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'Selfish' Preds duo suspended for breaking curfew

Chris Stevenson, QMI Agency, May 2 2012

NASHVILLE – Idiots.

Nashville Predators forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn apparently decided that going out the night before Game 2 in Phoenix and breaking curfew was a good idea.

As a result, the Preds will be without the skilled skaters for Game 3 of their second-round series against the Coyotes, a series Nashville trails 2-0.

In what was really the only decision available, the Predators suspended the pair for the game Wednesday night.

"Their behaviour was not committed, not focused, not conducive to allowing the team to be successful," Predators general manager David Poile said Tuesday. "What they did was unacceptable and the coaches and myself had to come to the plate and do the right thing for the team.

"It happened. It's really unfortunate. It's selfish behaviour and we'll just have to leave it at that."

He's right, but it should hardly come as a surprise.

Radulov, 25, always has been doing what's best for Radulov, including breaking his contract with the Predators on July 11, 2008 to bolt for the Kontinental Hockey League.

Kostitsyn, 27, had his share of off-hours tales told and written about him in Montreal when he was with the Canadiens.

The two Preds were seen out and about at a Scottsdale hot spot early Sunday morning. Game 2 was Sunday at 5 p.m. local time and there were no morning skates. The spot they were at was about an hour from the team hotel. Apparently they claimed they were not drinking, but the optics were bad.

Neither of them played well in Game 2, although after watching the game you might have thought all the Predators were out together.

Predators coach Barry Trotz discussed the situation with the club's leadership group.

"We said whatever you decide, we will stand by you," defenceman Ryan Suter said. "We're in the playoffs and we don't need distractions."

But they have a big one now.

"I've been a general manager for 30 years and always try to treat each individual player with care, but never, ever put the individual player ahead of the team," Poile said. "In this situation, both these players violated a team rule. This has been no more than a big distraction to our hockey team. It's very disappointing. Obviously, any time something like this would happen it would be disappointing, In the playoffs it's even more so.

"(It's) a pretty easy decision. Our creed has always been to try to do the right thing. I try to do that in my personal life, so I should try to do it in my business life. We've put the team ahead of a couple of individual players and we'll see where we go from here."

Poile brought the pair and their offensive potential into the Predators mix late in the season to bolster the team for a playoff run. There was a gamble associated with the move, given the players' suspect character, but there are still some cards to be dealt.

When asked if was disappointed in his teammates, Predators forward Mike Fisher was clear.

"Absolutely. Everyone is expected to commit at this time of year and be all in. That has been our real slogan. To not have that is definitely disappointing," he said.

"With that being said, we're all going to step up and rally together and get back to the way we know we can play. It's not just a couple of guys. It's going to be everyone. We've all got to be better."

Maybe Fisher's right and this can be a rallying point for the Predators, who haven't looked themselves in losing the first two games to a superior Coyotes squad.

Two of Matt Halischuk, Craig Smith and Jordin Tootoo will get a chance to replace Radulov and Kostistyn.

"(Radulov and Kostitsyn) are great offensively, but there have been guys champing at the bit and practising hard," captain Shea Weber said. "They're ready to go and there are other guys who can contribute here."

There's a slogan over the door of the Predators dressing room at their practice rink. It really resonated Tuesday.

"Unselfishness. It is essential to teammates and team success. We supersedes me."

Guess Radulov and Kostitsyn don't look up when they're walking out of the room.

—–

Radulov not really repentant: Winger broke curfew with teammate Kostitsyn

CHRIS STEVENSON, QMI Agency, May 2 2012

NASHVILLE – Alexander Radulov sounded like he was sorry — for getting caught.

The contoversial Nashville Predators winger broke curfew with teammate Andrei Kostitsyn in the wee hours of Sunday morning before Game 2 in Phoenix. The pair was suspended by the team for Game 3 Wednesday.

Radulov, the Predators' leading scorer in the playoffs, hardly seemed repentant when he spoke with the media Tuesday. He seemed more concerned with the people who ratted him out.

