Aleksey Morozov: The Other KHL Legend

All eyes were on Alexander Radulov on Thursday night. The KHL's all time leading scorer returned to the Nashville Predators, with much controversy.

The Preds were waxed by the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of 5 to 1, although Radulov did score a goal.

Since the game was in Pittsburgh, I'm sure a few long time fans had some thoughts to their own talented Russian superstar who went back to Mother Russia to become a KHL legend.

This is Aleksey Morozov. In Pittsburgh he may be called Alexei Moron-ov, but back in Mother Russia he is a legend of hockey.

Morozov of course fled the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2004 after seven seasons of teasing and disappointment. Despite being a first round pick and even for a while playing on a line with Mario Lemieux and Alexei Kovalev, Morozov's NHL days were less than noteworthy at best.

He returned to Russia where he has been the best player outside of the NHL ever since. He has won MVP awards and rewritten the Russian record book.

The Penguins chose Morozov 24th overall in the 1995 NHL entry draft and he made the team as a 20-year-old in 1997-98. He put up 219 points in 451 NHL games, all with Pittsburgh, including 50 points in 75 games his last season before the NHL lockout.

"The first few years in Pittsburgh I was a young kid, I didn't speak any English, I didn't understand at all what was going on around me," said Morozov. "I wasn't very good defensively. The first few years were tough for me."

As his game improved, he felt his ice time didn't.

"Some years it was tough because I was a right-winger and we had (Jaromir) Jagr and (Alexei) Kovalev ahead of me, they're superstars," said Morozov. "I didn't have much ice time, not like I have here in Kazan. Everybody knows you can't show what you can do if you don't have the ice time."

What was supposed to be a one-year sojourn to Ak-Bars during the NHL lockout has lasted a career. He's making big bucks, an estimated 3 or 4 million dollars, tax-free.

"The money is good here," Morozov admitted, though that was not the only reason he has stayed. "I had some NHL teams who were interested. But I have a good relationship with Ak-Bars."

Morozov, on the downside of his career, almost certainly will stay in Russia now. He is a KHL legend and has been a national team regular. In fact, he captained Team Russia at the 2010 Olympics, as well as the gold medal winning World Championship squads in 2009 and 2010.

KHL Line Brings Back Memories of 1972 Soviet Kid Line

Twitter is all abuzz with coverage of men's hockey practices today, specifically with line combinations in mind. Here are the Russian five man units:

Ovechkin-Datsyuk-Semin - Grebeshkov-Korneev
Kovalchuk-Malkin-Afinogenov - Tyutin-Gonchar
Kozlov-Fedorov-Radulov - Kalinin-Volchenkov
Zaripov-Zinoviev-Morozov - Markov-Nikulin

Wow, Datsyuk with Ovechkin and Semin. Up front this may be the strongest Russian team ever. I suspect Markov, when completely healthy, will find himself moving up to the Ovechkin unit.

This sort of stuff of course gets all the talking heads going. Many of these so-called experts try to fool us by imparting their knowledge upon them. In reality many of them are just downright ignorant.

Many of them (I won't name names, although there is one popular Team 1040 Vancouver radio host I would love to call out) will try telling you that KHL players are the weakness on the team and will lead to their downfall. They are not the same caliber as Russian NHLers left off the team with the name of Alexander Frolov from Los Angeles most commonly mentioned. That 4th line of NHL unknowns in particular is weak.

Wrong. Wrong! WRONG!

Fedorov needs no introduction. He will be the versatile forward and veteran leader this team needs. Radulov is yet another a pure sniper, like the Russians lack that. And Kozlov, well I don't know anyone who is a big fan of him, but he does provide a big body presence that they will need against Canada.

Then there is the KHL's greatest line of Zaripov, Zinoviev and Morozov. It doesn't take a lot of research to find out what these three have accomplished together. They may appear to be Russia's 4th line, but in reality they are 4th offensive juggernaut. And since most of us have never seen them in action, they are a true surprise attack. I especially like Zinoviev, who is a classic Russian centerman, elegant and economical, excellent defensively and at distributing the puck.

This surprise KHL line reminds of the Soviet Line back in 1972.

In the 1972 Summit Series the Russians shocked and awed us in game one. After we defeated them in game two we thought we had seen the best they had to offer. By now the Kharlamovs and Mikhailovs and Petrovs were common dinner table discussion.

For game three the Soviets through a whole new line at us, introducing three youngsters that we did not even know existed. Vyacheslav Anisin, Alexander Bodunov and Yuri Lebedev. This new troika was spectacular in game three. Down by 2 goals, Anisin set up each of his wingers for goals, saving a 4-4 tie in Winnipeg.

That night they were the talk of Canada, as they appeared to be the future of Soviet hockey. Time would prove that that particular game was the peak of their career, as they never really emerged as Canadians expected, anyways. But their surprise attack in this one game gave Canada a significant blow in 1972.

One game. That's all it took in 1972. That's all it will take in 2010, too.

AK Bars Kazan wins inaugural KHL championship

This is Aleksey Morozov. In Pittsburgh he may be called Alexei Moron-ov, but back in Mother Russia he is a legend of hockey.

Morozov of course fled the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2004 after seven seasons of teasing and disappointment. Despite being a first round pick and even for a while playing on a line with Mario Lemieux and Alexei Kovalev, Morozov's NHL days were less than noteworthy at best.

He returned to Russia where he has been the best player outside of the NHL ever since. He has won MVP awards and rewritten the Russian record book.

On Sunday he scored the only goal in a 1-0 game seven win, giving his AK Bars Kazan team the KHL's inaugural Gagarin Cup.

There has been no shortage of talk about the KHL in the 6-12 months. Funded by well moneyed and sometimes sketchy oil billionaires, the KHL made headlines in drawing Jaromir Jagr away from the NHL last summer. They threw around money as if there was no tomorrow, and operated their business in a way that was completely unsustainable if the money ever dried up.

Then came the global economic crisis. There has been much speculation about the KHL's future, from Jaromir Jagr's possible return to the possible inability to compete against the NHL for talent.

Alexei Morozov has resisted a number of NHL contract offers since the lockout, preferring to be the big fish in the small pond, not to mention the better money and tax situation and the ability to play at home.

You will be hearing a lot of Morozov in the coming months.

In a couple of weeks he will be front and center as part of Russia's team at the world championships, where he has enjoyed great success in the past. Before suffering a minor knee injury he absolutely dominated that tourney back in 2007 when he was named as the best forward. In 2008 he helped Russia win gold. In fact, Russia has a perfect 14-0 record in the last two years at this tournament when Morozov played.

Morozov will also be in Vancouver come February 2010. He will headline a number of players from the Russian leagues who will help NHLers like Alexander Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk in the charge for gold.

Is there any chance Morozov could be lured back to the NHL? I believe he is under contract to AK Bars next season, although that seems to mean little in NHL-KHL's frosty relations. But I highly doubt Morozov would want to leave. The only way would be if the oil money ever truly ran dry in Russia, something which will not happen.

The best player not in the NHL today likely will never come back.