It's Offical: Kozlov to the KHL

For how much did he sign?

Best of luck Vitja.

Happy trails, Vitja. I’ll miss your smiling face.

I’m pouring one out for him this weekend.

Wow. Best of luck, Vitja, and thanks for your time here. It’s been fun.

best of luck, thanks for the memories, and wow, 16 seasons? I’ll really miss the dimples.

One of my favorite Capitals. World class puck possession skills.
Just like family, you’d like to kill him sometimes for letting you down but you loved him when he was on top of his game, which was less frequent than I’d like.

Без перевода.

All the best, Vitja… we will miss you, but thank you for stepping aside for our new young guns from Hershey. <3 ROCK THE RED!

Now I have a good reason to follow HC Salavat Yulaev and the KHL next season. :-) Anybody know where we can watch games online?

WE’LL MISS YOU, VIKTOR! SEND US POSTCARDS!

Honestly, I’m rather going to miss having Ivan Drago on our team.

I’ve always like Kozzie, he did have a certain charm to him. Hope he does well in the KHL. So, Laich as 1st line RW, or will that slot be filled by someone not yet on the team?

As much as I ripped him, he wasn’t that bad. I hope he wont be missed.
And his break away goal vs the Rags in game (6?) where he ran over Lundqviest was a thing of beauty. That’s the memory I’ll keep of him.

PEACE OUT KOZ!

..and nothing of value was lost.

kidding kidding. Here’s to a successful stint in Russia Kozy

Good luck Kozzie. Time to find a new lebowski rug….

Yay!

Hey, what’s this about Dany Heatley wanting a trade?

Heater rightly sought his way out of Atlanta due to the the overwhelming consequences of dealing with the fact he caused another human being’s death. His request to be traded out of Ottawa an the heels of a long term deal smacks of being completely selfish and I would hope Murray doesnt cave.
What a turd he is turning out to be.

Kozlov leaving is progress. There are guys in Hershey that can put up as many points, hopefully more, than Kozlov. 16 years to get his first playoff goal.

Dmitry has an interview with Kozzie here that’s worth a read.

I think Ottawa isn’t living up to its part of the bargain, and Heatley is calling them on it. Things must be pretty bad on that team if players are bailing this early. They tried to blame it all on Emery, remember?

All in all, I’m having mixed reactions to Kozlow leaving. On the one hand, he’s solved a problem and opened a slot on the team for improvement. On the other hand, the team has been so much fun to watch, and they seem to have so much fun together, that it’s sad to see anyone go.

He’s going on his own terms, so you can’t beat that.

Kozlov the man and Kozlov by the numbers were never really the same person.

I just know when he had the puck in the O zone I felt it was in capable hands that weren’t going to give it away or make a bonehead play with it and I just might see something incredible (even if it wasn’t a scoring chance).

I thank him for his contributions and wish him well as any true Caps fan would

I’m having a serious problem with this. It will be hard for Ovie without Kolov, not to mention the unthinkable – if Fedorov leaves as well. I’m also bothered by the way this is happening. I see parallels to Kolzig’s departure. What hurt Kolzig, he said later, was the silence. The Caps management never acknowledged him, not even to say thanks but no thanks. He thought from their silence that they would just let the deadline pass. The Russian players saw that, and perhaps they think they are being treated to the same cold shoulder. If there were any communications, Fedorov’s agent would not have issued a thinly veiled ultimatum recently in the form of a media statement, there would have been no need to do that. So this mock surprise by GMGM (“nobody told ME that he signed with them!”) seems disingenuous at best. But could Mr. Chesnokov perhaps shed some light on why the Russian teams are putting such pressure on our guys (yes, “our” guys, at least Fedorov felt pretty much at home here) to sign? Fedorov was feeling it at the break, and he underscored the urgency several times after the playoffs. Why such a hurry? Are the economics such that they have to commit before the money is gone, does the KHL have a different calendar that must override our free agent deadline, or do the organizations running the Russian teams have hidden agendas? It would be interesting to know this. And if Mr. Chesnokov does have the opportunity to speak to Fedorov in the (very) near future, I hope he will pass this along: Please Come Home to Washington! Whatever you do.

Cuqui, Natty, thank you for shedding light on this — I was unable to open the interview. At the same time, I’m reasonably certain of Kolzig’s comments. But at the same time as that time, I also recall seeing several comments by Kozlov about his looking forward to returning to Russia. The bottom line, I suppose, is that I don’t like change. Making it my problem. I will try not to over-react in future….Nurse! Time for my anti-depressants!

Good luck to Kozlov in the future. I found it interesting that he said that Semin was still in the U.S. I just assumed that Semin would immediately leave for Russia like Ovie did.

Good luck Kozzie, you’ll be missed.