"The whole situation about it, it's something that was wrong, but not really the way it was," he said. "Like I said, I don't want to get into it and try to prove anything. It was something I didn't do right. They brought it up, not on our team, the people. I don't want to talk about those people who did that. Let it be on their side. It's the way it is."

The Predators have about eight to 10 team rules on how players should behave during the season. Radulov admitted he knew he was breaking one of those rules.

"Yeah. I mean, I didn't come back that late," he said. "I don't want to talk about it. They did what they have to do and I'm good with that. Not good, don't get me wrong, I'm disappointed and I understand what is my mistake. I hope that everything is going to work out for the team better and get a chance to play again in the future and help the team win."

Radulov said he would be on hand to support his teammates Wednesday night. Very noble of him.

"I'm going to be out there for the whole team, for all the guys and support them, whatever I can do myself. Hopefully the guys are going to go out there and win Game 3. That whole situation, I don't really want to get into it because I don't think it's really good, all the stuff. Hopefully everything is going to go well for our team and we'll battle through it, I'll battle through it."

Nashville GM David Poile, whose club is down 2-0 in the series to the Coyotes, said it would be up to coach Barry Trotz if the pair would play in Game 4.

—–

Preds coach comes clean: Trotz didn't know about partying pair

CHRIS STEVENSON, QMI Agency, May 2 2012

NASHVILLE – If the Nashville Predators find a way to win, bad boys Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn will continue to be on the outside looking in at the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Predators coach Barry Trotz, who was part of the decision to suspend the pair for breaking curfew before Game 2 of their second-round series against the Phoenix Coyotes, made it pretty clear that if the Predators found a way to win Game 3 Wednesday night, he would go with the same lineup for Game 4 Friday.

“Obviously with our situation, tonight if we get it done, I would expect I would probably go back with the same group, the group that gets it done,” said Trotz as his team prepared to try and get out of the 0-2 hole in which it finds itself.

Radulov and Kostitsyn were suspended by the team when it came to light the pair were out until the early hours of Sunday morning before Game 2 was played that afternoon at 5 p.m. Because of that start time, there were no morning skates.

Trotz said Wednesday he didn’t find out about the curfew violation until after Game 2 or the pair would have been out for Game 2.

“I’ll throw this out because it has been asked on a lot of shows. We did not know before Game 2. We found out after Game 2. Hell would have had to freeze over if they would have played Game 2 if I knew before. That’s how I am, that’s how the management team is and that’s how the Nashville Predators are run.

“There’s been a lot of speculation that we knew and that’s a bunch of crap. We didn’t. I just wanted to throw that out there because it’s been asked a lot, but not never to me.”

The Predators have struggled against the Coyotes, who have been full value for their 2-0 lead going into Wednesday’s game. There was some hope in the Nashville camp that with Radulov and Kostitsyn out of the lineup, the Predators might rediscover the form they showed for most the regular season. The pair were added late in the season, Kostitsyn at the trade deadline and Radulov from the Kontinential Hockey League when his season there ended.

With those guys suspended, it was expected Trotz would insert two of Matt Halischuk, Craig Smith or Jordin Tootoo.

Halischuk had 15 goals in the regular season and Smith, 14, so there’s some offence there to replace that potentially lost without Radulov, who leads the Preds in playoff scoring with a goal and five assists, and Kostitsyn.

“The guys that are out tonight, Andrei and Rad, they weren’t with us for 65 games or so. The guys who are going in have been together. A Craig Smith has been on the power play. We’ve had different people do that. They are going to be put in roles. They did it for 65 games. They’re going to be fine tonight,” said Trotz.

The coach was also expected to jiggle his defence pairings.

Defencemen Kevin Klein and Roman Josi were on the ice for three Coyotes goals Sunday. Josi was expected to be paired with veteran Hal Gill for Wednesday’s game while Klein was to be with Francis Bouillon.

Trotz said he was hoping the contrasting styles of Gill and Josi would mesh.

