The 2011 winner of Gagarin Cup is Salavat Yulaev from Ufa. They managed to finish the final series against Atlant (Mytischi — a suprising finalist, as no one expected they would play in the final) in five games. The head coaches of Salavat are from Russia’s national team: Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin. So I suppose quite a few of the champions will be present at the coming IIHF Worlds in Slovakia. Some fantastic photos can be found here — at one of the best Russian sports photographers: http://vladimir-pesnya.livejournal.com/644925.html

Here are some videos after the final game. The players share their joy and happiness, I think these are always the best moments of any big victory!

The Thrashers tied their record for consecutive wins tonight in Denver — enough said for now. Let’s do it again Thursday against the Penguins. As we once cheered for my alma mater’s football team which was rising in the CFB polls: SHOCK THE NATION! Let that be our new battle cry.

Go Thrashers — shock the nation (and Canada too)!

Photo: Pepsi Center scoreboard by Goddess Kaatiya. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Former NHLer and newly acquired CSKA Moscow forward Slava Kozlov says he hasn’t had any problems adapting to his Russian club.

- I had been preparing to my comeback to Russia.  When I played for Atlanta I already planned to try myself in the KHL. It turned out that in the end I got back to CSKA — to the club which I had left 18 years ago. So I don’t have any troubles with adaptation in Russia.

-I’m surprised by the new league. The KHL has a very high level of hockey. Organizational issues in the CSKA are OK, too. We have all the conditions to show our best game.

Photos and interview (c) official CSKA website.

Sergei Fedorov in his Metallurg Magnitogorsk uniform during the game with Dinamo Moscow on November, 7, 2010. Dinamo won 4-1.

Photo: Sergei Fedorov by Goddess Thorkhild. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.

On October, 4, SKA played against Carolina in the show game “KHL vs NHL”. It was a nice show, with lots of goals and fights. SKA won 5:3.

St. Petersburg coach Ivano Zanatta explains to IIHF.com:
“This meant a lot to the national hockey pride of Russians. The Olympics left a scar in the Russian hockey soul. What we did tonight was to start mending that scar a little bit,” said the Italo-Canadian who is entrusted with the monumental task of jelling this star ensemble into a cohesive group.

His counterpart was also quite happy with his team’s performance, but not with the way the SKA, according to Paul Maurice, took liberties with some of his star players.
“In the NHL when players have an issue they are allowed to solve it by themselves,” said the Hurricanes coach. “And then you continue to play. But this is not possible in international hockey, there is a different tradition.”

This is the second time that an NHL-team will face a KHL-club. In the inaugural Victoria Cup on October 1, 2008, the New York Rangers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat European club champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk, 4-3, with Ryan Callahan netting the winner with 20 seconds remaining. The game was played in Bern, Switzerland, reminds the IIHF website.

Here are some photos, taken from championat.ru, sovsport.ru and other open sources

This past weekend ushered in the Washington Capitals 2010 training camp nestled eight stories in the air in Arlington, Virginia. Slowly but surely the opening games of the 2010-2011 NHL regular season creeps ever closer. It’s a time of newness, excitement, and acknowledgment of wounds still not entirely healed for 29 NHL teams.

The week prior featured the annual rookie camp for those trying to make a name for themselves inside the Caps organization. A lucky few earn a spot in the official team training camp, which can make or break their chances of seeing real NHL playing time within the near future.

This years notable rookie camp standouts were the fiery redhead Cody Eakin, highly touted Swedish center Marcus Johansson, and the talented Russian winger Dmitri Kugryshev. Each played a key role in the 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers top rookies in their traditional intra-rookie camp scrimmage. The highlight of the intense game being Kugryshev’s fantastic backhand goal to put the Caps rookies ahead of the Flyers rookies 4-3 in the dying seconds of the 3rd period. The Caps rookies managed to stave off the Flyers rookies to win the annual scrimmage and leave KCI with the first Caps victory of the season.

With the talented crop of young Caps players stockpiled from within, one can’t help but feel bright about this season and seasons to come. However, after last seasons demoralizing first round exit in the 2010 play-offs, fans and players alike enter this season with a heavy sense of mixed excitement and frustration. Head coach Bruce Boudreau put it best in his summation of how the team — and arguably their loyal fans — feels going into this season.

