Ilya Kovalchuk shares a story about an NHL coach throwing a tantrum and throwing away all his sticks
Ilya Kovalchuk played 926 career NHL games, over the course of 13 NHL seasons. Kovalchuk saw time with 5 different teams across his NHL career. When you play in the NHL for 13 years you're bound to end up with some very interesting stories. Recently, Kovalchuk sat down with Sport24.ru to share one of those stories.
When asked if he had any trouble with any coaches over his NHL career, Kovalchuk reminisced about an incident that occurred when he played with the Atlanta Thrashers.
When I first came to Atlanta, Curt Fraser was the coach. I played with a big curve on my stick. At that time in Canada, they used a stick with a straight hook. In one of the games I got suspended for bending my stick. The next day he threw away all my sticks and gave me straight hook sticks.
After that, he and I got into a bit of a fight. We yelled at each other. Then I started bending these sticks. Half of the blades broke. Eventually he let me play with my sticks.
After that, he and I got into a bit of a fight. We yelled at each other. Then I started bending these sticks. Half of the blades broke. Eventually he let me play with my sticks.
Fraser was the first coach in Atlanta Thrasher's franchise history when they entered the league. It was Fraser's first and only head coaching job in the league. Fraser coached from 1999 to 2003, in 279 career games he finished with a record of 64-169-31-15. Since being terminated Fraser has found assistant jobs in the NHL and AHL before finally moving to the KHL.
It's clear that behavior like throwing out your best player's sticks is probably one of the reasons that Fraser hasn't found himself back in the NHL. This is just another examples of one of the great stories former NHLers can tell about their time in the pros.
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MARS 6 | 182 ANSWERS Ilya Kovalchuk shares a story about an NHL coach throwing a tantrum and throwing away all his sticks Should Atlanta get another NHL team? | ||
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