We hardly knew ye. (Photo credit: Chris Gordon)

Washington Capitals goaltending prospect Sergey Kostenko has left the organization and will return to Russia to compete for a spot with his home team, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, the team’s head coach Alexander Kitov told Novokuznetsk Sports Portal. Last year, off-season shoulder surgery, several injuries, and an organizational goalie logjam limited Kostenko to just six games with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. Later in the season, Kostenko was loaned to the Ontario Reign where he made three more starts.

Kitov also commented on the future of two other Novokuznetsk-natives: Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov and Winnipeg Jets forward Ivan Telegin.

From Novokuznetsk Sports Portal:

Kostenko returns to Novokuznetsk. He’ll come here tomorrow or day after [Kitov said a few days ago]. As far as I know, he has ended his relationship with his North American partners. If Sergei doesn’t ask for a trade, he’ll attend Metallurg camp. He can prove he can be competitive here. We’re not throwing away players like that especially since we know him well. I think he’s experienced for his level. He’ll get his chance to prove himself.

In regards to Telegin – we had talks with his agent. But Ivan has one more year on his contract with the Jets and he’ll try to crack the NHL roster. Otherwise we’d be pleased to invite him.

Orlov’s situation is a little different. I’d say Dima doesn’t really want [to come back] at this point. But we’re working and we stay in touch with everyone.

The Capitals will still control Kostenko’s rights if he ever chooses to return in the future.

Thanks to Caser for finding the story.

Photo credit: championat.com

While the rest of his teammates conducted interviews on breakdown day, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin touched down in Finland for the 2013 World Championships. And we have some disappointing news: he only wore one pair of pants.

Ovi told Championat.com’s Igor Bragin that while he slept peacefully for most of the flight, the journey was not without challenges – all of the Great Eight’s gear was missing when the plane touched down.

“It’s hard to remember last time it happened. I think it was when I came home to Moscow once,” Ovechkin told Bragin, as translated by Fedor Fedin. “But it wasn’t hockey equipment and I got everything back on the next day.”

“Our equipment sponsor has all my sizes,” Ovi continued. “I think it won’t be a huge problem to deliver it. Of course, it’ll be some trouble for them to send it all, but we were assured that we’ll get everything at 9 am [Thursday].”

After getting a ride to Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena, Ovi was greeted by more reporters and conducted a ten minute press conference.

“The goal is to win the tournament again,” Ovechkin said, according to the IIHF website. “It’s very hard to do it two times in a row. We did it once, and I hope we can.”

Meanwhile, Evgeny Kuznetsov and the rest of the Russian national team were busy taking their team photo during the off day. It was weird.

Photos

All Photos via championat.com

Bryz = grumpy

Varly and third-string goaltender Vasily Koshechkin

Anisimov and Kuznetsov intrigued by Kovalchuk’s hand for whatever reason.

Everybody say cheeeeeeseeee (or stare menacingly at the camera)!

View the rest of Championat.com’s slideshow >>

Ovechkin speaks to the media at Kettler on Tuesday. (Photo credit: Alex Brandon)

Alex Ovechkin played in 86 games between the NHL and KHL this year. Though the season was lockout-shortened, several Capitals stars were still bruised and battered. Nick Backstrom injured his neck in Russia, Brooks Laich injured his groin in Switzerland, and various others dropped off along the way. We know now Ovi was playing through some sort of injury as well.

“Of course, there were aches and pains,” he told Slava Malamud of Sport-Express in Russian after game seven Monday. “Won’t say anything about needles, but injuries are always there. There were enough hits and physical play.”

So when did this all happen? Well, Ovi didn’t play well during the latter half of Washington’s first round loss to the New York Rangers; no one on the Capitals did. Despite scoring a goal in game one and notching an assist in game two, Ovi was held off the scoresheet for the rest of the series. At times during games three and four in New York, he was invisible. He did pick up his play towards the end of the series, but by then, it was too late.

As Ian already argued, there’s reason to believe Ovi may have been hurt (or conceivably aggravated something) in game three. As Ovechkin carried the puck into the Rangers’ zone during the first period, Rangers defenseman Aaron Stralman caught Ovi awkwardly along the boards with a hip check. Ovechkin had trouble getting up and labored in his strides back to the bench.

The Great Eight, insists that this didn’t injure him.

“I was ready physically,” he said of the series, again to Slava. “It wasn’t [Stralman's hit], [the injury] actually didn’t even happen in game three.”