“We’ve got an anger still of what went on and how we lost,” Boudreau said. “And I hope we’re carrying that chip on our shoulder throughout the course of the year. … We think we’re a better team than what we got credit for, when it’s all said and done.”

Many of the Capital’s players echoed these sentiments from Captain Alex Ovechkin, to NHL vets Mike Knuble and Tom Poti. In fact, the entire organization seems like they are playing to prove something to the NHL, their fans, and themselves. The whole atmosphere in the building is clearly tainted with the memories of last season. You can see it in the players faces, in the way they skate, the way they talk to each other. They know what happened and they won’t soon forget. They will carry with them this season a small sense of shame knowing how far they fell at the end of the 2010 play-off campaign. They finally know what they have to do to get back that intensity, they have to change the way they think.

Evidence of that mindset is clearly stated as you watch the team repeat drill after drill. You see a different team than what we saw last season. This isn’t the same happy-go-lucky group of young guys with a dream of winning trophy’s and setting records, this is a group of determined and focused young men finally realizing nothing else matters but winning the Cup in the NHL.

Perhaps they will put that hard learned lesson to use in understanding it’s not the team that puts up the most dominating regular season showcase that wins a Cup, but one that never lets up and never backs down. A passion to win is burning the eyes of the Capitals, and if they had it their way, the play-offs would start tomorrow to skate towards redemption.

It’s all there, written on the back of their team shirts for training camp, sending a message to everyone. A message of understanding of what a season ending in heartbreak can only bring to a team:

“Stay angry … believe in yourselves.”

Photos: Marcus Johansson, Alexander Ovechkin, and Nicklas Backstrom courtesy of BridgetDS; Cody Eakin courtesy of Sarahm19. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Russian hockey stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin organized a charity game “With all the heart” in Moscow’s Sokolniki Arena. All the money will be sent to people who suffered from the recent forest and other fires in Russia. The original idea belonged to Ilya.

Many famous current and former players took part in the Ovie vs Kovy game including: Evgeni Malkin, Nikolai Zherdev, Slava Kozlov, Alexei Kasatonov, Slava Fetisov, Alexander Kharlamov, and Dominik Hasek. Many top Kremlin officials, KHL President Alexander Medvedev and various celebrities were in attendance.

Kovalchuk and Ovechkin invited their first coaches to participate in the game as managers.

After the game Kovalchuk admitted that it had been a pleasure for him to play at Sokolniki — at his home arena (where HC Spartak Moscow plays). He also said he and his family had suffered from the Moscow smog. For those who haven’t heard, the city of Moscow and its surrounding areas were recently blanketed in smoke from fires burning near the city, as the Russian capital endured extraordinarily high summer temperatures.

Ovechkin said that such charity activities should be developed in Russia. He added that he had been in the Moscow smog, too.

Former Atlanta Thrasher Slava Kozlov admitted he hadn’t defined his future career yet. He asked not to link his visit to Russia with contract talks — his purpose there was to visit his parents. Kozlov also said that the New Jersey Devils didn’t call him — only Kovalchuk asked him to join.

Here’s a video from the show which ended 13:13.

And here are photos from the Russian media and various open sources

I have to say I gasped, then laughed like crazy when I saw the latest in Ilya-gate. The arbiter ruled in favor of the National Hockey League! WHAT?! As the late, great Johnny Carson would no-doubt have said (if he’d been a hockey fan), “that’s some weird, wild stuff.”

What is it with these ex-Atlanta Thrashers who become drama queens when they leave the team? Maybe Kovy has always been a bit of a diva (yeah, he has been), but we’ve had a string of interesting former Thrasher players all mixed up in the drama: Hossa-gate (and all the unnecessary rudeness surrounding it, of which I disapproved), Dany-gate (and all the rudeness that he did deserve), now this. A high-profile player cannot leave the Thrashers without drama ensuing — either immediately, during or after his departure. (So we stand on alert waiting for Kari Lehtonen to implode, get thrown from a bucking bronco at a dive bar in Dallas and tweak his groin, or eat himself into a fast food coma.)