“Josi is a good transporter of the puck, he’s got good escapabiity sort of in the mold of Ryan Suter. He’s got good instincts to jump up offensively. Hal is sort of that big, steady rock back there who is a good communicator and he’s reliable for a young guy like Josi who will actively jump up into the play at times,” said Trotz.

“He just gives him that confidence that he’s back there. Hal is a great teacher for a young guy like Roman. Obviously their games are almost polar opposites, but sometimes that’s why it works so well.”

The Predators had not had the lead in this series going into Game 3.

Trotz was asked what would be a good start for his club.

“A good start,” he said, “is you don’t get scored on in the first minute.”

—–

Predators take big chance by suspending Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn

Cam Cole, National Post, May 2, 2012

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Putting two and two together, it must have been about the same time this scribe’s plane from Phoenix to L.A. was landing on Monday that Barry Trotz was deplaning in Tennessee to learn that the horse was out of the barn.

Two horses, actually: Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn. Out of the barn, and soon to be out of Game 3.

Out until 4 a.m., according to one report, before an afternoon game. In the second round of Stanley Cup playoffs. A coach said Tuesday: “It’s never good when you want to win more than they do.”

Trotz, the only coach the Nashville Predators have ever had, was quizzed privately after Sunday’s 5 p.m. game — a second straight playoff loss to the Phoenix Coyotes — about two of his team’s best offensive players being spotted drinking in Scottsdale (45 minutes away from the team’s hotel in Glendale) in the early morning of Game 2. At the time, he professed to know nothing about it.

Evidently it was members of the hard-working media corps who, against all odds, were perfectly positioned to witness the Preds’ curfew-busting — research never sleeps — but once the rumour was confided to Trotz, the internal investigation began.

Tuesday, the club announced that Radulov and Kostitsyn would not play Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena due to a violation of team rules.

And so, let the debate begin.

Not the debate about the riskiness of drafting or signing Russians, though it has been a brutal few weeks for the highest-profile players of that particular ilk: probable Hart Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin a non-factor, except negatively, in the Penguins’ loss to Philly … Ilya Bryzgalov stupefyingly bad in goal for the Flyers for most of the first round … Alex Ovechkin playing severely reduced minutes for the Capitals under Dale Hunter in the post-season … Washington 2010 first-rounder Evgeny Kuznetsov announcing plans to sign in the KHL for two more years before joining the Capitals … Ilya Kovalchuk newly out of the Devils’ lineup with a lower-body injury … now Radulov, who bolted the Preds in the first place to play in the Russian league before returning prior to the trade deadline, suspended for missing curfew. By a mile.

Kostitsyn, who had his own after-hours adventures in Montreal before being dealt to the Preds, is Belarusian, but when it comes to recreational habits, it appears Minsk is not so far from Moscow.

No, the whole question of how much the post-Soviet Russian stars care about team before self is for another day — perhaps the day the Edmonton Oilers’ trigger finger is twitching over the No. 1 pick in the draft, and they wonder about taking consensus top gun Nail Yakupov.

The debate we’re talking about is: Are Trotz and GM David Poile doing right by their team in suspending two goal scorers for a playoff game in the middle of a series they trail 2-0?

“The Nashville Predators have a few simple rules centred around doing the right things,” Poile said in a statement posted on the team’s website. “We have always operated with a team-first mentality and philosophy. Violating team rules is not fair to our team and their teammates.”

Morally, it works for me, and it will work for most observers. But practically? If it’s team-first, isn’t it punishing the non-partying players, to voluntarily go into Game 3 without two significant weapons? Mightn’t a stern “We know what you did, you selfish turds, now you owe us” achieve similar results?

We’ll know by the way the Preds respond Wednesday night at home, after a couple of loose efforts in Phoenix. Perhaps it will be a rallying point for a supposed shutdown team that has looked unfocused in stretches and surrendered nine goals in two games to a Coyotes squad that is not overburdened with high-powered shooters.

Maybe Trotz figures he can’t get a worse effort out of one of his Black Aces, a Matt Halischuk or Jordin Tootoo, than he got in Game 2 from Radulov, who was ripped a new orifice on NBC by Keith Jones and Jeremy Roenick for his lazy, one-way play.