You have to wonder if whatever ailment Ovechkin was struggling through, changed the course of the Capitals/Rangers series after Washington took a commanding 2-0 lead after games one and two.

Anyway, this season is done now. The Capitals lost. The summer has begun. Ovi has thoughts on that too.

“The most important thing is to re-sign Ribs,” he told Malamud. “It will be tough without him. Whether Kuzya can come next season or not, I have no idea. I am not going to advise him or tell him to drop everything and run here. He has his own head on his shoulders. He isn’t a 17-year-old kid anymore.”

Thanks to Slava Malamud for sharing these quotes with us. Follow this man on Twitter.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland.

Photo credit: Sport-Express

While the Washington Capitals season ended painfully last night after a 5-0 game seven loss to the New York Rangers, Alex Ovechkin will continue playing hockey. The Capitals revealed before his final press conference of the season that Ovi has been invited to Finland to join his comrades on the Russian National team competing in the 2013 World Championships. He will be flying over this afternoon.

“This morning they just called me and asked if I’m healthy and ready to go,” Ovi told reporters at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “I said ‘Yeah, I’m ready to go.’ I’m still wanting to play. I don’t want to take off, I don’t want to watch games. I want to play hockey.”

“I’m in good shape,” he added. “Mentally I think I’m ready.”

Ovechkin will join top prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov, who plans to begin his professional career with the Capitals at some point after the Olympics next season.

Kuznetsov, despite matching or surpassing his goal and point totals from last season, has drawn some criticism from the Russian media for his struggles. He even got a verbal smack down from Vladislav Tretiak, the greatest Russian goalie of all-time before the World Championships.

“We want Kuznetsov to take responsibility,” Tretiak told Andrey Kuznetsov of Sport-Express. “There’s a lot of talk about with him, but I haven’t seen Evgeny playing like a leader with the national team. Though at his age, it’s time to take over the leadership role.”

“It’s time to understand that gold medal of Buffalo WJC is history and that you need to show yourself right now,” Tretiak continued. “Amazing chances like a World Championship roster spot won’t last forever.”

Kuzya wasn’t given a roster spot initially. The team lost their first three games before falling meekly to France and Finland. Against Slovakia on Sunday, Kuznetsov was finally given his chance, playing on the third line with Artem Anisimov  of the Blue Jackets and Islanders prospect Kirill Petrov. On Tuesday after scoring two goals for the gold medal winning Russia in last year’s World Championships, Kuznetsov tallied his first goal of this season’s tournament, a blistering one timer from the top of the left circle.

Kuznetsov scores at the 1:50 mark.

While Ovechkin and Kuznetsov are friends, Ovechkin has criticized the 21-year-old hometown hero of Chelyabinsk for staying in Russia, saying “I think he’s outgrown the KHL level” and “he needs to move on.”

However, when asked Tuesday about what he thinks Kuznetsov might bring to the Caps in the future, Ovi was terse.

“To be honest with you I didn’t see his game, but I’m going to watch his game soon,” he told RMNB’s Chris Gordon.

They will now try to win gold together for the second time in two years. Russia will play the USA on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Additional reporting by Fedor Fedin and Chris Gordon.

Kuzya skates with the national team. (Photo credit: Champtionat.com)

Evgeny Kuznetsov has been engulfed in rumors of trades to the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow and getting lured out of his current deal by Capitals officials. But speaking with Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express, Kuznetsov cleared the air on both sides of the Atlantic. Kuznetsov squashed the rumors and restated that he’ll make the jump to the NHL next year.

From Sport-Express:

Is there anything behind the information that Washington has a representative flying over to Helsinki looking to get you over there sooner?

No, it’s a conspiracy. Don’t believe it [smiles]. I keep up with the people from the Capitals, talk to them friendly over the phone. Nothing new has happened in regards to that. They invited me to visit and talk. They know my plans well. I have decided for myself to spend the next year in Russia and then go to the NHL. Why should I rush?

Are the talks about getting traded to Dynamo worrying you?

Not at all. I’m planning to spend the next 365 days with Traktor. Don’t belive anything else. There are people who like to talk about everything, but they can write whatever.

You’re so confident as if there were no Nichushkin trade to Dynamo.

That was a whole different story.

Kuznetsov’s re-commitment to Washington is noteworthy, but his ability to speak authoritatively about his team’s asset-management decisions is a bit less certain.

