25 years ago, in our Mar 9, 2001 issue No. 26, vol. 54, we focused on a pair of Russian stars named Alexei. One was a current Senators star and the other was a future one, and Ottawa's memories of both men are mixed.

Alexei Yashin and Alexei Kovalev are both remembered for their high skill level, but also for their high maintenance.  

In the 2000-01 season, two years after Yashin finished second in Hart Trophy voting, and one year after he skipped the entire Senators season in a contract holdout, he finished 12th in NHL scoring with 88 points in 82 games. 

Pittsburgh's Alexei Kovalev was still nine years away from his one season in Ottawa, and finished fourth in NHL scoring with 95 points in 79 games. Of course, he had the benefit of playing with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.

Joe Starkey wrote about Kovalev, who had his best season that year, following his years of underachieving with the New York Rangers. Bruce Garrioch wrote about Yashin's welcome return to the lineup after a contract holdout the season before.

Here's a little hockey time travel, back to 2001.

By Joe Starkey

He just takes the puck with one or two guys on top of him and can take it to the net. That makes any player look good, when you can stickhandle with two guys on your back and get the puck to the net and be able to shoot. That’s what he does. He takes it to the net from anywhere.

Alexei Kovalev’s many critics are forgiven. Kovalev has no time for resentment or revenge. No time to rub it in. He’s too busy torturing opposing goaltenders to worry about his critics.

Besides, they’re all hanging out in the same closet these days and are difficult to reach.

“I don’t want to show anything to anybody,” says Kovalev, Pittsburgh’s “other” star right winger. “I’m not that kind of guy. I want to prove to myself that I can be a better player.”

Amid all the excitement surrounding Mario Lemieux’s comeback and Jaromir Jagr’s chase for a fourth consecutive scoring title, Kovalev has quietly put together a career season. One might say this 28-year-old with a pilot’s license is just starting to fly.

“I feel I can do a lot more,” he says. “And here I am.”

All those people who said Kovalev didn’t shoot enough? Through 59 games he was tied with Colorado’s Joe Sakic for second in the league in shots with 235.

All those people who said Kovalev would never score 30 goals? He bagged No. 30 on Feb. 7 against Philadelphia, part of a two-game binge in which he netted consecutive hat tricks. Through 60 games he had 36 goals and 70 points, both career highs.

Oh, and all those people who said Kovalev doesn’t understand that the object of the game is to put the puck in the net? Well, we called one of them - and Neil Smith still loses his mind when he thinks back to Kovalev’s days as a New York Ranger.

He was the GM during the Kovalev years (1992-98) and as much as Smith adores Kovalev, he doesn’t back down from any of the statements he made toward the end of Kovalev’s stint in Manhattan.

“Alex obviously didn’t understand that putting the puck in the net is actually what wins hockey games,” says Smith, now a consultant with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. “I know it seems simple, but Alex really didn’t get it. It doesn’t matter how tough we are, how good we’re able to kill penalties, how fast we are, what our average age is. What does matter is that the number underneath our name has to be bigger than the other guys’, which means that all that matters is we have to put the rubber disc into the other guvs’ net.”

Alexei Kovalev is finally getting all the right bounces.

If it seems like Smith needs a tranquilizer now, imagine how he felt watching Kovalev circle around like a malfunctioning satellite, spinning into infinity, attempting to beat the same defenseman three times but rarely attempting a shot on goal. That happened often.

“He grew up playing keepaway hockey with the kids in his neighborhood - him versus everybody,” Smith says. “The objective wasn’t to score, but who could keep the puck. He carried that right into the NHL.”

The easygoing Kovalev had no hard feelings when Smith first made the critical statements. He still doesn’t. “Maybe Neil said something at the end, but he did a lot of good things for me, too,” said the native of Togliatti, Russia. “He kept me on the team when (coach) Mike Keenan wanted to trade me the year we won the Cup (1994).”

Kovalev rang up 21 points in 23 playoff games that year, but failed to build on it, never managing even 60 points as a Ranger.

Smith finally gave up on Kovalev on Nov. 25, 1998, shipping him to the Penguins along with $2.5 million and center Harry York in exchange for Petr Nedved, Chris Tamer and Sean Pronger. That move helped the bankrupt Penguins meet payroll. Three years later, Kovalev is ready to break the bank. He’s in the final year of a contract that pays him $2.3 million this season.

Kovalev also found freedom in Pittsburgh. In New York, nobody wanted to blame Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier for the team’s failures. Kovalev was next up.

“Here, he’s a whole different player,” says Kevin Stevens. “You leave him alone and he’s a top-10, top-15 player in the league, a phenomenal talent.”

Kovalev’s rise actually started last season, when he produced a careerbest 26 goals and 66 points. This season, he was leading the team in ice time (23:48 per game), game-winners (eight) and shorthanded goals (two) and was tied for the lead in power play goals (nine).