Trotz said Radulov “absolutely” warranted the criticism.

Kostitsyn, on the other hand, has been pretty good, though he shared the blame (or at least the minus-1) when his linemate David Legwand inadvertently threw the puck in front of his own net and gifted the Coyotes’ Radim Vrbata a goal Sunday.

It isn’t exactly unheard of, missing curfew, and partying the night before playoff games — though frowned upon — wasn’t always a suspendable offence.

In 1988, a pair of well-known imbibers, Petr Klima and Bob Probert, a recovering alcoholic, escaped the Detroit Red Wings’ team hotel in Edmonton to tear it up at a now-defunct joint named Goose Loonie’s before Game 5 of a Campbell Conference final against the Oilers.

Neil Smith, then the Wings’ assistant GM, and Colin Campbell, who was Jacques Demers’ assistant coach at the time, went looking for Klima and Probert and found them. Darren Veitch, John Chabot, Joey Kocur, Darren Eliot and two others were also out, according to the Detroit papers. The story didn’t break until after the game, so everyone played (though Klima was out with a broken thumb) but Detroit lost 8-4.

And though Demers had strong, bitter words for the miscreants and later apologized to fans for his players’ conduct, the incident — and the Wings’ five-games-and-out defeat — likely cost him his job.

No one’s likely to lose his job in Nashville over this.

A series, though? It’s a distinct possibility.

Barry Trotz and David Poile are taking a big chance — a chance that they may be doing the wrong thing for the right reasons — with a team that was finally supposed to be built to win a Stanley Cup.

“The decision between the coach and myself was very easy,” Poile said. “Their actions spoke volumes in terms of their lack of commitment and focus to give our a club a chance to win.”

If the hockey gods have a vote, the Predators win Game 3. And lose Game 4.

—–

The NHL’s Russian problems

Bruce Arthur, National Post, May 1, 2012

Sergei Fedorov defected in Seattle during the 1990 Goodwill Games, and he used his first signing bonus to get a two-bedroom apartment and a Corvette, and it was still all very difficult. He was the second Soviet hockey player to leave; Alexander Mogilny was the first, in 1989 in Stockholm. They were following in the haunted footsteps of violinists and ballerinas, playwrights and scientists, mathematicians and chessmasters. Russia was a hard place to leave; North America was a hard place to be.

“[Russian players] come to this country and obviously, we took some — I want to put it so people understand it nicely — we took some let’s say top positions in every team because of our talent, and coaches wants us to perform, and it’s never been easy,” Fedorov said in a 2009 interview. “We sacrificed a lot, and we certainly bent over backwards to make it work. Especially early generation, we know we cannot come back to our home country, which is saddest and most lonely thing you can ever imagine.

“This generation of players knows that they can come back. And they miss home a lot after long season, after hearing maybe only English and dealing with issues that long season presents, and travel presents. It’s not easy.”

Right now it remains difficult. It has been a tumultuous Russian spring in the NHL, for an array of different reasons. But it may not just be a Russian problem, precisely.

“I don’t think it’s anything to do with [being Russian],” says New Jersey Devils forward Alexei Ponikarovsky, who was born in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. “I think it’s either bad luck or injuries or circumstances that maybe bring that kind of impression, I would say. For sure. You take [the Russian stars affected], all those years before that, everyone has up and down. After a black stripe, there’s a white stripe.”

Some people are using this difficult stretch to paint black stripes with broad brushes, and Don Cherry hasn’t even weighed in yet. Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh is out of the playoffs after delivering a subpar series littered with sneaky, even dirty headshots; Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit is gone as well, though with rather more class. Washington star Alexander Ovechkin has seen his ice time yanked around, but mostly down, and played a career-low 13:36 in Game 2 against the New York Rangers, though he scored the winning goal; New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk played through what the club called a lower-body injury for several games before finally being rested for Game 2 Tuesday night against Philadelphia.