Photo credit: J Pat Carter

Less than twenty minutes into the contest between the Washington Capitals and the Florida Panthers, the Caps’ big trade deadline acquisition, veteran winger Martin Erat, went awkwardly into the boards courtesy of a reckless shove by hulking young defenseman Eric Gudbranson. A few anxious seconds later, Caps fans were holding their breath as Marty was helped off the ice by his teammates, clearly favoring his right leg. Later on, the team referred to it as a “lower body injury.” Nothing to be happy about, of course, but it could have been so much worse, especially given Erat’s extensive concussion history.

“Wait! What concussion history?,” you may ask, and rightfully so. After all, Marty has been an NHLer for over a decade, and in all that time the Nashville Predators (his team since his debut in 2003) released exactly zero statements mentioning Martin Erat having a concussion. The ubiquitous “upper body injury” appears numerous times, but never a concussion. In fact, a Google search for “Martin Erat concussion” yields references to just one suspected case – an injury Erat suffered during the last World Championship. So, no worries then, right?

But what if someone actually asked Marty? Because someone did.

Last June, Russian sports portal sports.ru published an exclusive interview with Martin Erat. When reporter Maria Mikhalenko mentions this nasty late hit on Marty by a known cheap-shot artist Jarko Ruutu in the first round of 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, the conversation takes an interesting turn:

Maria Mikhalenko: Did Ruutu’s hit make an impact?

Martin Erat: I felt alright after a while. It happened during last year playoffs.  It wasn’t a dirty hit. But he hit me directly in the head, and I got a concussion.

Mikhalenko: How many concussions have you had during your career?

Erat: Possibly four or five. Probably, the worst one was the one that happened last year, because I had had another concussion not long before. So when Ruutu hit me, that was the second one. I had headaches for a long time afterwards.  But I played through the playoffs, and then returned [to Nashville] during summer for the recovery. We have good doctors in Nashville. They always know what to do with me.

Four or five concussions, and just one known to have happened outside the NHL.

And the concussion Marty refers to as “probably the worst?” That one happened about a month after the NHL proudly announced its official, new and improved, Protocol for Concussion Evaluation and Management. Erat missed just two games before returning to the Preds lineup for their second round series against the Canucks. The Predators conveniently labelled that one an “upper body injury” – maybe just to be consistent with the “upper body injury” Erat suffered two weeks earlier– the one Erat said caused him to miss the last two games of the regular season.

A long list of Erat’s upper body frailties can be found on the Hockey News site under the Transactions tab.

I don’t meant to single out Nashville. Unfortunately, hiding behind the fig leaf of “upper body injury” is a norm throughout the NHL. Just a few days ago, Maple Leafs’ head coach Randy Carlyle shared his personal theory about concussions: the biggest problem with concussions is calling them concussions, which is a “bad word.” This sad comedy act came right after star forward Joffrey Lupul had to be helped off the ice in the game against the Flyers. Lupul appeared unsteady on his skates and disoriented as he left the ice surface – but hey, as long as we don’t call it a concussion, he should be fine, right?

Take a quick look at the NHL players currently listed as out with an upper body injury– 19 players. (The Predators and the Blue Jackets lead the pack with three guys each.) Are all of these 19 guys concussed? No. But as long as teams are allowed to hide behind such an ambiguity, all the NHL’s efforts to combat the concussion epidemic will just be lip service. The league and its players need transparency.

Forsberg (center) celebrates Leksand’s promotion to the Elitserien with his teammates. (Photo credit: Aftonbladet)

Last Friday afternoon, Capitals General Manager George McPhee discussed the organization’s top prospects, including 2012 first-round pick Filip Forsberg. McPhee made it clear that he’d like the 18-year-old Swede to join the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears after his season is finished with Leksand on April 5th.

But if Leksand General Manager Tommy Salo has his way, Forsberg will stay in Sweden for one more season.

While speaking to Aftonbladet’s Per Bohman (and lovingly translated by Jake Ware), Salo said of Forsberg, “[He] is getting better every year. He is our key player and we hope have him on loan for one more year (from the Washington Capitals).”

When reminded of his opinion earlier in the season that Forsberg needs another year in Sweden to be ready for the rigors of the NHL, the former Islanders goaltender responded, “Yes, that’s absolutely true. There is of course a difference in quality between the Allsvenskan and the NHL. He is young, has his entire career ahead of him, and we want to keep him for one more year.”

Forsberg admitted he wasn’t ready to discuss the future when Aftonbladet spoke to him during the team’s on-ice celebration.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” Forsberg said. “It’s great that Tommy wants to have me back, but I can’t talk about it so soon after the game and our promotion.”

Great diplomatic answer, Filip.