Besides snooting more, another factor in Kovalev’s success is having familiar, steady linemates in Robert Lang and Martin Straka. But the biggest reason for his breakthrough is his coaches have given him the freedom to be himself.

“They let me play the game I love to play and it made a big difference,” he said.

Smith couldn’t be happier to see Kovalev enjoying so much success. One thing Kovalev never lost in New York was his love for the game. Not even at the end, on the day Smith traded him.

“I said, Alex, I’m sorry, but I have to do what I have to do,’” Smith said. “And do you know what he said? He said, ‘That’s OK, Neil, I’m still going to be able to play hockey. I just won’t be playing in New York.’ He didn’t have the reaction I thought he’d have. What’s life and death to Alexei Kovalev is playing hockey. He loves to play.” □

COMRADES IN ARMS

Friends and former teammates in Russia, Alexei Kovalev and Alexei Yashin have been best known for their ability to infuriate - Kovalev by not living up to his potential, Yashin by not living up to his contracts. This season they are making amends with inspired performances. Come this summer, it’s payback time. ■

By Bruce Garrioch

He’s one of the most talented players I’ve ever seen. He can do things with the puck that are amazing. In junior he was unbelievable. It’s good to see him playing well and having success. He’s a good player and a good guy. You like to see him enjoy playing.

Alexei Yashin’s comeback has been nothing like the celebrated one by Mario Lemieux in Pittsburgh. Instead, the Ottawa Senator had to get back in the good books by proving himself all over again.

After spending a year on the run from the final year of a contract that pays him $3.6 million this season, the star center gave up the fight last summer when an Ontario court judge ruled Yashin’s only choice was to honor his deal.

But now the boos which rained down on him during the pre-season have mostly turned to cheers. And while some critics suggested the Senators were better off without Yashin, he has, after a mediocre start, reemerged as an elite player. A noted patron of the arts, Yashin realizes the truest test is in his performance.

“When I put on the No. 19 jersey I always play with all my heart,” he says.

“I’m here and I’m going to do my best for the Ottawa Senators. I always do the best I can do whenever I step on the ice. Sometimes the points are not always there, but that doesn’t mean I’m not trying.”

The questions started the warm September afternoon Yashin stood on a podium in the bowels of the Corel Centre, wearing his new leather pants and acting defiant as he talked about his return.

He came back to the Senators as a man with a lot to prove, and prove it he has. Determined to make $8-to-$10 million next season, he recently passed Marian Hossa for the club scoring lead after trailing him by as many as 15 points.

Were it not for the sluggish start, Yashin would be on pace for a career year. As it is, he’s on pace for 86 points, just eight fewer than he had in 1998-99, when he was a Hart Trophy finalist.

“The guy is just playing really well,” says Ottawa goaltender Patrick Lalime. “I don’t know what has happened, maybe he has gotten confidence from putting so many by me in practice. It has helped him to score again.”

With the playoff drive entering its final stages, Yashin was the club’s hottest player with 16 goals and 25 points in 19 games as of Feb. 23.

“To me, he has been our best player,” says Ottawa coach Jacques Martin. “What we’re seeing now is that his game is getting back to the level of where it was before he left.

“The one thing we’ve talked about with him is using his shot. He has a great shot and I didn’t think he was shooting the puck enough. If you look at the great players in this league, they shoot the puck a lot.” Yashin had 187 shots through 60 games, 20th in the NHL.

He has never missed a game because of injury, but Yashin has a checkered past because of contract disputes that have made him and New Jersey-based agent Mark Gandler two of the most unpopular people in Ottawa.

Yashin finished his rookie season in 1992-93 with 79 points, then held out of training camp the next year until a bonus structure was put in place to get a new contract.

That resulted in another dispute which ultimately got GM Randy Sexton fired before his replacement Pierre Gauthier signed Yashin to a five-year, $13-million contract midway through 1996-97.

“He has been no trouble whatsoever,” says captain Daniel Alfredsson of Yashin.

“I think we all realize that if he’s giving it everything he has, then we’ve got a better chance of winning as a team.

That’s all we want.”

Says Yashin: “All I’ve ever wanted for this team is to have success. I feel good about the position that we’re in, but we have to keep playing well as a team.”

It’s no coincidence Yashin’s game improved the day Mario Lemieux madehis return to the pittsburgh lineup. The Pens’ star has always been a source of inspiration for the Ottawa center.

Following a game Dec. 30 at Mellon Arena, Yashin asked Lemieux for one of his sticks. The stick arrived withspecial words attached and is in a special place in his Ottawa home.

“When you see these great players and you see what they can do, it makes you want to play better,” Yashin says.

Or at least as good as he was playing before. And that’s a whole lot better than anyone in Ottawa imagined possible. □ ■

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