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[calder]

Early? Yeah. I just wanted to post some news:

Khabibulin won't report for World Cup

6/16/2004

Russia's entry for the 2004 World Cup of Hockey has taken a hit between the pipes as No. 1 goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin told a Russian newspaper he would miss the event which begins in August.

"We have no chance of winning based on the current situation surrounding the preparations of our national team," Khabibulin was quoted as saying by Sport-Express newspaper.

"I have already had a similar experience before the 1996 World Cup when there was total chaos in our organization. This time we have more of the same and frankly I don't see any point in my participation in this tournament," he added.

Khabibulin is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, helping lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to their first Stanley Cup.

The Russian squad will also be without goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who is having knee surgery next month.

My love for Jets-era Khabby was tempered by his Flames-defeating ways, but he's always been a principled guy. I posted a couple of longish posts in the NHL thread about how sucky Russia was going to be when the Russian IHF apparatchik started fucking around with the team and talking about bringing yet another hard-line RSL dinosaur coach in to really piss off the NHL pros. Sure they finally wised up enough to realize Tikhonov was purely unsuited to the job but he's still a senior consultant to the team so I'm sure his cancerous presence will be felt by the players.

 

[bishoptl]

From an outsider's point of view (as a proud Canadian, anything that fucks up our opponents is a good thing ), I don't understand the reasoning behind the Russia's hardline stance when it comes to the NHL professionals. These guys are proven winners, some of the greatest hockey players in the world, and they're willing to put themselves on the line for pride in their country. So what do the federations do? Piss off the guys they need most. Incredible.

That said - is Igor Larionov involved at all this year? I find it hard to believe any of these shenanigans would be occurring if he was at the helm.

 

[calder]

Well, Tikhonov's presence, even on the periphery of the team, is certainly a big reason Khabby won't play. Khabby is still (justifiably) angry that Tikhonov took the gold medal he should have had as the backup goalie in Albertville. Coaches don't get medals, but good ol' Tikhonov figured he deserved one and the backup didn't. Luckily Khabby got a replacement medal but he's still bitter about it.

It's anyone's guess why the RHF keeps doing things like that. It's such a backward old-boys network full of Soviet era administrators who managed to hang onto power through cronyism and doing favours for each other. Add to that the fact the 'new blood' in Russian pro hockey ownership is often funded with organized crime money and it's in their interests to keep everything shady and internal too. The resentment many Russian hockey fed ppl feel towards the players who managed to skip the whole 'watching your country become an open toilet for a decade' thing and instead skip off to NA to make millions is a factor too - the RHF seems to distrust the elite players who left and seems to think that treating them like the professional athletes they are is bad for the team or something.

Oh, Larionov was to be the GM of the team but the RHF, predictably, wouldn't give him the sort of control over the coaching staff that Gretzky enjoys so Igor basically said "wallow in the mess you've made, you're screwed thankyou bye". Igor was going to get Larry Robinson to coach, and holy shit would that have made the Russian team scary.

 

[bishoptl]

Oh well.

*waves Canadian flag*

 

[Malakhov]

Didn't Larionov wanted Bowman to coach? At least I've heard rumors about it.

 

[calder]

I think Bowman was his first choice but Bowman said he couldn't really. From what Larionov said, Robinson was on board had the RHF agreed.


Hmm, I just realized I should have skipped the WC thread and made one for the upcoming draft . Watching Penguin fans twitch and tremble while Ovechkin pulls on a Caps jersey should be a treat! And for the first time in oh-so long the Flames won't have a top 10 pick, which is totally a-ok considering some of the gems they picked up with their top 6 picks. :ROLLEYESOMGHIRESOMEFREAKINGSCOUTS Wonder what the hell Daniel Tkaczuk is doing now. What? The AHL didn't pan out so he's in Finland? Wonderful!

Haha, that reminds me, ever see a trade that, in hindsight, was so bad for everyone it's still an open question about who got the better of it?
23-Jun-01:
To St. Louis Blues: Fred Brathwaite, Daniel Tkaczuk, Sergei Varlamov and a 9th round selection (Grant Jacobsen) in 2001.
To Calgary Flames: Roman Turek and a 4th round selection (Yegor Shastin) in 2001

There's no winners there, it's just a matter of which team hurt itself least. I'm going to give St. Louis the narrow decision because at least they didn't sign Freddy Brathwaite to any long term deals at 5mil per.

 

[MrPing1000]

thread title confused me

 

[Malakhov]

Watching Penguin fans twitch and tremble while Ovechkin pulls on a Caps jersey should be a treat!

While Malkin is no Ovechkin, he's not far behind. I'd take him on my team any day of the week.

He's not #2 in the draft, he's more like 1-b for me.

Pens fans shouldn't worry!

 

[Crazymoogle]

Why would Pens fans worry? They still have a great gameplan to tank next season (pending) and take Sidney Crosby. It would be a shame since the Pens won't be anything but a farm team for the forseeable future, but...

 

[Malakhov]

Well next season won't be as bad for the pens I think. At least they'll have a few more talented players ie: Lemieux, Malkin and Kovalev. Yes you've heard me right, I'm sure he's gonna sign with them and take a huge paycut to go play again with Mario. Too bad though, I would of loved to have him back in a Habs uniform next season.

 

[BigJonsson]

GO CANADA GOOOOO!