someone who needed to give more. A reporter likely put his slant on it (the blame thing), and threw it at Kovalev after a frustrating game 6 loss. This is a media-invented controversy.
Agree, BG never has pointed fingers at players. Somebody trying to create another Tortorella incident.
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The only thing close to what was said that I saw in the papers was that the media criticized Ribeiro for not playing good and Kovalev was also included in this observation to which he replied something along that lines that he was never appreciated anywhere.

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I'd say trade Kovy, because, c'mon, I think this guy is done...He's old, he's rotted, he doesn't have the ambition (he never really did), he's made his money, collecting another fat paycheck. 4.5 million for 22 goals? Oh sure, comes the now tired reponse, "He scored____points." Big deal. He was never there to begin with this year. But when you think about it, who would want Kovy? Oh right, nobody...Stuck with him for another two years...Or unless he blesses us with and abrupt retirement. This was Gainey's only mistake in my opinion. And it's costly. Get rid of Ribs too. And get us a first first line center and move Saku to second where he belongs....

(oh, hersey, I know, I said it...)

And no, this isn't an end of the season, doom-and-gloom lament, just the (my perceived, anyway) truth.

Edited by joliat
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I'd say trade Kovy, because, c'mon, I think this guy is done...He's old, he's rotted, he doesn't have the ambition (he never really did), he's made his money, collecting another fat paycheck. 4.5 million for 22 goals? Oh sure, comes the now tired reponse, "He scored____points." Big deal. He was never there to begin with this year. But when you think about it, who would want Kovy? Oh right, nobody...Stuck with him for another two years...Or unless he blesses us with and abrupt retirement. This was Gainey's only mistake in my opinion. And it's costly. Get rid of Ribs too. And get us a first first line center and move Saku to second where he belongs....

(oh, hersey, I know, I said it...)

And no, this isn't an end of the season, doom-and-gloom lament, just the (my perceived, anyway) truth.

lol thats embarassing.

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Anyways for people who wanted confirmation:

"Alex Kovalev appeared miffed that Gainey said he could have done more in this series. He was held to one shot on net last night, but said this wasn't the time to assess blame for the loss.

"We win as a team and we lose as a team," Kovalev said. "I gave it my best effort out there. I thought we showed a lot of character and I felt positive, even going into this game down 3-2. I thought we would win."

http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/hockey...1cfdbe5&k=28859

One thing I personally will say is this. Kovalev's stats look nice for this round (7pts in 6 games). But he scored the majority of the points in the shellacking of Gerber during the first two games. He definitely didn't fill the void offensively and in terms of leadership (like we needed someone to, a la Brindamour of Carolina with clutch goals and all) during the series after Koivu went down.

One thing is for sure: Kovalev is not a true captain/leader.

But on the other hand anyone could have told you that prior to these playoffs anyways...Yes Kovalev is bizzarely inconsistent (which he has never become a superstar), but Montreal's gotta make do with what the team has right now. Eventually the hope is we'll see guys like Perezhogin, Kostityn, Plekanec, Higgins, etc...take over the roles of guys like Kovalev, Ribiero and Zednik.

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Oh right, nobody...Stuck with him for another two years...Or unless he blesses us with and abrupt retirement.

And no, this isn't an end of the season, doom-and-gloom lament, just the (my perceived, anyway) truth.

Actually hes here for another 3, and im happy hes here.

:hlogo:

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One thing I personally will say is this. Kovalev's stats look nice for this round (7pts in 6 games). But he scored the majority of the points in the shellacking of Gerber during the first two games. He definitely didn't fill the void offensively and in terms of leadership (like we needed someone to, a la Brindamour of Carolina with clutch goals and all) during the series after Koivu went down.

Nobody else filled the void either. Ward allowed five goals in the four full games that he played. One goal a game is not gonna win you a series, even with a two-game head start. Ryder and Higgins were shut down completely, and Ribs, Kovy and Bulis didn't pick up the slack. It was as simple as Ward giving them the goaltending that Gerber couldn't, and the Hurricanes took that momentum and ran with it. They capitalized on their opportunities, and in the playoffs, that separates the contenders from the pretenders.

I will agree that this series has shown the dearth of leadership on this edition of the team, something which has been mentioned before during the regular season. There were hints of it along the way, but no one really took the team on his back and carried them where they wanted to go. There was no lack of effort on anyone's part that I saw, which is a good sign for down the road. But I still question why Plekanec, the best faceoff man on the team in the four losses, never got a shift with Ryder and Higgins, not even in the third period of game six. Begin is a great checker and enegry guy, but he doesn't have the puck distribution skills that Plekanec has. Hell, even Harry Neale pointed out that Pleks passes more than he shoots, and here you had the top goal scorer and the top rookie on the team playing without a guy who could get them the puck. It boggles my mind to wonder why Gainey didn't put them together.

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I'd say trade Kovy, because, c'mon, I think this guy is done...He's old, he's rotted, he doesn't have the ambition (he never really did), he's made his money, collecting another fat paycheck. 4.5 million for 22 goals? Oh sure, comes the now tired reponse, "He scored____points." Big deal. He was never there to begin with this year. But when you think about it, who would want Kovy? Oh right, nobody...Stuck with him for another two years...Or unless he blesses us with and abrupt retirement. This was Gainey's only mistake in my opinion. And it's costly. Get rid of Ribs too. And get us a first first line center and move Saku to second where he belongs....

(oh, hersey, I know, I said it...)

And no, this isn't an end of the season, doom-and-gloom lament, just the (my perceived, anyway) truth.

:?-

That came out of no where.

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Kovalev was stuck with Ribeiro as a center, and a very average (offensively) Jan Bulis as his left winger. So Kovalev basically gets a nice setup once in a blue moon...he pretty much has to manufacture every decent chance he gets with a series of crazy dangles. How the hell do you blame a guy for that? His numbers are very impressive when you factor in that the other team knows the other two guys on his line are harmless, and can shift to cover him with a blanket defense.

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Some of you guys are worse than the Montreal media....I saw the replays of the interviews last night, and they weren't nearly as bad as some of you are making them seem.

And getting rid of Kovalev? Are you ######ed? He is by far the best, most talented, most exciting player that we've had in the red white and blue in a long long long time!

How soon we forget...

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Yea, that's a good idea, trade the most talented player the habs have. That will make them better. Trade Ryder too, then the habs will never score. Kovalev needs NHL talent to play with him, Bulis, although a good checker has no business on a line with kovalev, neither does Ribiero.

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that was nice of the interviewer to ask that kind of question right after the team gets eliminated.

btw, Gainey said that after game 4 or 5. there was nothing new to it.

and i want him to stay for the remainder of his contract.

and i agree that he was STUCK with Ribeiro and Bulis. that was our 2nd line? i'm guessing Gainey was hoping he'd jumpstart their productivity. now give him some players to play with. for real, this time.

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