A little off topic post today but since we are talking about Belarus that is close to home for me. I am only going to talk about the good and the ugly, skip that ‘bad’ nonsense. So whats good for Belarussians? If you haven’t followed the Pittsburgh Marathon then you probably have no clue who Alena Vinitskaya is. Neither did util yesterday when Kristen (@pghsciencenerd) told me. Well apparently Alena Vinitskaya a 36-year-old woman from Belarus who has two children under 5, captured the women’s title, doing so in 2:42:33, besting her nearest competitor, Phebe Ko, by more than three minutes. Pretty amazing right? Read more here. Here she is in all of her glory, all wet but smiling!
So that was the good. Now to the ugly part which believe it or not deals with Habs. As some of you already know there are two brothers from Belarus that play on Canadiens team, Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn. I follow them pretty closely since there aren’t that many Bearussians in NHL. During the Olympics Andrei Kostitsyn was injured and couldn’t play for team Belarus. However, Sergei was playing and he was by far the best forward on the team. He was leader in points scoring 2 goals and making 3 assists. Pretty solid performance by him all around. It was pretty clear to me that when put in the position of a leader Sergei is a clutch player. Well unfortunately thats not the story when he is playing with Habs. Watching these playoffs series with Montreal i couldn’t find him on the ice. At first i thought that he was injured but after digging in deeper i found out that he was benched as a healthy scratch for most of the playoff games. Apparently there is something ugly going on within the Habs team and this might work to Penguins advantage. I found the following article, unfortunately it was in French but thanks to Google translate for helping me out here. Well apparently on Tuesday’s practice Sergei left the practice and did not wish to participate. Carey Price did not really appreciate the decision of his teammate. Price went back in the dressing room for a new stick and get to wipe his face, Price did not hesitate to express his displeasure Kostitsyn.
“Why are not you on the ice?” Said Price to Kostitsyn. With no response from Belarusian, Price asked: “Did you hear my question?”
“This is none of your business,” Kostitsyn replied before finally taking the path of showers.
Discouraged, Price shook his head, replying with derision: “Well, Sergei.” Price then returned to the ice along with Jaroslav Spacek and Ben Maxwell.
Today Pens report that Sergei Kostitsyn wasn’t at the morning skate.
The article goes on to say that Sergei might not have much future with Habs after these playoffs end. It also speculates that Sergei might leave NHL all together and go play with KHL. I would love to see Sergei come play for Pittsburgh. I think with the right team attitude he could truly blossom and show us his abilities. I want Ray Shero to sign Sergei Kostitsyn!!! Put him on the line with Geno instead of Poni or Tenk and those two could make magic happen, no doubt!
Well unlike Sergei … and i dont know how he does it … Jordan Staal was present at today’s practice and apparently is a game-time decision for tonights game!!! WOW!!! I AM SPEACHLESS!!!
Dupuis, Letang, Malkin & former Penguin Philippe Boucher at practice this morning
Got my copy of the hockey news today …
and their winner is …
Sidney Crosberry!
LETS GO PENS & BELARUSSIANS!!!
Tags: Jordan Staal
Stall is a monster, no doubt. And Duper has the best playoff beard on the team!
gosh, why are all Belarusians so darn testy?
montreal has been having nothing but problems with thoes brothers for years, hope neither comes to pens.
Hey, not all are like that! I am pretty mellow, for example!