It was only a month ago that NHL news reports were aflame about Phil Kessel snapping back at reporters for a rather awfully put question. Now, it’s the KHL’s turn at the media drama table, this time, involving SKA captain Ilya Kovalchuk.
If there was one narrative that hasn’t died surrounding SKA this season, it’s the whole “CSKA Moscow/SKA St. Petersburg Top of the KHL race!” story that, as the season grew older, began to snowball into a “Why isn’t SKA catching up to CSKA?” Nobody on the team was safe from these questions. Even head coach Vyacheslav Bykov was getting hounded with similar questions by listeners on Radio Zenith. On December 5th a caller asked him, “Are you paying attention to the next CSKA match now that you lag 4 points behind?” It was the same recurring question, again and again.
It’s no surprise the players might be a little frustrated with the constant talk and comparisons with CSKA. The captain, who has bared on his shoulders the brunt of the criticisms against SKA, and his own play, finally hit his breaking point. Speaking after a shootout loss to Slovan Bratislava, Kovalchuk finally cracked, and within mere hours, St. Petersburg journalists leaked a recording of the breakdown.
“-[Reporter] ‘CSKA played a little earlier.’
-[Interrupting] ‘Yes I know. Does it make a difference that CSKA played? That you (expletive), should ask questions about the game. Still have any questions? No? Then next! Are you journalists or just anyone? Fans of CSKA?!’”
It’s not hard to see where the captain’s frustrations are coming from. They were out shooting the team at the bottom of Western Conference 37-18, and still losing. They had a number of injuries that had taken a toll on the lineup. Kovalchuk himself threw 110 shots on the net with only six goals going through. Tensions and frustrations were crawling over the team.
CSKA had a much better time, even with Alex Radulov’s injury, their main secret being their new coach, Dmitri Kvartalnov, who had the bar set far lower than the experienced Bykov, but has outperformed him in all but the Army Derby games. St. Petersburg is a hard market and the bar is very high; missing the bar even by centimeters is just not good enough, despite the well-known President’s Trophy curse.
Now, let’s be clear here, the KHL doesn’t actually have any rules in place for what journalists can and cannot ask players, and the league did give Kovalchuk a warning for his outburst. Unwritten rules exist, of course, but even these don’t defend Kovalchuk’s expletive-littered reaction.
However, the journalists and fans surrounding this issue have inflated it beyond just an outburst. Headlines became exaggerated to the point where Champion.nat ran a poll with hot options like, “The KHL should fine Kovalchuk and SKA, as his actions dishonor the image of the league,” and one that ended ” Journalists should declare war!” Many of these were the highest vote-getters in the poll, which ultimately fell to a more realistic option, calling for people not to “inflate the story.”
The overreactions of fans and journalists overshadowed the KHL All-Star Game. The main story was no longer the celebration involved, or even about the game on the ice. Instead many fans and journalists twisted the story into a weapon against a team they disliked.
The other point that was interesting was that they said, “The NHL would have destroyed Kovalchuk,” and maybe it would have if he was in Toronto, with a harsh media that is known for attacking players at a charity event. But these bursts of anger, from coaches and players, are far more common and mostly die after a week. John Tortorella is the first person most NHL fans will bring up when it comes to outbursts. More recently Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo had a similar public meltdown. Former NHLer Tom Chorske said that meltdowns in high pressure situations with coaches or players is more common than people think. Look at Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty, who stood up for his team, only to be shot down before life moved on.
Opinions of the experts who have played the game, or even know Kovalchuk have remarked that this wan an isolated case, as Sergey Cherkas said, and many split the blame between both parties. Alexander Kozhevnikov stated there was “a degree of provocation” from the journalist.
Perhaps the best response is from famed coach Vladimir Plyushev, who split the blame. “Not always do journalists themselves behave appropriately in a given situation, sometimes they provoke some action. You always have to understand the state of the player, if you want to talk to him, so as not to receive any unwanted responses,” he said on Jan. 4.
However, support back from inside has been limited. Coach Bykov gave little support to Kovalchuk, throwing him under the bus after a game against Atlant at the end of January.
“I would like to ask for forgiveness about this situation,” Bykov said, “When you begin to lose a few matches in a row, you begin to get nerves. But the players should realize that they are professionals. We had a meeting, and I hope that it will never happen again. It’s not our image.”
Little was actually said in defense of Kovalchuk, rather but pushing closer to saving SKA’s image. Bykov makes a vague excuse but barely comes to defense of his captain, the captain that has answered questions before on his behalf as well as consistently definding Igor Shestyorkin. However, his own teammates came out in response to Kovalchuk’s character, trying to deflate this media attack against him.
Does the lack of action mean the floodgates have been blown open for more players to attack the media and storm out? No. Does this means absolutely anything for SKA, the KHL or Kovalchuk? No. Is Kovalchuk no longer captain material? No. He’s the captain because on that team he is one of the strongest possession players and while the points might not show it, one of the key aspects to the breakout on the powerplay, as well as being one of the better back-checking players on the ice.
Yes, Kovalchuk went overboard with the profanity, but I feel a huge degree of bias towards journalists getting head over heels with themselves has inflated this story beyond reasoning. No, the League isn’t afraid of the bigger teams. Radulov, Kovalchuk, or anyone else is not off the KHL’s radar when needed. Nothing will change. This affects nothing. And if SKA make a deep playoff run, then nobody will be talking about this at that point.
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