WoahwoahWOAH.

Awwww, yeah.

You mean to tell me that Zach Bagosian is a rookie phenom who "flew under the radar" last year? Never knew. Well, at least the folks over at The Hockey News noticed. Pretty praiseworthy of our gritty (dare I say it, "bad ass") young number 1 d-man, even though the end has to work in a comment about how no one expects the Thrashers to do anything. Because, yeah, the previous year's performance ALWAYS predicts the next *coughBLUEScough*

Speaking of Thrashers, Puck Daddy has an interesting interview up with Nikita Filatov, who apparently is trying to look more like a guy by adding 17lbs worth of weight (or else maybe he just had a lot of chocolate cake - heeey oh!). Filatov has been skating with Kovy this summer, and had this to say:

That means you had never skated with Kovalchuk before?

We skated together with CSKA's junior team at the end of last summer. Someone actually accidentally knocked out Ilya's two teeth with a stick... It is fantastic to work with Kovalchuk. You try to gain experience from a legend.

That means you look at Kovalchuk as if he is a legend?

It is so easy and pleasant to talk to him. But the age gap between us is seven years. Kovalchuk is a phenomenal player, one of the best in the world. I respect him a great deal.

Smart kid.