With or without Forsberg, Salo is sure that his current group is good enough to do well in the Elitserien next season. His focus is now on getting the key players to stay.

“That’s how it’s gotta be,” Salo said. “We will work with the players we have.”

Forsberg hugs a teammate sensually. (Photo credit: Aftonbladet)

Photo credit: Rob Carr

Mark Gandler is always good for a pot stirring. As an agent for Alex Semin, Gandler has rarely hesitated to drop a bombastic statement about his client or his critics. With Semin moved to the Carolina Hurricanes, playing pretty well, and pulling in a cool prorated $7 million for 48 games of work, Gandler must have figured it was his time to speak. In an interview with Sovetsky Sport’s Pavel Lysenkov, Gandler talks about how great Semin is doing in Raleigh, how underappreciated he was in DC, and why the Washington Capitals are so bad this year.

(Hint: Not enough Russians)

Igor Kleyner has your translation.

Why do so many Russian players look so unremarkable this season? Is it because of their KHL efforts?

Normally you start the regular season in the NHL in October. By February there is terrible fatigue. You can’t wait for the season to be over. It’s so unbearable, the results don’t matter. They call it “the dog days” in America.

Why then there are no dog days for Alexander Semin in Carolina?

The people who work for the Hurricanes are direct. If they don’t like something, they’ll come to you and say it. They won’t whisper behind your back and point fingers. The team leader Eric Staal is a great person, and so is his brother Jordan. The goalie Ward, LaRose… they have personable relationships in the locker room. That’s why Semin is comfortable.

In Washington, they didn’t notice all the good things Sash was doing. They only saw his mistakes. But every hockey player makes mistakes. They are not robots. Everybody in Carolina is positive. Semin knows if he plays well defensively, they’ll praise him. The Capitals saw it as a given.

What’s happening in Washington? They are in 13^th place in the East.

You need certain chemistry. But with the Capitals, the last few years their backbone is third line players. They can do very well in a few games. But when you don’t have such skillful players as Fleischmann or Semin, the style of the game changes.

True, this season Washington acquired Mike Ribeiro. But the backbone is still the same. Also, the injures hit: Laich, Green… The goalies didn’t always carry them. If they’d kept Varlamov, maybe they would be playing better. Although Holtby is quite a strong goaltender – mentally, and technically as well.

I think they will improve. They are probably strong enough to be the 8^th team in the East, to make playoffs. But it’s difficult to catch up when many games are worth three points, but a win only gets you two. Also, because of the lockout, all games are within the conference.

Is it possible for the Capitals to trade Ovechkin?

The team’s problem is not Ovechkin. Such a trade can relieve the pressure, but the team will not get better from it.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, an active Instagrammer, made a media splash with this recent photo.

Kuznetsov has been the subject of some harsh criticism of late. The second half of the season hasn’t been kind to Kuznetsov as his team has struggled to score goals. During the playoffs, Kuzya had scored just three points in nine playoff match-ups (he scored nine points in twelve postseason games last year).

The young star has been critical of himself, saying that he doesn’t deserve to wear the jersey of the national team. TV analysts Sergey Gimaev and Boris Mayorov went a step further, criticizing Traktor Chelyabinsk for hanging Kuznetsov’s sweater from the rafters of Traktor Arena.

The Instagram image uploaded by Kuznetsov (and later deleted) contains a note that said: “Dear specialists, please shut your mouth about my jersey that’s hanging from the rafters of our arena…”. Allhockey.ru picked up the story, publishing the picture. Kuznetsov screengrabbed that post adding a caption that said “Leave me alone, bastards!”.

Gimaev spoke to the R-Sport news agency about the comments:

“I’m very disappointed and surprised. Why did he need to do this? I understand that he hasn’t been on his game as of late but he shouldn’t have done this to me. And especially to the Soviet hockey great Boris Alexandrovich [Mayorov]. Now it’s Mayorov’s job to analyze and he shouldn’t shut Mayorov’s mouth I think. I don’t think that Kuznetsov gained something with these words. Did he offend us? He didn’t offend me, but disappointed me very much.”

[Gimaev] is confident that his interview about Kuznetsov “wasn’t critical”. “I read it again. It was very supportive towards Kuznetsov, the only phrase was that “20 years is a bit too early”, but I don’t think it was offensive,” Gimaev said in a phone interview.

“I’m surprised and very frustrated,” – [Gimaev] continued. “I supported Kuznetsov in the difficult times and never said bad things about him. That’s why I was not very pleased with him telling me to ‘shut my mouth.’ I like Kuznetsov as a person and a player, I believe he’ll get better. I was first to talk about him when nobody ever knew that he exists. So it’s surprising that he said that.”

