Random thoughts on Kovy

From the average dude who watches the Habs to the blogger to the main stream media, everyone has an opinion about "The Situation" right now. Today Guy Lafleur basically ripped Gainey and Carbonneau for keeping Kovalev at home. Yvan Cournoyer has similar thoughts and manages to get his point across without the media have to censor half his words. In the blogosphere everyone has a different opinion ranging from "Habs are much better without Kovy" to "We need him back".

For my part, it's a tough call. Without knowing exactly what has been going on behind closed doors, it's hard to say just what's been going on with these guys (because seems to be up with all of them). One thing I know for sure is that Kovalev is not completely to blame for this whole state of affairs. Kovalev was not to blame when the two goals started to imitate sieves. While Kovalev did turn the puck a heck of a lot, he wasn't to blame for huge lapses by the defense. Kovalev was not to blame when the guys on the other lines looked half asleep and couldn't score on the ice.

Yes, I have noticed that Kovalev's play does affect the other guys. When he does well, they all seem to do well. When he doesn't, they all seem to flounder. But either I'm missing something, or else Kovalev has that much of an impact on his team that they still play make bad defensive lapses and can't score to save their lives when he's sitting on the bench? (I'm talking about before last night, of course. I'll get to that in a second). I'm not excusing Kovalev's lack of effort, but I'm starting to feel a bit like they're using him as an excuse for their bad play. It's kind of sad when you think that they needed to sit out a player to get the guys to snap out of their fog. What happens if last night was a one game thing? Who do you sit next? Koivu? Again, I don't know what's going off the ice so maybe there is something else going on between Kovalev nd someone else (why does Carbonneau instantly come to mind as that "someone else"?). Maybe not. I don't know. I'm actually hoping that there IS something else here and that they're not just throwing Kovalev under the bus to save themselves because that's definitely no way to treat a player.

*sighs*

Why can't every just get along and make things work?!