The highlight of the Islanders’ first game without injured Alexei Yashin came late in the first period Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. Jason Blake passed out of the right corner to Viktor Kozlov in the high slot, and Kozlov one-timed it for the tying goal. It was exactly the kind of play Yashin and Blake have been making all season, and it was the best possible sign that the top line might maintain its scoring punch even while Yashin is out.
The similarity between Yashin and Kozlov, who once played together with Moscow Dynamo and who have been roommates on the Russian national team, is so striking that coach Ted Nolan joked they look like twins. At 6-5, 235 pounds, Kozlov has an even more commanding physical presence than Yashin, and both have the same long reach, puckhandling skills, skating ability and playing style.
Yashin and Kozlov both entered the NHL in the 1993-94 season, and that’s where their careers took different paths. Although many expected Kozlov to be the next big thing from Russia, he got into only 16 games with San Jose as a rookie and scored two goals, while Yashin debuted with a 30-goal season for Ottawa. Over his previous 11 seasons, Kozlov has only three 50-point seasons, has reached the 20-goal mark once (22 in 2002-03 with Florida) and has played as many as 69 games just four times.
When you see him on the ice, it’s impossible to ignore Kozlov’s physical gifts and wonder why he hasn’t had more success. Everyone in the NHL will tell you he has a great shot. But as one writer who covered him with the Devils last year said during a preseason game, he doesn’t use it enough. He holds the puck and looks to make the perfect play.
The Devils used Kozlov on their top line to start last season and then demoted him after a couple of months when he didn’t produce. They put him back on the top line following the All-Star break, and when he again failed to put up numbers, he was demoted and his ice time all but disappeared before he was benched for all but one playoff game and allowed to leave as a free agent.
But with the Islanders, Kozlov has shown an ability to rise to the occasion. He had a dominant training camp to make a good first impression on Nolan; he scored twice in the opener even though the game was out of reach; he scored against the Devils in a big win at the Meadowlands, and he scored in his first game as Yashin’s replacement.
When Kozlov’s production fell off earlier this season and he was moved off Yashin’s line during one of Nolan’s shakeups, I asked if he was “floating.” The coach wouldn’t go there. Nolan has been happy with Kozlov’s effort, and there have been many games where he made an impact with his ability to get the puck in the corners and to break up opposition plays in the neutral zone.
Since the loss in Toronto, where he had no shots on goal, Kozlov seems to have made more of an effort to look for his shot. He put four shots on goal in Pittsburgh, a total he exceeded only once this season with five in the second game at San Jose. But when asked if he was trying to shoot sooner, Kozlov shrugged and said, “I try to score, to be honest. Maybe it looks like I try to do a quick shot. The purpose is just to score the goal.”
Although Kozlov brushes off all comparisons between himself and Yashin, Nolan certainly wouldn’t mind if he uses this chance to produce in combination with Blake the way Yashin has this season.
“We talk to him on a regular basis,” Nolan said of Kozlov. “He has one of the best shots in the league. He’s got to pull the trigger a little bit more and get in the open to shoot the puck a little bit more. Sometimes, strange things happen for strange reasons. Maybe this is an opportunity for Viktor to really step up and start shooting the puck and give us some goals.”
That’s the hope, anyway.
Comments (19)
I know this blog was about Kozlov but is there something going on with Miro that we don't know about? He is injured or out of shape? He is not a gifted skater and seems a step slower on the forecheck this year compared to last. He has not been getting in the scorer's shooting lane or been positioned for rebounds like he was last year.
Even though Kozlov is stepping in right now I still believe that isles can use a fast veteran goal scorer. The addition of that style player can actually make the Isles a legitimate contender.
well i think maybe the islanders need some fans,its so sad to watch the game as the camera roams the arena,the place is empty,is it maybe because the islanders stink?look at a rangers game,always sold out.when rangers play islanders at coliseum the place has more rangers fans in it than islander fans,i go to all those games and its very sad,well islanders are looking better then last year,well potvin sucks
The Isles just cannot lose a game like that to the last place Flyers. If they won they would have been in first place. Just a terrible loss.
The fact that Eric Boguniecki played a little over 3 minutes in the game signals that it's time for Robert Nilsson or Jeff Tambellini or Blake Comeau or someone with offensive ability from Bridgeport. We need offense.
By the way, get rid of Sean Hill as well. He's slow and is beginning to take unecessary penalties. Last night was a perfect example.
By the way Potvin Sucks, you're a moron. Go post stupid messages on a different site.
Your team hasn't done much in the last ten years.
You mean me?
Don't pick on Chris. He's one of Ron Dugay's bastard children, conceived in a hospital bed near MSG, the second groupie in line for Ronnie's stick after Rudy Giuliani. Ronnie told Chris' mommy that anal intercourse wouldn't produce children, but along the way, turds like Rag fans have to be born to make the world a so much more comical place.
Potvin sucks? Well, that's original insult. How would you know? Are you a member of the Buddy Booth Community? Did you swallow?
Yes, Greg. Info on Satan please. I'm on of his biggest fans/critics. I'm beyond agitated by his lack of production right now.
Can we please introduce big brother-esque censorship to the blog? I don't want to have to read garbage like "Potvin sucks" everyday. It's obvious he meant to say "POTVIN'S CUPS." Someone needs to make that correction. As far as the rags not having done much in the last 10 years thats an understatement...how about 4 cups since being an original 6 team while the Isles earned that many in a dynasty!
