Tired of Criticism?
February 6, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
Montreal 2 at Buffalo 3
The saying for both quarterbacks and goaltenders goes something like; Win and you get too much of the credit, lose and shoulder too much of the blame.
Perhaps that is true for the great players as well.
Maybe I just shouldn’t watch the RDS post-game show (L’Antichambre).
Once again, Kovalev is under attack because he doesn’t “work hard every game”. I really wonder what game we are all watching. The same one? He looks about the same from game to game to me. His so-called “great” 07-08 looks the same as his 06-07 and his current 08-09. To me, the key difference is the linemates he had in each of those seasons and whether he kept them for a great majority of the season.
In 07-08 he had Thomas Plekanec and Andrei Kostitstyn throughout. Quality linemates. And what a difference it made. That was his best season, points-wise in Montreal. This season he has only recently been reunited with these two.
I think it is hard to define a game like Beliveau’s or Lemieux’. Both were thought of as floaters and criticized. But both had great anticipation and played a different game than their peers. A seemingly slower game. Working smarter and not harder, Kovalev appears to have the same problem in front of him.
In addition, there are 17 other skaters on the ice. Are we saying that all of tonight’s loss is Kovalev’s indifferent step-child?
Surely in a 30-minute segment devoted to the Montreal Canadiens, we could get a little more range in discussion.
It’s tiresome and narrow.
Instead of focusing and making judgement on outcomes, the gentlemen of RDS should focus on process. Thank Bob the Canadiens seem to be allowing the coaching staff to do just that. But it’s only a matter of time before certain media magpies and vultures begin to circle the arena in noticeable numbers.
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