Kovy, Kovy, Kovy. You could have avoided all of this ages ago by just taking the sweetheart deal the Thrashers begged you to sign.

This is all very amusing to me. Is it just me?! Perhaps “drama queen” is overstating it, but really. This is crazy. Kovalchuk is a free agent again! A little more than a month after he became a UFA, Kovalchuk could flit off to the Kontinental Hockey League and join the super team SKA St. Petersburg seems to be amassing over there. He could crown himself a Los Angeles King after all. Or, the humble and loving Thrasher fan in me naively, somewhere in the back of her mind thinks, he could come home to Atlanta. Yes. Go get him Dudley! (Oh! Silly me. We are not a “class organization” in his eyes, so never mind the bollocks!)

Am I spiteful? Just experiencing a wicked case of schadenfreude and am all giddy? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Until then … LOL Kovy. Oh dear!

Photo: Ilya Kovalchuk from kiltmen.com. If I am not mistaken, that photograph originally appeared in a fashion spread in a magazine many years ago. The Hockey Goddesses regret not knowing the original copyright owner, but would welcome this information (as much as we would welcome knowing how the author of the story and/or photographer persuaded him to pose in this garb — delightful and oddly sexy as it is.)

Hi everyone, hope your summer has been good! Mine’s been eventful to say the least. It’s been pretty quiet on the Caps corner of the hockey world this summer. Then again, perhaps not.

The Caps have signed DJ King and Danny Sabourin, re-signed Ovechkin’s English tutor in Brian Willsie, watched Joe Corvo and Shoane Morrisonn sign elsewhere, and have said Au Revoir to Jose Theodore in these dog days in the lives of us hockey fans.  All of our signings are expected to be on the Hershey roster come opening night for the regular NHL season. This is somewhat to the disgruntlement of that hockey fan who loves a good free agent splash or blockbuster trade in the off-season. Or perhaps that fan who wishes the GM would have addressed some glaring issues on the roster (as last year’s roster clearly didn’t get it done) by now.

*Cough*Defense*Cough*

With the departure of Jose Theodore and the signing of Sabourin, this solidifies the rumor the Capitals are planning on having the net minded by their two young goalies for the 2010-2011 season. Russian Semyon Varlamov and the Czech Michal Neuvirth can rest easy now… or should they?

Most Caps fans would be lying if they said they were totally comfortable with this idea. Placing the fate of the team in an unproven goalie and a another unproven goalie doesn’t sit well with fans of any team. Is it a bit harsh to call Varlamov an unproven goalie? Perhaps, but I’m going on the whole fact that in two consecutive play-off runs Varlamov has been booted from being the starting goalie by that same goalie we just let walk. One doesn’t exactly want to start planning the parade route with that in mind. Is Varlamov only coming off his first full season as an NHL goalie? Yes, and one must remember that, but two play-off runs have not treated Varlamov kindly. Then again the team in front of him didn’t show up to help some nights, so more leniency must be given with that also in mind.

I also hate to stamp Neuvirth with that same stigma as an unproven goalie with his impressive resumé in the AHL and excellent play in net for the Capitals as a call-up. But truth be told, we’ve not seen what he looks like long-term as an NHL goalie, and until we do, the jury will remain silent. All arrows point to a winner in Neuvirth and for that most fans are excited to see how he will shape up with the responsibility and duty of being our back-up. For all intents and purposes the kid has earned his shot in Washington, and we hope it turns out to win us a Cup before the apocalypse occurs.

This also begs the conversation of which of our two young talents will turn out to be the better goalie? Personally I’ve come to the conclusion that the Czech will beat out the Russian by the time they both hang up the skates (put down the glove?). While I think Varlamov possess the more raw talent of the two, his sometimes jittery play and scrambling in the net will ultimately be his personal evil. He can either dazzle you with the athletic highlight reel save, or make you cringe in horror and disbelief he let in such a soft goal (again) even a person who has never put on skates could have stopped. In some ways I feel his play-off benchings are a warning sign to us all not to pin our hopes and dreams on the young Russian.  While I don’t think he will be a bust by any means, I don’t think we should butter our bread just yet with him.

