Kovalev - taking advantage???

JohnM · Guru

Kovalev - taking advantage???

Muller93 · Guru

Funny JohnM. I thought the same thing. I happen to know a little about this knee problem he is having( now that we have an idea of the problem reading the article on this home page).

What they are saying is the guy has articular cartilage problems which result in swelling. What that article does not mention is that the so called "regeneration' Of cartilage procedure has very little in the way of clinical trials to prove that this technique is effective. They basically poke holes into the subchondral bone and hope that the healing response forms tissue resembling articular cartilage. The fact that it " worked" last time is no indication that it will work this time. In fact the procedure is really just based out of theory. Almost as many people end up worse as those that get better. I've read the research.

The good news is that he has no ligamentous instabilities so he is a prime canditate for the procedure. He is relatively young and healthy so I predict good things. He should be back in 3-4 weeks or sooner. Just don't let the article fool you...this is no minor knee problem.

But back to your point JohnM. Can you imagine if he let this stinker out of the bag say in June??? Yep no team would have sighned him to a multi-year/multi-million dollar contract with that risk. Makes you kinda wonder...doesn't it...

Ando · Guru

I don't know guys.....that might be over analysis...but I agree though that it is quite possible that Kovy knew...but that is the Doc's responsibility...and these guys all pass physical exams that would make us all look like bags of fertilizer!!!

...others have poor health records on this team...and they are all free to negotiate a longterm deal!

...And-o supports the Kovy deal! It had to happen this way...or else he would have went elsewhere!

davidb · Guru

Souray Bulis Bonk now Kovy if we had depth we just lost it. can we overcome this???

plouf · Guru

Thing is, Gainey must have already known about this problem. His doctor had predicted it would come back in 2-4 years. I don't think it's particularly fishy.

brooklynhabfan · Guru

Oh, come off it

His name is Kovalev, not Malakhov.

You can be assured that they didn't shred this much cheese at a guy without looking under the hood first.

Besides, he's no dummy, and he would have had his ass sued off for pulling a fast one.

I think he means it when he says he wants to stay in Montreal long term, and when's the last time you heard someone with his skill saying that?

You gotta guve him the benefit of the doubt

barry33 · Guru

hate to burst your bubble guys..but let's have a tall glass of reality here! In the NHL, when a player moves from team to team all his medical records go with him. Any team who refuses to devulge medical records is subject to very severe disciplinary action. In this case the Rangers would have been aware of Kovy's knee operation from the Pens then in turn would need to make the Habs aware of it before the Kovalev Balej trade. Gainey new it was only a matter of time before Kovalev had to go under the scope again, however his pre-season physical went very well so there was no sense of uurgency until recently.

Instead of shi**ing all over the guy, give him credit for playing through pain for a month.

Figaro · Guru

Barry, I agree - I see no foul on Kovalev's part. I think that he was well enough to play and management probably anticipated him missing some time. Once we got out of the gates in a flash and with the possibly the easier part of the schedule coming up, no is a good time to "take time off." So say that 4 weeks puts Kovalev's return Dec 20 vs Ottawa, before then we play 13 games (inlcuding tonight) with, I think, 4 tough games - those being New Jersey, Toronto, Ottawa and Los Angeles. That's not to say the other 9 games are "should wins" or easy games, not at all. But those 4 games will take a complete team effort. I just think it is the best time to "get it over with."

barry33 · Guru

I feel we will come out of this a better and more united team and with a stronger Kovalev. Dec 20th? Nice Xmas gift in my books!

Muller93 · Guru

Hey guys. its just speculation. Plus, what you don't get is that he was without a contract this summer. He was a free agent. What I was saying was, what if through the summer or the season in Russia, he developed this knee problem but kept it hidden until montreal gave him the big mult-year contract? Of course Gainey knew his past medical history. I'm not that stupid.

But you know, when it comes to money and looking out for "number one"...you would be suprised at what length people will go to. Barry33, I seem to recall your rant about how you find people who sue for stupid things bugs you( was it after the air France crash, or was it Steve Moore?). So you seem to know that money can drive people to unethical things. In any case, I think kovalev is great, but something about this still smells bad. I work with musculoskeletal injuries and...this one has some hmmmm clinging onto it.

Still, from the sounds of it, he will be back in a month or so and likely will be great. As I stated before, he is 32 years old and its the four year contract that makes me nervous now.