Where's the Superstar?

by Jason Chatraw
Sunday Paper Sports Editor

ATLANTA -- Did he have a date? Were his parents in town? Did he suffer an injury? Where was superstar Ilya Kovalchuk in the third period of the Thrashers' 3-2 loss to the Washington Capitals at Philips Arena Wednesday night before a jacked-up, sell-out crowd?

There were more people looking for Kovalchuk on the ice than combed the state for Jennifer Wilbanks.

But after the game, Thrashers coach Bob Hartley clearly expressed his displeasure with Kovalchuk's play in the second period with an unmistakably indirect insinuation that Kovalchuk was loafing on the ice. When asked about Kovalchuk's near absence in the third period, Hartley said, "When you're a superstar, you need to play like a superstar--not act like one. ... There was one superstar on the ice tonight and he played on the other team."

And his name was Alexander Ovechkin, who owns the Thrashers. Ovechkin put in two goals in a second period that consisted of the Thrashers getting lulled to sleep like Rip Van Winkle. The Southeast Division could've been all but won Wednesday night by the Thrashers in a home game against the last-place Capitals--and they couldn't get it done.

Granted, the Thrashers woke up and made a game of it, but it was too little too late. In a cruel twist of fate, the Thrashers appeared to pull within one with about seven minutes remaining, but Eric Boulton was called for a high stick on the goal-bound shot, nullifying the goal and sending Boulton to the box for four minutes. Nevertheless, with less than five minutes remaining the Thrashers' Andy Sutton scored a short-handed goal, just his second of the season, which have both come in the last week. And in the final two minutes, not one but two Capital players were sent to the box. After Kari Lehtonen was pulled from goal, the Thrashers had a 6-on-3 for the final 44 seconds of the game and couldn't jam the puck in the net.

Lehtonen dismissed the fact that it's harder to play a team with nothing to play for, especially when his team had everything ot play for. But he did admit that the Capitals were risky Wednesday night: "It's different--they don't have any kind of system except just play hard. And sometimes that works. But we just didn't play our best hockey."

After the game, Kovalchuk dressed quickly and left the locker room in a hurry. It's clear he's in Hartley's dog house, but it's only because Hartley knows what's at stake. "Each individual has to look in the miror and address their situation," Hartley said. "Right now, we're not playing playoff hockey." And win or lose the final two games of the regular season, the Thrashers will be playing playoff hockey soon--and Hartley doesn't want it to be a short-lived experience.

CHECK OUT OVECHKIN'S SKILLS