Hey "Potvin Sucks" have you ever thought that the only reason the garden sells out is because half of them are businessmen with no hockey sense and the other half are rangers fans with no sense at all?
the potvin s*cks chant is the most pathetic chant in all of sports. are rags fans going to be chanting it in 10-20 years? potvin retired over 15 years ago. i bet 3/4 of the people who chant it don't even know who potvin is. come up with something more original, oh wait, this is the rags fans i'm talking about. rags fans have an inferiority complex to potvin, like the red sox have with the yankees. it's crazy.
I'm telling you, they're saying "POTVIN'S CUPS" ;o)
Danny B in Tennessee is correct. The chant is indeed "POTVIN'S CUPS!" Potvin even said so at a recent Islanders celebration last season. As always, Rangers fans are mistaken and clueless.
Is it me or does Park look extremely small and non deserving of a roster spot on an NHL team.
His goal aside the other night, he reminds me of what the islander teams of the last few years have been made of....
"the Maven" loves the guy for his heart...that is hockeys equivalent of kissing your sister!
He looked like a boy amongst men in philly!
If Campoli is going to sit in Bridgport why not try and move him for a forward or center?
As a long-standing N.Y. Islander fan since back in the 70's (I think that qualifies me as long-standing)(born and raised in Long Island--Rockville Centre), living in North Carolina, my only ability to follow what is happening with the team is via occasional contests on Versus (none so far),contest against Carolina (a few so far), and info via the N.Y. Islanders Website and this blog.
To start with in a nutshell to now, the team has performed well at times, and poorly at times. Losses to Phoenix, L.A., and now Phil. should not have happened. But then there are performances like the ones against Carolina, Dallas and New Jersey. The team needs to be more consistent. It has been together, with only one change (prior to Yashin's injury) for 22 games. Now is the time for those guys to start pulling together, now more with Yashin out.
The team's offense is spotty and inconsistent. Their defenese, slow and questionable in the beginning, is starting to play better. But, has been mentioned by others, is slow and struggles aganinst teams like Pittsburgh, Washington (Ovechkin), Tampa(2 losses so far). The goaltending is good, then it is questionable.
With this said, I can't see how anyone can start by placing any blame on Ted Nolan. He did not put this team together ( Please see past GM Smith and current GM in-training Snow). While it may be a GM-by-committee situation, he is not alone. And he has turned the attitude of the team around, and quite frankly, the team as a whole and the players from last year (exception: Satan as mentioned, Bates and York)are playing better, and showing a little more life. You can't just say that it is the players alone doing it? The coach has to be given some of that credit.
I agree with keeping the younger players in Bridgeport, as long as the parent club plays well, wins, and is a cohesive group. They win as a team and they lose as a team. And as long as they do not lack some aspect of the team that they have available down in Bridgeport. While brining up Nilsson in place of Boguniecki while Yashin is out sounds like a good idea based on this notion (lack of offense), what happens when Yashin come back? Who would go down to "the Bridge"? And what would that do to team chemistry and line alignments?
Something all of the "bloggers" on this website seemed to have missed since the beginning is questioning why the team had such issues sigining Sean Bergenheim and Denis Grebeshkov? Bergenheim could help with offense, provide a little speed where it is lacking, and Grebeshkov, who should be playing at Brdigeport, not in Russia. Why was is so hard to sign them? What would everyone think if these two play well, and do not get signed by New York to a pro contract, and end up elsewhere?
The season is a little more than 1/4 done. Give the team (and the coach) some more time, ask why some of our prized prospects are not playing at Brdigeport, and pray we don't trade one or some of those we have to get someone to help make the playoffs. Give the prospects more time to learn and grow at "the Bridge".
And to those Ranger fans that seem to disguise themselves as Islander fans on this site, don't the Ranger sites have a blog you can go complain about the Islanders on? And don't you have something better to do with your time? If they did not have Shanahan and Jagr, where would they be? Are they a cohesive team? Enough finger pointing.
Give the team support, support the Tigers, and question Garth on his younger player movements. Through youth and good acquisitions to fill in, and good team playing, the Islanders can and will be a good team to represent the Island as a pro sport franchise, even in the face of somewhat questionable team ownership moves.
victor = slava...9,5
yashin = injured....-9.5
Nolan, Snow, Wang, and the rest have put together a team and formula that has us in sole posession of 1st place right now. You can't argue with success. The way I look at it, by the time the youngblood is unleashed they will want it so bad and be shot out of a canon. As far as Park, I would have said the same thing about jason blake if i had judged him on appearance, park looked really good tonight, with two nice assists on kozlov goals. believe me, i am as beat up and bruised as the next isles fan since the good times, but how can anyone not be excited about this team? get with the program folks...
Bags I agree and will be the first to admit i am wrong if Nolan keeps park on the line with Kozlov. Sometimes injuries have a way of forcing line changes that open eyes.
Park and Kozlev seemed to have an uncanny chemistry there in the third period when we needed it most.
Parkie....I am sorry for dissin you the way I have. Its just that we have had so many smaller players the failed in the last ten years that its impossible not to associate people like like. I WAS WRONG!
Islanders played a solid game vs.Ranger. Never let up or allowed the numerous "HOMEY" Ref calls to upset their game. The ref's were terrible and wore blue shirts all night but it did'nt work.Credit Isles with hard work and great skating and that's why they won. Old legs on the Rangers could'nt keep up!!