Sergei Zinovjev back to Ak Bars

This reported on the Bruins telecast on NESN tonight.

On Saturday the Bruins assigned him to Providence in the AHL. He didn't report for Sunday's game. They have worked out an agreement with his agent that he will play the remainder of the season in Ak Bars.

Geeze, that's it? Maybe he should be a bit more patient.

This sucks. He really should have stayed!!!! I don't understand people like this. Well, he was known to have a bad attitude and no patience. I guess you don't change 5 teams in 4 season in Russia because you are such a great person to be around and love your club. I mean come on - he got his start with Metallurg Nk, then went to Loko - turned around right away and totally dissed Novokuznetsk as a dirty city. Then could not cut it in Lokomotiv, went to Salavat for the playoffs, played well with Semak - but then again - who WOULDN'T play well with the former top scorer of the DEVILS!!! Then went to Spartak - became a GOD there, but quit the team on a technicality. Went to where the money is, Ak Bars. Well, AK Bars has deep pockets and experience in handling players like this - we'll see what they do with him now!

Pretty much the way it went down was this.

-He showed up late to training camp.
-Bruins had to work out an agreement to get him to play in Providence for the first month of the year.
-Played about 5 games with Providence.
-Said in an article for a russian paper that AHL hockey was not skillful, to many indirect passes.
-Booked a flight back to Russia.
-Bruins called him up before he flew back.
-Played his first Bruins game(got an a great assist on a Samsonov goal)
-Played a few more uneventful game(mostly getting 4th line minutes with 4th line players w/ the occasional shift with Samsonov)
-was a healthy scratch for a number of games.
-injuries opened up a spot for him
-played a few more games on the fourth line(no points)
-Was assigned to Providence
-Refused to report
-Flew back to Russia

He showed skill, but didn't adjust to well to the physical play in NA. And didn't want to spend time in the AHL to adjust. I don't think he'll be coming back to the NHL.

Yeap - sounds like Zina. He can play physical. Man, you'd be surprised how physical all of his 175 pounds can be! He is not big, but man can he withstand punishment. But he is a "star" fourth line is beneath him, which is truely sad. I understand he wanted to play, but to bring such an poisoned attitude to the rink - it's just wrong! Calling AHL what he did - you put it in much nicer terms - his exact (translated) words in that interview were:

How do you like Boston’s farm club?
It does not impress me. The level of hockey does not compare to the super league. Here, the game is completely different. You will never get a pass on your стицк – all the passing is done through the boards. So, I would not recommend anyone to play in the AHL.


HOW IS THAT FOR HUMBLE?

He was not right that he left but Boston also wasn't right either because Zinoviev played not worse than most forwards on the roster!

Boston sux AHL sux :) kidding kidding

Good! RSL became a better league with Zinovjev playing there.

Now let´s hope that other Russians receiving 4th line minutes or being benched return to homeland as well. Wouldn´t it be nice to see guys like Shvidki, Svitov, Novoseltsev, Chubarov, Vishnevski, Korolev, Kamensky, Berezin, Khavanov, Brylin and Oleg Petrov in Russia again!

I think it would be great for the RSL and Russian hockey if all of these players returned to homeland.

Kamensky returned today :D