The Senators should not be in the mood for any of Alex Kovalev's drama, but a lower-body injury, which is mysterious to say the least, kept the Russian veteran out of the club's line-up on Friday night against the Sabres, in a key Northeast Division battle, and it is questionable as to whether or not Kovalev will dress for the Senators in Saturday night's game against the Panthers, to help keep the momentum going.In his prior 5 games before his injury, Kovalev had failed to register a point, was a -4 and topped out his ice-time at over 17 minutes twice. Needless to say, he hasn't been giving Ottawa any quality before the injury, so much so, you could even argue that the mystery could be solved by saying its a healthy scratch, but this is me being super-cynical of Kovalev.
The Sens did beat the Sabres, 4-2, on Friday night, so the team didn't really seem like they missed him on the scoresheet.
This isn't good news for Wes, as he's 8 points out of the money, especially since he was kind of leaning on Kovalev to help him towards the money spots in the Draft standings. Kovalev hasn't been anywhere near his best forward in the Draft, but it all helps at the end of the season. I'm sure Wes is hoping that Kovalev dresses tonight and comes back with a vengenance, that way, he can get back into the money conversation and make it really tight in the last two weeks.In the regular season Sheet pool, Kovalev was not a popular player at all, not taken once this season. He was in a good box for the Eastern Conference, so there was plenty of better options at the beginning of the season and Kovalev really didn't give anyone anything to start people looking at him as an injury or cold player replacement.
The Senators are going to be a playoff team this year, so Kovalev will get some consideration, seeing as though you might have to take some Sens players, unless you don't think they will make it out of the first round. He's in a top end box on the Playoff Pool Sheet, so choose carefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment