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When Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin suffered a season ending injury after crashing into the boards last February, it was difficult to predict how long it would take Geno to recover. (Watch the video here.)

Following the surgery on the torn ALC and MCL, Malkin's father commented that Evgeni was taking it hard psychologically. In March, Pavel Bure, who had similar injuries that ultimately ended his career, gave the following advice to Malkin in an interview to Puck Daddy:

"You have to have the right mindset and do everything to recover quicker. And if you're depressed it is not going to help. You just have to react positively. You have to do everything that depends on you to come back faster. It will depend on how you're going to train, how much time you are going to spend in the gym, how you're going to get your muscle tone back."

Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review put the typical recovery time for this injury at six months. But today, it looks like Malkin's recovery is

inmain5_400_03_06_2011While the debates about fighting in hockey continue in North America, a group of Latvian marketing gurus — Olafs Saulriets, Normunds Namnieks and Eduard Roitman — got together to organize a special event called "ICEBOX-2011," where "Hockey Meets the Ring."

The event was dubbed the 1st International Hockey Boxing Championship. The list of participants included Brandon Sugden, Ronald Petrovicky, Evgeny Artyukhin, Kip Brennan, as well as Alexei Shirokov of the KHL.

(Artyukhin had to pull out of the competition because of an injury he sustained playing for Russia in the IIHF World Championships last month.)

"Everything started two years ago when we came up with an idea to have two boxing fans inside the ring — UNICS Kazan basketball player Kaspars Kambala and then the Los Angeles Kings defenseman Raitis Ivanans," Namnieks told Sovetsky Sport's Kirill Belyakov.

"People were excited about the idea and the fight was supposed to take place.  But Ivanans' contract with the club ended. He

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Jaroslav Zidek, the agent for former Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers star Jaromir Jagr, spoke with Sovetsky Sport's Pavel Lysenkov about Jagr's future.

And it looks like Jagr is not considering any offers from the NHL at this point.

Zidek outlined a few factors that will ultimately affect where Jagr signs.  And the first of them may mean he is leaning towards signing with KHL's SKA St. Petersburg. "Jaromir is at the French Open right now.  But he may soon come back to [the Czech Republic]. His old friend Radek Stepanek, a Czech tennis player, invited him," Zidek told Lysenkov, who was recently named Russia's Sports Journalist of the Year.

From their conversation:

Q. When do you plan on signing a contract?

ZIDEK: "Everything depends on Jaromir. A week or two, I cannot say for certain. I am waiting for Jagr to get back to Kladno.  His house is about 20km from Prague. We'll sit down at a table, discuss all the offers.  And Jardo will then decide which team he will sign with and

108236728Nikolay Zherdev returned to the NHL this season with the Philadelphia Flyers, scoring 16 goals in 56 games on a 1-year contract.

He's an unrestricted free agent this offseason … an offseason that has started with Zherdev getting arrested in Russia for a violent incident with his wife, according to the newspaper MK.

From MK.ru, a non-Google translation of the arrest article:

"After a fight with his spouse, the 27 year old hockey player smashed her car with a metal rod and threatened the woman. As MK [the newspaper] found out, the conflict took place around 12:30 at the "Osteria di camagnia" restaurant on the Rubleve-Uspenskoe highway.

"The star couple had breakfast with a company of friends. Unexpectedly a fight broke out between Nikolai and his wife. The woman decided to leave the building. She went to the parking lot of the restaurant, sat in her Bentley Continental and drove to the roadway. However, in a few meters from the café the car had to stop due to a traffic jam.  Then Nikolai

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For the first time in franchise history, the Nashville Predators made the Stanley Cup Playoff semifinals before losing to the Vancouver Canucks. In that series, as he had been during the regular season, goalie Pekka Rinne was their MVP, giving the kind of performances that have earned him a trip to Las Vegas as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.

I spoke with Rinne recently about the Predators' playoff run; facing Ryan Kesler; Rinne's incredible saves in the postseason; his Vezina nomination; the future of Shea Weber and Alex Radulov in Nashville; Carrie Underwood and Nicole Kidman; the toughest player to defend against in the NHL; as well as what he's driving, what he's watching and what he's drinking. Enjoy!

Q. They say the playoffs breed hate. Do you hate the Anaheim Ducks and the Vancouver Canucks now?

RINNE: I don't think you could say we now hate either one of them. I think "hate" is a pretty strong word. For sure, you don't like them when you play against them, you want to beat

79001951On Thursday, the news surfaced that Alexander Radulov may be back in the NHL. The Tennessean quoted Preds GM Dave Poile:

"What Paul said to him today was very simply, 'You made lots of money. Is money an issue? You're the leading scorer in the league, your team won a championship. You think you're one of the best players in the world. Are you going to come over to the best league and show that? Or are you going to stay in a secondary league.'"

For whatever reason the Russian media reported the story as if it was Radulov himself who said he wants to come back. Whether or not it is true, it remains to be seen. But when asked about it after yesterday's win against Canada in the World Championships in Slovakia, Radulov told the Russian media that they should learn English and then "won't be writing BS."

The timing of the Radulov to the NHL commotion is somewhat interesting. And now, more than ever before, it is very likely to be true that the Preds will get their runaway back. And here are

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Jaromir Jagr hasn't played in the NHL in three season now, but he is the kind of player fans do remember. Recently, Montreal radio station CJAD announced that "a well-placed NHL source tells CJAD Jagr would put Montreal on his short-list of teams he'd love to hear from for a return to the NHL."

The rumors of Jagr coming back to the NHL surface every year. Recently, Sovetsky Sport's Pavel Lysenkov met with Jagr in Slovakia, where Jagr is playing for the Czech National team in the IIHF's World Championships, and asked him a few of questions, including some of ours.

Here is what Jagr said about his future:

"I have to see. There is time. I haven't thought about it. My contract just ended, and if I have a good offer [from Avangard] I will certainly consider it. Maybe some other teams will make me offers. As for the NHL, we'll see. I think that if I want to play in the NHL, I will come and I will be able to play in the NHL. I am not saying I will play on the first line, but I will be able

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The NHL Awards aren't until June, but Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings has already won a significant one in hockey. It was announced today that Pavel Datsyuk is the winner of this year's Kharlamov Trophy — awarded by Sovetsky Sport to the best Russian NHL player, as chosen by his peers.

It was the closest vote in quite some time. Fedor Tyutin of the Columbus Blue Jackets was the last one to cast his vote to ensure that Datsyuk would unseat Alex Ovechkin, who won his fifth Kharlamov Trophy in a row last year.

"The level of play Pavel shows is consistently unbelievably high," Tyutin said. "When you watch what he does on the ice you get a feeling that there is nothing that Pavel can't do."

Alexei Kovalev, who also voted for Datsyuk, said that "he is the most important player for Detroit. When Datsyuk comes back from injuries, the team looks very different."

"Datsyuk is very consistent. You always know that he will never play below his own level. Consistency is the sign of class,"