Alexei Morozov is retiring

[Zen Arcade]

Bright moments, for me anyway, was the availability of GREAT seats, at a really cheap price.

Yeah, that too.

I went to 20ish games some of those years.

 

[billybudd]

No, my comparison is how they both get left wide open in the right circle. In Ovechkin's case it's worse because he is so much better than Morozov.

Highlight after highlight of Ovie scoring will be that big shot he has coming from the right circle with nobody near him. It happens about 700 times a season, you only see the 50 or so that go in.

There's a lot of work that goes into getting that open for OV's part. A lot of reads, a lot of movement, a lot of adjustments in positioning. He rarely stays still 5 on 4.

Morozov was standing in the right circle, not moving, being ignored and thereby winning scoring championships in the Super League, on the strength of nothing other than having a hard shot and not being covered. It's not even the same thing.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I love the hate Morozov gets. I mean, I don't fault him for leaving at all, he did what he felt was best. People seem to forget that the Pens coaching staff shafted him in his first few years with the Pens, he was a skilled player that was being used on the 3rd and 4th line, for people that were annoyed with the way Bylsma did that to Bennett understand how moronic it is to waste a talent like that.

Even if you want to make a player earn his time, playing him with garbage never helps his confidence.

The moment he was given better linemates and top 6 minutes, the guy produced, imagine that. But the guy rarely gets the credit he's due, it's "Because of Lemieux!" or some other excuse that he produced, people clearly were not fans of the team beyond the lockout then, his final year, he was really fun to watch and it was exciting thinking about how good he would be the moment the full year lockout was over.

My fav memory is the video shown often of him tugging on the Pens logo after a goal. The guy had a talented hands and his confidence was just getting to the level he needed to be a legit top 6 player.

 

[billybudd]

Revisionism. Constantine and the 5 other coaches to follow him didn't "shaft" Morozov. He never did anything or threatened to do anything that justified his roster spot, but they couldn't send him down because he'd have gone back to Russia.

If anything, Patrick babied him. Brought over half his extended family to make him feel welcome. They sat one section over from me.

As far as his supposed "skill," please name one thing that Morozov did at even an average level, other than his shot.

On those clubs he was on the fourth line, his "skill" level was far inferior to everyone above him, whether that was Kovalev, Straka, Beranek, Hrdina, Titov, or even a camp invite like Selivanov.

He didn't skate anywhere near as well as any of them. He didn't handle the puck as well as any of them. He didn't do anything as well as any of them except shoot, and in both Kovalev's and Selivanov's case, that's arguable.

The guy was weaker on his skates and the puck than Kip Miller. By a mile. That's pathetic.

 

[clefty]

Revisionism.

Yeah, really.

I mean, that last season - that so-called 'fun to watch' season had something like a 32 game goalless streak. Hooray.

Go back to all the garbage teams through history and you'll see awful to average players with 'good' numbers. Chris Kontos in Tampa, Norm McIver in Ottawa, Doug Shedden in Pittsburgh during the 80s. Someone has to get the points.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Morozov never wanted back, and why should he have? He was a HUGE star in Russia (the likes of which he'd never be with Sid and Geno), he got to speak his native language again, he didn't have to deal with the US and Canada's insane immigration requirements. Every Russian-language interview I read with him made him seem totally content and in love with his league and the Russian style of play.

I can't say I blame him. Of course, I can't say I missed him either.