And then, in the one that the Don Cherrys of the world will seize upon, Nashville forward Alexander Radulov and teammate Andrei Kostitsyn, who is from Belarus, another old Soviet state, were reportedly spotted out partying at 4 a.m. in Scottsdale, Ariz., before Game 2 of their series with the Phoenix Coyotes — a series in which Radulov has been particularly dreadful. They were suspended by the club for a crucial Game 3 at home on Wednesday. Radulov only rejoined the Predators in March, they say, to burn the last year on his entry-level deal, which he left behind when he departed for the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League in 2008.

At this rate of Russian woe, Philadelphia goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov will be lucky if he’s not eaten by a bear.

Add in the report that Washington Capitals prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov remains that team’s Godot, and has agreed to spend another two years in Russia after being told he had to do so to make the 2014 Olympic team in Sochi. Similarly, St. Louis prospect and world junior captain Vladimir Tarasenko has not come. There are reports, already denied, that a KHL team will make Winnipeg forward Alexander Burmistrov an offer.

And with two of this year’s top five CHL-based prospects being Russian — Nail Yakupov and Mikhail Grigorenko — there are already reports that teams such as Columbus could trade top-five picks rather than risk the stereotypically moody, enigmatic, vanishing … oh, you know, the Alexander Semins of this world, or something.

But this is not that, is it? There are genuine questions about the KHL, which can provide money and familiarity for some players; it is a place that has been touched by tragedy and criminality, but for some Russian players it can address the needs that Fedorov outlined. For them, it is home.

In these playoffs, meanwhile, Russia has been unlucky, rather than unreliable. Yes, Radulov is what Russians call “a tower without the roof,” as Russian journalist Slava Malamud roughly translates it; he is considered a talent without a compass, and therefore a risk. He is the example of why deep background research is necessary, but the Predators had to know he was a significant risk when they brought him back. They went all-in, as they put it; Radulov is a bad card.

But Kovalchuk was playing between 25 and 27 minutes per game with what the Newark Star-Ledger reported was a serious back injury; that’s toughness. Malkin was the best player in the league this season, unless it was Datsyuk. Ovechkin is his own opera, it’s true. But is he a Russian puzzle, or just a puzzle? Russian reporters say he hasn’t even spoken Russian in public for months, and that the perception of him back home is beginning to sour.

Russians, in other words, can be complex, in all different ways. There are documented cases of mob shakedowns; there is the KHL; there is the language, the development, and a small crop of hockey artists that can be difficult to put in what has become, more and more, the North American hockey box. There is a higher risk in Russian players, but they’re no more all of the same mind than Canadians are. Sean Avery’s one of ours, you know.

But they are still aliens here, in ways that can matter, and caution is now required. Back in 2009, Fedorov spoke about why the first generations of NHL Russians showed such little emotion — and were often called enigmas and the like for it. To that he said, “Well, because we can’t. We grow up that way. You display that much emotion, your grandparents will be in jail. That’s where we got that sense of behaving yourself, and it’s not appropriate. Just don’t.

“Russians were not suspicious, they were just subtle. Like Vikings. They speak softly, but carry a big stick. I think just in general, it’s been a lot of misconceptions and misunderstanding.”

Some things, as the playwrights tell us, do not change.

—–

Spector on NHL: Bad image for Russians

Mark Spector, Sportsnet.ca, May 1, 2012

There wasn’t a voice across the hockey world that didn’t whisper it, not necessarily for the record, when Andrei Kostitsyn was dealt from Montreal to Nashville at the deadline.

“Uh, is David Poile sure he wants to reunite those Kostitsyn brothers? He knows his team plays in Nashville, right? That town that parties all night, every night.”

Of course, the Belarussian brothers were known to get after it in Montreal, but that city has consumed many a fun-loving hockey player (and sports writer) in its day. In Nashville — and there isn’t a better American equivalent among late-night NHL cities — they would fly under the radar more than in Montreal.

There isn’t a country music lover alive that could spot a Kostitsyn brother if they found one in their soup.

