Kovalev stickhandling toward success

Originally published on EuroReport.com in 2000

By Lucas Aykroyd

John Sanful’s forthcoming book Russian Revolution: Exodus to the NHL dubs Alexei Kovalev an “enigma.” It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. The 27-year-old right wing has confounded teammates, coaches and fans ever since he entered the NHL with the New York Rangers in 1992-93. Blessed with exceptional stickhandling skills, he’s probably the guy you’d choose out of the entire league for a game of keepaway. The trouble is, Kovalev has traditionally forgotten to dish the puck off to a teammate before losing it. Otherwise, he would be a 100-point man. But while he may never attain those lofty heights, the 6-1, 215-pound native of Togliatti may currently be playing the best hockey of his career since New York’s 1994 Stanley Cup run. Since joining the Pittsburgh Penguins in November 1998, he has settled comfortably into a second-line role behind Jaromir Jagr. Taking advantage of Pittsburgh’s freeflow style and manning the point on the power play, he enjoyed a career-best 66 points last season. He was anything but enigmatic in conversation with EuroReport’s Lucas Aykroyd after a 4-2 victory over Vancouver at GM Place on 3 November 2000.

EuroReport: What are your thoughts about how the team has started off this year?

Alexei Kovalev: Everybody thought we were going to have trouble after coming back from Japan. It’s a long flight, and Vancouver and Anaheim had trouble when they came back from there. But we’ve been successful so far. We recovered really fast and we got on a roll for some games. But then we started making mistakes. We got a little too fancy sometimes. But we’ve learned our lesson from the New Jersey game [a 9-0 loss]. We talked a lot about it. We just want to work hard right now. If we continue like we did tonight, we’ll be all right.

EuroReport: How are you adjusting to Ivan Hlinka’s coaching style?

Kovalev: We didn’t really have to adjust. Back in junior in Russia, you play against the Czechs a lot and you know the way they play and they know our style. So it’s not really a big change for us. It’s probably tougher for the Americans and Canadians to play a European style. So far, so good. Everybody likes him as a coach and we’re trying to play as hard as we can for him.

EuroReport: You must feel comfortable with those five-man units he uses.

Kovalev: Well, you know, I don’t care. I always look it at this way: it doesn’t matter who you’ve got on your line or power play or whatever. As long as it works, it’s fine.

EuroReport: Do you feel like having less pressure on you from the Pittsburgh fans and media than in New York has had a positive impact on your play?

Kovalev: You can’t be influenced by that. Particularly myself, I try not to really worry about the fans and media. We play the game, we know what we’re doing out there, and we just have to compete. Whatever they think or write, that’s their job, but playing hockey is our job and we have to concentrate on that.

EuroReport: Let’s talk about some of your old comrades from New York. How much of an impact can Mark Messier have back with the Rangers?

Kovalev: He’s definitely going to change the team. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t have a good start. He has a lot of memories from New York, and all the fans love him. They have a lot of talent. The important thing for them now is to put all that talent together, and I think Mark is going to do that. I’m 100 percent sure that he will do as much as possible to help get the right lines and the right kind of effort, and make sure everybody thinks the way he thinks.

EuroReport: Were you surprised the Bruins hired Mike Keenan?

Kovalev: Not at all. I knew Mike would end up somewhere. It doesn’t matter how tough he is, he’s still a great coach and he can change any team from one style to another. He can take a team to the playoffs and even the Stanley Cup.

EuroReport: Back in the Russian League, the salaries have really been going up. Are we going to see more Russians staying home because of this trend?

Kovalev: I don’t know. The living definitely is better now. They pay a lot more money back home than they used to. It just depends what kind of lifestyle the players want to have. Some people come over here and they don’t know what it’s like, with all the taxes and things they have to pay for and other stuff. If they decide it’s not enough for a living, then they maybe think about going back.

EuroReport: Your old team Moscow Dynamo, like CSKA, has had some tough times in recent years. What will it take for those Moscow teams to get back to where they used to be?

Kovalev: It’s going to be tough. Like I said, we have better payroll right now back in Russia, but a lot of young kids prefer to come here and play in the NHL and try to win the Stanley Cup. And we don’t have many old players left over there. If you look at many teams, their players are all 22, 23, 24 years old. The style of the game is not the same anymore. It’s like you’re watching juniors. I went back home and I watched a couple of games. It’s not the same. That’s the problem: somebody gets drafted and they want to leave right away.

EuroReport: Finally, if there’s one thing you would like to improve with Pittsburgh in November, what would that be?

Kovalev: I only worry about us staying together and trying to compete every game. As long as we do that, we’ll be fine. Because sometimes we’ve just started getting lazy, and that’s how we lost the game to New Jersey, for instance. We just couldn’t do anything. I would give us the opportunity to play the way we grew up playing. Some guys are getting more ice time than others, but that’s all right. You have to show what you can do.