[...]

“I’m writing that off because I think it was because of emotions. I just don’t know what for did he say that. Zhenya needs to think when saying things like that and respond for the words. Instagram is public. Kuznetsov’s foes made it even more public and that’s a blow for him. It didn’t give him anything positive,” Gimaev concluded.

Both analysts are former Russian hockey players. Boris Mayorov, who played from 1956-1969, is a member of the IIHF Hall of Fame, as well as a two-time Olympic champion and six-time World and European Champion. Sergey Gimaev is a former hockey player (1974-1986) and coach. He is best known for winning Russian championships with CSKA and serving as the head of their hockey school.

For Americans, this is basically the equivalent of RG3 telling Joe Theismann and Terry Bradshaw to shut up.

4:30 PM Update: Traktor Chelyabinsk director Vladimir Krechin has responded to the criticism of the club hanging Evgeny Kuznetsov’s number at Traktor Arena.

“In Chelyabinsk, we have a tradition that doesn’t exist in other cities. The jerseys of Chelyabinsk hockey alumni (both active and retired) who won the World Championships are hung under the rafters of the Traktor’s home arena.”

Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

Mike Milbury doesn’t think highly of Alex Ovechkin. That was clear when the failed Islanders GM delivered his frothing rant about Ovi during last week’s Caps-Flyers game. He said Ovechkin acted “like a baby,” and should instead “act like a man for god’s sake.” He said it was “an awful display of hockey” by Ovechkin. He said Ovechkin “should be ashamed of himself.”

Now it seems Ovi has a few thoughts of his own.

“I can talk about his work as an Islanders general manager,” the Caps captain told Slava Malamud of Sport Express. “I could care less about his opinion.”

Ovi made his comments after Washington’s thrilling overtime win over Boston, in which he crashed into Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask approximately 83 times. That game ended with a highlight-reel goal by Eric Fehr in overtime, a comeback that could have been spurred on by Ovechkin’s intermission comments to the team with the Caps down 3-0 after one period.

Below, check out Fedor Fedin’s translation of Ovechkin’s interview with Sport Express.

How are you feeling? Three big collisions with the goal…

I’m feeling normal. Something close to normal.

Early in the year you probably wouldn’t climb back from such deficit. What changed in the team since then?

We need points and have no right to lose now.

Matt Hendricks just told me that you gave a good speech to your teammates in the intermission.

Nothing special. I said that we have 40 minutes left and if we score once we can get back on track. We had a good first five minutes. I had a decent chance. We just needed to re-group and find ourseleves.

It was very clear that you personally played with anger and even fury in the second period.

Everybody did. You know what it means to come back from three goals behind against Boston. It’s not easy. But the fact that they had four games in six days helped us. We were in that situation in Philadelphia. Everybody was tired. There was a feeling that Boston doesn’t have enough left in the tank to save the lead.

But you had to fix something first. In the shift when Ribeiro scored Washington’s first goal, you did an unbelievable amount of work.

Everyone was responsible, not just me. Had we let down after the first period and given them more chances… Especially since they’ve got them from the refs too. Their third goal resulted from the official’s mistake. Where did he see an infraction there?

Was that hit on Kelly intentionally hard to kickstart the guys?

In the end, I brought a goal to our net, giving them the power play. What’s Kelly’s weight? Is it like 150 kilograms (330 lbs)? Yeah, I pushed him. Where was the interference? He had the puck in his feet!

Are you playing better when angry?

Rather, emotional. In the first period, Oates gave me a chance to play on two lines, and it helped me to feel better. I had a lot of puck possession in all three zones and I always play better when I have the puck.

Did Milbury’s words motivate you in some way?

You know, it’s better to not pay attention to such people. I can talk about his work as an Islanders general manager. And so what? Do we need to get into a battle of words? He said what he said. I could care less about his opinion.

Varlamov, by the way, told me to say hi to you. He was outraged by Milbury’s words, too.

I think Milbury just doesn’t like Russians. You shouldn’t listen to people that want to get you off-balance. Or what is he saying? That he wants to get me going? I don’t need that [type of motivation], as I have a coach and teammates. They can get me going, but not those “funny money.” [Editor's note: We translated the word "fantiki" to "funny money" though it may also translate to "candy wrappers."]

GIFs of Ovechkin’s Net Crashes

GIFs by welshhockeyfan