That would be a good thing…. Right?

Then along came Alexander Radulov, whose commitment to the Predators franchise had always been questionable at best. But that was all contractual, wasn’t it?

Sure, he had come back from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) effectually to burn off the final year of his entry-level contract by playing just nine regular season games, and whatever bothersome playoff contests followed. Then Radulov would be free to negotiate a far richer deal. You know, for the kind of money he had become accustomed to making over in Russia.

Eventually, however, the twain would meet.

Andrei Kostitsyn? Meet Alexander Radulov.

Par-tee meets part-time. In Scottsdale, AZ, no less.

Reportedly, the two were out well past midnight in Scottsdale Saturday night, the evening before a Game 2 against the Coyotes that started at 5 pm local. Their team hotel was a good 40 minutes away in Glendale.

Radulov’s play was an embarrassment in Game 2. Kostitsyn actually scored a goal, and had a couple of shots.

On net, we mean.

But long before they fell under the glare of NBC’s Keith Jones, who absolutely eviscerated Radulov between periods of the Sunday broadcast, the two had been spotted in Scottsdale as late as 4 a.m., Sportsnet’s John Shannon reported.

Radulov and AKostitsyn were spotted in Scottsdale at 4am on the eve of Game 2. Suspended for Game 3 by club.
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) May 1, 2012

By Tuesday morning, the press release had been issued. The two won’t play in Game 3 Wednesday:

“The Nashville Predators have a few simple rules centered around doing the right things,” general manager David Poile said in the statement. “We have always operated with a team-first mentality and philosophy. Violating team rules is not fair to our team and their teammates.”

The word “suspended” was never used, and no one said what Radulov and Kostitsyn did. They didn’t have to.

A Russian and Belarussian, benched for missing curfew? In what has become hockey’s sternest prejudice, you don’t have to add to the statement that they were out drinking.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2012/05/01/spector_kostitsyn_radulov_nashville_predators/ For Video.

Yes, it’s not fair. Canadian players can pound ‘em too. We’ve known plenty, believe me.

Back in 1988 it was Czech Petr Klima (who was out with a broken thumb) who they say enticed Bob Probert (Windsor, Ont.) to stay out late at a bar called Goose Loonie’s before what would be the final game of the Western Conference Final in Edmonton. Darren Veitch (Saskatoon, Sask.) was reportedly in the mix — not too much, please — and the Red Wings lost the final game of their season 8-4 to the Oilers the next night.

Probert’s game that night was “God awful,” said his coach, Jacques Demers.

So, it’s not only Russians. You’ve got to admit though, the stigma that has grown on players from that country now far outweighs anyone else’s baggage.

There’s a reason that Boris and Dmitri Mironov became known as the “Smironov Brothers” back in the day. I personally covered two missing person stories involving the younger Boris, both with rumoured ties to the New York Russian enclave, Brighton Beach.

Today, with the infusion of the KHL dilemma, the problematic innuendo extends to potential draft picks. On the same day that Radulov and Kostitsyn — we know, a Belarussian, not the same thing — were outed, Washington’s 26th overall draft pick in 2010, Evgeny Kuznetsov, announced he is set to sign a contract to spend two more years with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL.

Who knows what kind of player he’ll be when and if he finally gets to Washington?

Columbus had has its fun with high drafts Nikolai Zherdev (No. 4 in ’03) and Nikita Filatov (No. 6 in ’08). And now, the Edmonton Oilers may just pass along the Russian problem again, should they trade its No. 1 overall pick or choose a defenceman, leaving Nail Yakupov for Columbus GM Scott Howson at No. 2.

Even the established Russians are having a tough time in the NHL these days. Alexander Ovechkin’s ice time has plummeted. Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov’s a flake. After a 50-goal season Evgeni Malkin managed just three goals in six games of an offence-palooza against Philadelphia in Round 1.

And now Radulov, who was billed as the Second Coming in his second coming, has taken to the vodka.

It’s an old cliché, yes, and it might go away.

If it didn’t keep happening.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
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