Neuvirth might not possess that same raw talent, but being so technically sound and such a calming presence in net will make him the better of the two if Varlamov does not learn to settle down in games.  The team feeds off that calmness and plays better, which in turn makes us fans breathe a little sigh of relief (and lets us actually sit and enjoy the games once in a while). His two consecutive AHL Calder Cup winning seasons in Hershey — while also snagging the play-off MVP trophy in 2009 I might add, Chris Bourque grabbed that honor this past season — certainly makes one pay attention. In short: Neuvirth is the more complete player of the two.

Don’t get me wrong, both goalies are going to be highly successful in their NHL careers. As a Caps fan who has been through the Jagr Debacle and ensuing team firesale,  you tend to brace for the worst. However, this is one argument or problem I’d take any day of the week: two young promising young goalies fighting for command of the #1 spot?

Priceless.

Just as they always say, hockey is 20% physical and 80% mental and this is one of those cases where that cliché applies perfectly. So who will win this battle of will?

Photos:  Michal Neuvirth and Semyon Varlamov by Annalisk19 at Flickr.com.  Copyright 2010.  All Rights Reserved.  Jose Theodore by Reuters.

So, it’s just about one month before most CHL teams, will be starting their training camps; and my boys are no exception, as they will be getting started on the 25th of August. Along with the normal activities that will go on during this camp for both invitees, draft picks, rookies and vets to get ready for the season the boys in green and grey will also be preparing for their annual Labor Day tournament that they host every year. For a hockey junkie it’s like being let loose on a buffet when you’ve been drinking Slim Fast for four months. It is three full days of games, made up of nine games, with the WHL’s US division teams and usually one from the BC division like last year with Dion Phaneuf’s baby brother and his Prince George Cougars; however this year, we get a treat. Since all of the BC teams had better things to do other commitments, Coach Craig Hartsburg put in a phone call to his old team, aka the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League. It’s the very first time that the Tips have played anyone outside of the WHL, my seat is two rows behind the bench; and I am very excited about this.

Also making me pretty damn excited is that in the past 36 hours, our GM Doug Soetart has pulled off two deals that make me want to know if maybe he’s been taking lessons from Ray Shero or Kenny Holland. Yesterday, the Tips traded for Landon Ferraro and today, they signed former Minnesota Golden Gopher Josh Birkholz. Both of these deals are, to me anyway, complete surprises; but I think they’re going to make our team a bit tougher and a bit stronger if they can live up to the hype especially Mr. Ferraro.

Landon, aka Baby Parm, is the son of former NHL center Ray Ferraro and the stepson of USA gold medalist and Hockey Hall of Fame electee member Cammi Granato. He was drafted and had previously been part of the Red Deer Rebels as well as being chosen by the Detroit Red Wings last summer. I actually got to see him play both up in Alberta when he was a rookie and two years ago here in Everett; and the boys can score. I just hope he has worked on his fighting skills… he got his clocked cleaned by former Silvertip and current baby Blackhawk Kyle Beach when he was here last. We got Landon in exchange for center Byron Froese, who is also a baby Blackhawk chosen in last year’s draft; and I’ll miss Byron. He’s a good kid and a great player too.

Mr. Birkholz, on the other hand, is a complete unknown to me. He was also drafted last year as a third-round pick by the Florida Panthers; but played last year in Minnesota. When I saw the announcement that he was committing to play here this season, my first thought was “Buh!? Who is this guy?” Well, it appears that the Tips had his junior rights; but as an American kid who was planning to go to college, he decided to play in the USHL instead as a 17 year old before moving over to the Gophers’ program last season. We’ll see what happens with this kid as part of the reason for him leaving UM after one year is for team rules violations; but the Tips brass seem confident that this isn’t going to be an issue. So I guess that I’ll have to trust them since they don’t give a monkey what my opinion is; I’m just a season ticket holder. ;)

And before I forget, the next two weeks we will have two members of our team spending some time with Team USA. California boy Tyler Maxwell will be spending some time at National Junior Evaluation Camp and I hope he makes it this year. We need more WHL wearing Stars and Stripes. Also with USA Hockey is our Associate Head Coach Jay Varady, who after winning a gold medal this last year as video coach for the U-20 team, will be the assistant coach for the 2010 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Good luck to them!

