I'm referring to Alexei Kovalev, of course. After a horrendous end of the season with the Habs, nothing in the first two games of the playoffs and nearly every Canadien fan wanting to drown him in the St. Lawrence, Kovalev gets back on track with a pair of goals in their Sunday win and one last night to give the Habs a 2-1 lead after the first.

If only it ended there for Alex.

Not that he was playing poorly, mind you. Kovalev was probably their best offensive player all game. Takes a stupid boarding call with 4 minutes left in the 3rd, Habs kill it but Magic Mike Knuble ties the game up with a beautiful (and lucky) no-look backhanded push with 30 seconds left. Second OT just like the first one, great action up and down the ice with both teams trading scoring chances equally. Here's where it gets interesting...

Near the midway mark of the second OT Kovalev takes the puck horizontially across the ice just outside of his blueline, last man back on their rush up the ice, catches what looked like a pretty harmless Bruin stick in the hand/wrist area, stops skating to shake his arm for what must've been three seconds, completely forgets about the puck and while looking straight down at the ice bumps into defenseman Sheldon Souray, knocking him out of the play, Glen Murray picks up the loose puck, skates in alone and buries a wrist shot to give the Bruins a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.

Wow. Now, my intention is not to simply pile on Alexei Kovalev here. Sure, the guy drove us all mad this season and I am pulling for the Bruins in the series, but part of me just feels incredibly frustrated about Kovalev having the talent to be one of the ten best players in the game but entirely negating that due to the grey matter between his ears, ever since his first game in the NHL. No matter how many coaches, no matter the situation, Alexei Kovalev just doesn't get it. Really, why is that? Any theories? Sure, you have your offense-first puck hogs, but nobody, nobody in the NHL of his talent makes mistakes quite as bad as Kovalev does. It's hard to understand. Is he just stubborn? We're not talking about complex stuff here. Don't try to stick handle through three players. Don't be too daring with the puck when you're the last man back. And never forget about the puck just outside of your own blueline to shake off a little owie in your wrist in the second overtime of a crucial playoff game!

You know it was one hell of a mistake when your coach and teammates don't even defend you. Canadiens' coach Claude Julien, "If a penalty's not called, you can't stop playing. It's a crappy way to lose and it tarnishes the effort of the whole team."

Teammate Sheldon Souray, no easier on Alex: "I guess he got slashed. Maybe. But do you stop playing? You know? We're in double OT. They'd already called a penalty against them. They (the refs) are going to let you play at that point."

Those quotes came from this article at Canada.com.

Here's Bob McKenzie's take on the Kovalev play.

Al Strachan of the Toronto Sun writes off the Kovalev play to bad officiating, which I find completely ridiculous. Travis Green was practically past Kovalev when he one-handed him in the glove area - an unlikely call in regulation but in overtime? Please. Don't even.

I'd like to find you some more articles on that but currently at 3:30 in the morning there's nothing else out there right now. Really, I looked. Plenty of words will appear on Kovalev today, I'm sure.

You mean there were other games last night? News to me as I stayed almost entirely focused on the Bruins/Habs series all night, but there were, three of them to be exact. Before we look at those the Rodent is back and on the trail of Martin St. Louis.

One of the series I've enjoyed the most in the first round so far has been the one between the Red Wings and Predators, the latter playing harder than any other team among the sixteen right now, in my opinion. Game One they put up a great effort, overwhelmed by Detroit's talent in the 3rd period. Another great Game Two for the Preds but a flukish goal late sunk 'em. Not only didn't they give up, they've started working even harder, their home crowd has been fantastic and they've now pushed a series that was looking like a sweep or a five gamer into a 2-2 tie thanks to their 3-0 win last night.

Also from the above article: The Predators fed off the energy from their ecstatic fans once again. Detroit had a few more supporters in the stands this time, but when they tried to rev up the "Let's go Red Wings" chant, it was quickly drowned out by "Chelios is a sissy." Ha! Beautiful.

San Jose took a 3-1 series lead over the Blues with a 4-3 win last night in a series I have been paying little attention to.

Calgary evened up their series with the Cloutier-less Canucks at 2-2 with their 4-0 shutout last night in a series I have been paying absolutely no attention to.

Nothing against the Sharks, Blues, Flames and Canucks, but there's only so much hockey I can sit through in one night.

Tonight's schedule, all early games:

Flyers @ Devils, 7pm (ESPN) - Flyers lead 2-1
Lightning @ Islanders, 7pm (FSNY) - Lightning lead 2-1
Maple Leafs @ Senators, 7pm (CBC) - Maple Leafs lead 2-1
Avalanche @ Stars, 7:30pm (ESPN2) - Avalanche lead 2-1

- Rocha

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