Refreshing - the last remnants of Heatley being ripped away

hemlock wrote:

wprager wrote:You misunderstood what he said. They didn't jump at Montreal's offer (which, I believe, was for 3 years) and no-one else was offering a multi-year deal. In that context, Ottawa was his last chance at a multi-year deal. He never said it was his last choice.

I stand corrected, he did say they were his "last option" for a two year deal here:

http://www.faceoff.com/hockey/nhlnews/story.html?id=6d846c12-9d77-4e3d-97e9-9e5a3e0954a7&add_feed_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faceoff.com%2Fcolumnists.atom

Still doesn't change my point though that Ottawa is, never was, or never will be his first choice. To make him the Anti-Heatley in that regard is ridiculous.

On it's own... it looks bad but if you quote the whole sentence... I think what he's saying becomes clear. Here is what he said:

“We couldn’t get any better offer from anybody else,” said Kovalev. “Ottawa was kind of the last choice for us. If we didn’t sign, we were going to end up someplace else for one year.”

To be honest, I think he meant to say "best choice" as he didn't want to be stuck in "someplace else" that would be worse than Ottawa.

shabbs wrote:

hemlock wrote:

wprager wrote:You misunderstood what he said. They didn't jump at Montreal's offer (which, I believe, was for 3 years) and no-one else was offering a multi-year deal. In that context, Ottawa was his last chance at a multi-year deal. He never said it was his last choice.

I stand corrected, he did say they were his "last option" for a two year deal here:

http://www.faceoff.com/hockey/nhlnews/story.html?id=6d846c12-9d77-4e3d-97e9-9e5a3e0954a7&add_feed_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faceoff.com%2Fcolumnists.atom

Still doesn't change my point though that Ottawa is, never was, or never will be his first choice. To make him the Anti-Heatley in that regard is ridiculous.

On it's own... it looks bad but if you quote the whole sentence... I think what he's saying becomes clear. Here is what he said:

“We couldn’t get any better offer from anybody else,” said Kovalev. “Ottawa was kind of the last choice for us. If we didn’t sign, we were going to end up someplace else for one year.”

To be honest, I think he meant to say "best choice" as he didn't want to be stuck in "someplace else" that would be worse than Ottawa.

I suppose there are a few ways to look at it yeah. My thinking is that he shouldn't have said anything remotely like this that could even be misinterpreted as anything other than "I love Ottawa and I want to be here". Like I said earlier, I don't think it will affect his play, as he's a professional. I think we'll see the same streaky guy who's shown glimpses of brilliance then glimpses of indifference, often in the same game. I'm glad he's on our side though, he fills out our top 6 nicely, and vastly improves our PP imo.

I think the emphasis was on 2 year versus 1. He wanted to play 3 more years but all offers (other than Ottawa) were 1. And you'd better believe it that, if he was not speaking in Montreal at his annual charity golf tournament, essentially speaking to the fans who staged a protest when he wasn't signed, and said "Ottawa is great, I love it there" that you would have had a bit of a gathering outside his house. Where his wife and daughters live. Probably not a good thing.

wprager wrote:I think the emphasis was on 2 year versus 1. He wanted to play 3 more years but all offers (other than Ottawa) were 1. And you'd better believe it that, if he was not speaking in Montreal at his annual charity golf tournament, essentially speaking to the fans who staged a protest when he wasn't signed, and said "Ottawa is great, I love it there" that you would have had a bit of a gathering outside his house. Where his wife and daughters live. Probably not a good thing.

Excellent point. I didn't realize that was where he said what he did. He's not going to ooze love for Ottawa when he's speaking to fans of his former team for whom he wore the A.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

wprager wrote:I think the emphasis was on 2 year versus 1. He wanted to play 3 more years but all offers (other than Ottawa) were 1. And you'd better believe it that, if he was not speaking in Montreal at his annual charity golf tournament, essentially speaking to the fans who staged a protest when he wasn't signed, and said "Ottawa is great, I love it there" that you would have had a bit of a gathering outside his house. Where his wife and daughters live. Probably not a good thing.

Excellent point. I didn't realize that was where he said what he did. He's not going to ooze love for Ottawa when he's speaking to fans of his former team for whom he wore the A.

Alternate captaincy aside, I think it is clear that he was speaking to his fans. They supported him when the management didn't. That is to say, they didn't give him what he needed to stay on the team and the fans effectively protested the team for it. In his shoes, under those circumstances, I'd bet I'd say the same thing. It would have nothing to do with my on ice situation, I'd be saying what he said to each and every one of the fans that showed their support in defiance of team management.