League Needs Personality Infusion

Welcome to the NHL -- the National Hypocrisy Legion -- where it is OK for Don Cherry, but no one else, to show up Canadian darling Sidney Crosby.

So Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk taunted the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Crosby on Friday in a style worthy of NFL wide receivers? A little tacky, sure, but something has to be done before the NHL is declared DOA -- Dead On Air.

And certainly it did not rate the call to arms, or to break arms, that Cherry unleashed.

Kovalchuk, unusually outgoing for a Russian player, wagged his finger at Crosby after scoring the second of his three goals in the Thrashers’ 6-4 victory over the Penguins on Friday. Crosby was just coming out of the penalty box at the time, having been called for slashing.

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never seen a guy pointing to a guy in the penalty box,” said Cherry, a commentator for “Hockey Night in Canada.” “Someone should’ve broken [Kovalchuk’s] arm, but they didn’t.”

Seems like vigilante justice was the way to boost ratings in the “old” NHL. The sleek, built-for-speed “new” NHL needs personalities, ones other than Cherry.

Kovalchuk brushed aside the comment during a Monday conference call: “I don’t care what he says. Hockey is a fun game. Sometimes media guys have fun too. It’s a free country and you can say whatever you want.”

True enough.

In fact, Cherry’s attention-seeking ways have led to him to wag his own finger at Crosby more than once.

He has questioned whether Crosby deserved to be a Penguin assistant captain, called him a diver this season and a hot-dog when Crosby was playing junior hockey.

Such gum flapping has always been extreme behavior with ratings in mind, especially where Cherry is concerned.

There is no need for anyone to start whipping out Sharpies, but a little spontaneous celebrating gives personality to the game -- anyone recall the “Goldie Shuffle” by Minnesota North Star Bill Goldsworthy?

After scoring a goal this season, the Kings’ Sean Avery went into a routine that was a cross between “Lord of the Dance” and “Rent” before it was interrupted by a hug from teammate Eric Belanger. Asked later what he was up to, Avery said, “Bellie ruined it. I had a whole routine planned. I wanted to be on ESPN.”

Refreshing to see someone in the NHL sees a need to be on ESPN.

Kovalchuk’s antic teetered on boorish, true. Yet at a time when NHL television ratings barely have a pulse and more than a couple of arenas have that mausoleum look -- Phoenix, Chicago, Anaheim -- a little individualism could do the league good.

The NHL has always marketed the sport as a “team game” as opposed to the I-Me-Mine style common in the NBA. A blend of the two couldn’t hurt a league struggling to shake its second-tier-sport status.

NBC was instrumental in promoting the NBA players as individuals when it held that league’s television rights and will broadcast the first of six NHL games this Saturday.

Kovalchuk, who leads the NHL with 32 goals, has a bit of flair. His play hasn’t hurt the “team concept” in Atlanta, where the Thrashers have a 10-2-3 record in their last 15 games. Kovalchuk has 15 goals and 13 assists in that time.

“Hockey is an emotional game. That’s all it is,” Kovalchuk of the Crosby incident. “There was nothing personal. He’s a good hockey player. It’s nothing. It’s just the excitement about the moment.

“I’m always excited. But it’s not like I decide before the game if I’m going to score against Pittsburgh what I’m going to do. It just comes into your mind after you score a goal. It’s all emotion.

“That’s why I play hockey, to score goals to win games.”

The NHL seems to be blessed with some fresh blood, starting with Crosby and new breed of Russian player in extroverts Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin.

Embrace them. Refine them. Use them.

Sweet Smell of Success

Kovalchuk has formed a bond with center Marc Savard, who has 42 assists this season.

Said Kovalchuk: “He says he can even smell me on the ice.”

Rebate

The best news NHL players have heard since before Commissioner Gary Bettman first uttered “cost certainty” came down last week, as the escrow payments withheld from their checks have been reduced from 12% to 4%, with a further reduction possible by the end of the season.

The money is held to make up for any shortfall in the league’s revenue.

“That’s nice,” the Kings’ Craig Conroy said. “It’s good for the players and good for the league.”

Conroy said it is also good for the NHL Players’ Assn. leadership.

“They said this was probably going to happen, and it did,” Conroy said. “We have had some troubles in the union, and this just gives us some confidence in how things are being done. As for the league, it means another sign we’re working back from the lockout. We’re making money again.”

Ducks and Cover

When General Manager Brian Burke traded forward Petr Sykora, it left the Mighty Ducks with only eight players from the team that went to the 2003 Stanley Cup finals.

This season, one of those former Ducks said, “It sounds depressing every time I talk with one of the guys in Anaheim. The room is pretty much divided into pre-Burke guys and post-Burke guys. The guys who were there before Burke feel they already have one foot out the door.”

Since then, Burke has traded Sergei Fedorov and Sykora. The Ducks through 41 games had 43 points, only six more than at same point in the 2003-04 season.

N(HL)ASCAR?

San Jose’s Kyle McLaren took out Trevor Letowski of the Columbus Blue Jackets with a vicious -- but legal -- hip check Wednesday, one that left San Jose Shark Coach Ron Wilson all but frothing at the mouth.

“That’s like a NASCAR crash,” Wilson was quoted as saying in the San Jose Mercury News.

“The side panels, everything’s gone. The tires are missing. That’s a wreck in the third corner coming off the turn. Boom!”