Warsofsky, Kovalenko Clear Air Over Russian Podcast Comments

“It’s water under the bridge.”

That was the main message when Ryan Warsofsky met with the media following the San Jose Sharks’ practice on Saturday morning, discussing comments made by Nikolai Kovalenko on a Russian podcast over the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

“The coach doesn’t like Russians,” Kovalenko said on the podcast. “The GM likes Russians, the head coach doesn’t.”

A few days later though, Kovalenko tried to clarify to San Jose Hockey Now, via the Sharks: “The comments that were translated were taken out of context. I do not have any issue with our coach and everyone has treated me very fairly in San Jose. I love playing here.”

Warsofsky shared that he had met with Kovalenko about these comments, “Obviously, the language is different and things get taken out of context.”

He added: “I have coached a lot of Russians [that] I still talk to today, and that have already reached out to me [since] this came out. There’s no issues whatsoever.”

Warsofsky declined to name those players, but Pyotr Kochetkov and Vasily Ponomarev are among the current NHL’ers who played for the San Jose Sharks’ bench boss with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

Kovalenko was acquired by the San Jose Sharks as part of the Mackenzie Blackwood trade with the Colorado Avalanche in December. Despite moving to a team in the midst of a rebuild, his ice time, at about 12 minutes a night, has stayed almost exactly the same as it was in Colorado. In 17 games with the Sharks, the winger has one goal and seven assists in 17 games. He played 28 games with the Avalanche this season, scoring four goals and four assists.

Warsofsky does feel that the 25-year-old rookie is going through an adjustment phase. Which, he explained, is part of the reason behind him playing a limited role.

“He came from a team in the KHL where they were a big puck possession team,” said Warsofsky. “They want to hold onto pucks. The National Hockey League’s a different style. You can’t turn over pucks at bluelines and feed teams on a line rush. Especially where we’re at as an organization with our team. We have to manage pucks with extreme detail.”

Warsofsky used Thursday’s US-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off final as an example: “There’s no puck possession game there. It’s north-south. It’s in-your-face. It’s fight for every inch of ice. That’s how the game is won in North America. And he’s just having some adjusting period to that.”

Warsofsky had a similar experience with Ponomarev, now with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“[He] wanted to hold on to pucks and he learned,” Warsofsky said. “I’m sure [Penguins head coach] Mike Sullivan is saying the same things to him.”

For Warsofsky, it’s not a Russian thing, it’s a hockey thing,

“I don’t care if you’re from Africa, Canada, US, Russia, Belarus. As long as you work hard, you’re coachable, and you give everything you got on that ice, that’s all I care about.”

Warsofsky is hoping that Kovalenko, on IR with an upper-body injury, will join the San Jose Sharks at some point during their upcoming two-week road trip.