Anyway… that’s what’s happening in Hooterville this week. I am not sure if I’m going to be able to wait four weeks to smell that ice again; but I guess I have to.

Photos: Landon Ferraro by Goddess Amy, and Josh Birholz from Bruce Bennett/Getty Images.

Much like Nelson Muntz (of “The Simpsons” fame), I had to let out a tiny giggle at the NHL bringing down the banhammer on Ilya Kovalchuk’s new contract. I know that there have been a few others like this in the last few season; but I asked the same question of them that I did of this one … Does our pal Kovalchoo really need a deal that would last until his oldest child graduates college and would be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of the Gross National Product of a small African nation? (For more puzzling questions, see fellow Goddess Kaatiya’s piece: Kovy’s Contact Rejected — Why?)

To be honest, I am not a Devils fan in the least. Not only am I a Pens fan and still have a bit of a grudge against Scott Stevens for laying out my boy Paulie K in Game 6 of the 2003 Finals; but the beating of my Ducks in that series make them not too friendly around these parts.

However, Ilya has always fascinated me; and after he was traded to New Jersey, I was actually kind of happy for him. Things in Atlanta have never quite gotten off the ground, so with Los Diablos, Mr. Kovalchoo was finally going to a club that had the same level of talent to match his own. And that is a problem with this contract; they might not be able to keep all of it for as long as they would like and at the price tags that talent would be asking for.

Anyway, I thought I would leave you with a few pictures from today’s press conference in New Jersey.

Photos:  Ilya Kovalchuk by Getty Images and The Associated Press.

It just seems that way. ;-)

Went to Bruins camp Friday (along with a few hundred other fans. The crowd was even bigger on Saturday; they were actually turning people away at the door. Unreal.)

Of course the big attraction is Seguin, no disputing that. But even discounting Tyler, it isn’t a bad way to spend a couple of hours if you’re jonesing for hockey.

The day started at 10 a.m. (the on-ice day, anyway; it started for ME at 7:30, when I hopped in my car. It’s further to Wilmington, where the Bruins’ practice facility is located, than it is to Boston. The things I do for you guys haha.)

Anyway, the kids skated out on the ice to applause and, after a brief stretch, went right into skating and passing drills. Down the boards, cutting into the middle; then breakdouts down the center, taking center ice feeds from defensemen. Some nice moves and shots here and there, occasionally draws oohs and aahs from the crowd.

There were close to 30 skaters in camp. This year, helpfully, they provided names as well as numbers (there were rosters provided at the door) on the kids’ backs, but it’s still difficult at times to distinguish individuals in the drills, as they’re switching in and out and back and forth and going all over the place.

I did experience a Goldilocks moment at one point by observing defensemen Tommy Cross (big), Steve Kampfer (little) and Matt Bartkowski (middle) in a tete-a-tete by the side boards. But my real fangirl/squee moment came from watching top draft choices Seguin (2010), Jordan Caron (2009) and Joe Colborne (2008) in a brief but intense discussion (complete with Gallic gesticulations from Caron) before an offensive drill.

What made watching those three fun was recognizing their unmistakeable yet incredibly diverse talents. Colborne moves extremely well for a big man (showing little of the coltish awkwardness I saw last year) and loves to shoot from the slot, Caron has a wide body that he uses to good effect around the net, and Seguin — well, let’s just say the hype isn’t far off. He is an absolute treat to watch. And not just barrelling aorund on offense; I think my favorite moment came during the late scrimmage when he skated back on defense, picked up his man, and rode him away from the net. I didn’t see Claude Julien there, but I’m quite certain that’s the sort of play that would give him the warm fuzzies.

There were many Bruins fans who were upset when Boston used its #32 pick on Jared Knight, but Bruins fans are going to love this kid. He’s crazy. At one point during the scrimmage (playing on a line with Caron and Seguin — squee!) he flew down the wing, crashed into the defenseman, knocked the net off its pins and went down in a heap along the boards. Much consternation amongst the crowd and his teammates as he skated slowly to the bench and sat for a couple of shifts, but then he came back out on the ice and scored the prettiest goal of the day, using a defenseman as a screen and snapping off a beauty. More ooohs.

