Torrent alex kovalev

This strange streak saw them beat the Bruins twelve straight times in the regular season over parts of three seasons, outscoring them fifty-two-twenty-two, to go along with a seven-game first-round victory in the playoffs. During that time, every new win over the Bruins felt like another foot wandered over a cliff.

On January 22, , in a game the Habs would win eight-two despite being outshot thirty-one-twenty-four, Kovy wheels into the offensive zone, dancing past Bruin defender Dennis Wideman as he aims to circle behind the net. But in the contact, his left glove flies off. A hockey player would have fought to finish the play without a glove and grabbed a new one from the bench.

At worst, he might take a second to grab his glove from the ice after the play had moved on, before jumping off the ice.

But Alex Kovalev is not a hockey player. He keeps skating, stops in front of Wideman and turns tail, the puck on a string. With a little breathing room, he slows, scoops up his glove with his free hand—and voila.

As you were. Zdeno Chara charges in, but Kovalev is unfazed. Yet it was all people were talking about in the sports radio call-in shows afterwards. There were other issues, of course—allegations of diving, of not being a team player, the time he nearly cost the Canadiens a playoff series by trying to play up a slash, his penchant for vigilante justice when slights, perceived or real, were not addressed by the officials. There were the candid interviews he did in Russian, criticizing the team, or the coach, or the city, that always danced around the campfire of the real-or-invented discussion we had back home.

There was the fact that he left by signing a free-agent contract with the Ottawa Senators, geographically the closest team to the Canadiens and ideologically possibly the furthest, a team whose fans reportedly moved on to care about other teams when they were struggling, a feat of apostasy unthinkable in the But we loved him. Alex Kovalev was a beautiful failure—and for a time, for Montrealers, he was our beautiful failure.

Half the time, you were bedazzled by his brain-defying moves, and half the time, you were left scratching your head, wondering where he was. Over the line, Alexei Kovalev, great move, oh, Kovalev, scores! Or did he? No light! But [referee] Paul Devorski says yes! Kovalev has scored a highlight reel goal… that may need video confirmation. A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Bob Cole, rather than Chris Cuthbert. Maisonneuve regrets the error. Subscribe to Maisonneuve today.

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NHL Rate Metrics. The Habs finished atop the Eastern Conference standings at the end of the campaign thanks to 47 wins and points. Their most valuable player was Kovalev. He also had 23 multi-point games and finished the season a plus, the highest plus-minus rating posted by a Hab since As the top seed in the Eastern Conference, Montreal was favoured to beat the Boston Bruins in the opening round of the Playoffs, which they did, but not without going the distance before earning a victory in Game 7.

In the series, Kovalev scored a classic goal without his helmet after winning a one-on-one battle with Zdeno Chara and found the back of the net with a beautiful backhand shot that slipped past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas. The Habs lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in five games in the second round. Despite putting up 65 points in 78 games, he struggled with consistency and finding that passion that had made him so successful with the club.

In February , Gainey encouraged his star winger to take some time away from the team in the hopes that a break would get Kovalev and the Habs out of a slump. The break was the beginning of the end for Kovalev in Montreal and he signed a two-year deal with the Ottawa Senators as a free agent that summer, a decision he admittedly regrets today:. Many agree with Kovalev.