All in all, the kids looked happy as clams to be out on the ice after all their dryland (and pool) training. They were having fun, even though they were working hard.

A few more scattered thoughts:

Russian defenseman Yuri Alexandrov (his second time around) is undeniably talented, and has grown and improved since last year, but he is not ready for the NHL. He needs to spend a year or two in the AHL and learn the North American game. Bruins fans need to temper their expectations on this kid and let him develop out of the spotlight.

Cross, hampered by knee injuries for a couple of years, is finally healthy and looks like a force out there. Reminds me a bit of Mark Stuart.

Alex Fallstrom (a Swede who’s attending Havard; how common is that?) had the session’s funniest moment when he grabbed a puck that had popped up in the air off the goalie, threw it into the net and celebrated.

Max Sauve (who recently had surgery to take the pins out of a reconstructed ankle) was on the ice for the late stages of practice and stayed out (as the guys left in twos and threes) to take shots on goalie Michael Hutchinson. Colborne stayed with him, and they practiced shots/tip ins. Colborne’s wrist shot reminds me a little of David Krejci’s in that it always seems to catch you by surprise.

The final image left me smiling: Colborne ducking to pass through the locker room door. ;-)

(Photo: Bruins development camp by Goddess Savvy. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.)

Actually, an NHL arena has a new name; and it’s the rink formerly known as GM Place. As of yesterday, GM Place will now be known as Rogers Arena; and will be for at least the next 10 years.

General Motors was the first sponsor of the arena when it opened as the brand new and gorgeous home of the Vancouver Canucks in 1995. It was to be a 20 year deal extending to 2015; but as we all know, times have been tough all over and especially in the auto industry. So, GM will still be a sponsor, but will be moving to in-arena activities. Rogers is Canada’s largest wireless company that also owns radio and television stations, magazines; and they also own the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto’s Rogers Centre, which used to be the SkyDome. That means they have lots and lots of money; so I’m very interested to see what, if any, changes will be made to the arena over the summer as they re-brand.

And the workers are going to have to work around a bunch of the players as Canucks Prospects Camp opened yesterday. 36 players, including draft picks, invited players and two of my boys: former Tip Taylor Ellington and current Tip Kellan Tochkin. As with most camps, they will spend this week doing the normal things like strength training and on-ice work but they also do yoga to build strength and flexibility as well as the Canucks said that they will be getting to do some dragon boating on False Creek.

The final activity will be the annual trek up the Grouse Grind, a very popular hiking trail, located at Grouse Mountain which is north of the city. It is an extremely steep and mountainous trail that takes you up 2,800 ft over a distance of 2 miles and the grade goes up 30 degrees. Most people reach the top in about 90 minutes although some who are very fit can finish in under 30 minutes; and even though the boys hate it, they love it too. I know that the last couple of years the Nuck prospects have been split up into teams and each hike up together with a mini plastic Stanley Cup that they try to steal from each other then deliver them to the coaches who meet each group at the top.

Once the hike is over and they’ve ensured that no one is dead or missing, the boys also receive an actual Canuck jersey with their names and number on them; and the smiles on their faces when they slip those on is just amazing to see. Even though some of them got one on draft day, it’s something different when it’s your name and you receive it from the GM.

The appearance of prospect camps makes me all kinds of happy because not only does that mean that the new hockey year has started; but it’s just about a month or so before WHL camps open up and that is a glorious thing. Life without hockey is like peanut butter without jelly… just not right. :)

Photos:  From Wikipedia commons and Canucks.com.

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice…

So sings the great Geddy Lee. So what’s up Kovy? Nothing yet? I must confess, this Thrasher fan is waiting in suspense with the rest of the hockey world, though I am not sure why. Maybe it’s the true child that lurks in all of us — that part of you that really believes ice cream for dinner is, indeed, a fine idea. The naive child who hopes against all hope. And, shhh … I still hope for Kovalchuk to come back to the ATL. I said shhh! Stop laughing! It could happen. Hope springs eternal, after all. Now if you are here and laughing at me, just get on with it. Meanwhile, I will give you a few shots of Kovalchuk that I’ve taken over the years. I’ve practiced my hockey-shooting skills on Kovy and the Thrashers for years, so herewith are just a few of the many. By the time you get to the end maybe you’ll have stopped smirking at me. Feel free to let us know you were here (even if you came, you saw, you laughed) — holla!

Though he’s just a memory…
Some memories last forever.

OK. That was cheesy. But you know what? I don’t care. We, in Blueland, loved Kovalchuk. There’s no sense denying it, as many try to do these days. Anyway …

Wow! Going through my old photos, I can’t believe how long it’s been. I see progress in my photography and also in Kovalchuk. Thinking back on all of the games I’ve watched him play — hundreds live — some of that spunky, devil-may-care attitude (pun intended) still exists, but over the years he has grown up a lot. He’s still occasionally temperamental. He’s still a cherry-picker at heart. But still … He would absolutely rip up the Kontinental Hockey League if he chose to go there. Without the bone-crunchers of the NHL to stop him, he’d dance and deke and run up the score. I can tell you from having seen KHL action live, defenders wouldn’t know which way was up. He’d be unfettered and free to dazzle. They do that in the KHL. Lots of fancy moves — and Kovalchuk has moves stored away that he hasn’t even used yet.

In my heart, I think I’ll always love Kovalchuk a little bit. It’s going to be so hard to see him in another NHL uniform. I am looking at the news with my hands over my eyes, knowing that once he signs, he’s really gone … even if, in reality, he left us a long time ago.

Photos: All photographs by Goddess Kaatiya. Copyright 2006-2010. All Rights Reserved.

Budding Russian star Alexander Burmistrov, who was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers admitted he was very happy with this.

“I’m so happy,” he told Russia’s SportExpress.ru.

With their selection of Burmistrov in the first round, the Thrashers once again dip into a pool of extremely talented Russian players. The organization, no doubt, hopes Burmistrov can blossom into goal scorer, like his predecessors Ilya Kovalchuk and Maxim Afinogenov. So who is this newest Russian to join the Thrashers? We know he was taken in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft (8th overall pick). We know he is smallish — at just 5’11″ and 157 pounds, but that is sure to change as he grows and gets older. Some quotes from the man himself might help illuminate his character. (Quotations translated from Russian by Goddess Thorkhild.)

I knew that Atlanta was interested in me. We had interviews both in Toronto, and already here. But I was quite agitated. Since the very morning.

Question: What do you know about Altanta?

It’s very hot there. This city is called “Hotlanta,” isn’t it? By the way, the first NHL game I saw live was Toronto-Atlanta.

Question: Are you going to seek advice from [former Thrashers] Ilya Kovalchuk or Slava Kozlov?

No, why? I will go and see myself.

Question: If you can’t manage to crack Atlanta’s first team, what are you going to do?

I won’t come back to the Kontinental Hockey League for sure. The KHL is a good league, but I’m in the mood to play here [in North America] and I don’t want to take steps back.

---

Burmistrov also gave an interview to the AllHockey.ru. Here are the most interesting bits.

When I went to the stage [at the NHL Entry Draft] I didn’t understand anything, I was in a coma-like state. When I was on stage, [NHL Commissioner] Gary Bettman welcomed me, then I started to recover.

I had my parents, my brother, two agents, the agent’s daughter, and Vanya Telegin [Ivan Telegin, whom the Thrashers selected in the fourth round] with his mother and parents with me. We are on good terms, so we sat in one sector. And I’m very glad Atlanta selected him too.

I was rather surprised during the photoshoot. When they were taking a photo of me standing with a puck, they told me, “Show us who you are.” I thought it was rather strange.

During my time in Los Angeles I went to a beach, to Universal studios. It was fantastic, I can’t explain it with words. Then I went to Disneyland. When my agent and I walked around the center, I suddenly say a man in white running towards us. When he reached us, I knew he was Sidney Crosby! Simply running in the center of L.A. He was the only celebrity I saw there.

* For more on Alexander Burmistrov, be sure to check out Goddess Kaatiya’s pre-draft profile of him.

Photos: Alexander Burmistrov draft day portraits from Getty Images.