Kukla's Korner Hockey
The $100 Million Dollar Man
by Paul on 09/04/10 at 09:17 AM ET
Comments (3)
from Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette,
Kovalchuk’s new deal tells him he need not ever worry about whether or not he can afford the cost of a sled-load of blini at the corner store in Tver. I say good luck to any player who can get what the Devils are willing to pay him, but is he worth it?
Kovalchuk can score goals, which he did in bunches in Atlanta, but what has he won lately? He scored 10 goals in 27 games when he was acquired by the Devils at the trading deadline last season
and he didn’t exactly set the world ablaze in the playoffs. Comrade Kovalchuk scored only two goals and four assists in a first-round, five-game loss to Philadelphia for a team with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference….
There’s no reason to think he can’t continue to score important goals with the Devils, but he’ll be aboard a different horse than the one he rode in Atlanta. While Kovalchuk was scoring 328 goals in 594 games with the Thrashers in his first seven seasons, he was a minus-85. Ugh!
That’s not the game the Devils play.
Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Ilya+Kovalchuk,
Comments
I don’t think they even use “Comrade” anymore in Russia. That was the common term in the Soviet Union. I think now they use the Russian words for Mr. and Mrs. like any other country.
And the first time with a new team is always difficult - once he has a full training camp with his Devils teammates and gets an opportunity to play a full season, he will fit a lot better than trying to jump in mid-season as he did last year. I think he will play well for them and become quite solid defensively, since he has the talent and the smarts for it. 
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 09/04/10 at 11:21 AM ET
a sled-load of blini at the corner store in Tver….Comrade Kovalchuk
I know Red Fischer is old guard, but that his editors let him get away with this is ridiculous. This is the third generation of high-end Russian players, a trend started in part by New Jersey taking on Fetisov and Larionov.
Shameful.
Posted by Osrt on 09/04/10 at 12:37 PM ET
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I really despise xenophobic nationalists. Lots of them in hockey media,using crap like Commie,Greedy russian,comrade,etc
if Kovalchuk was american or canadian,would they use any idiotic degradational generalisations when writing about him,probably not. Imagine if he was german> that Nazi Kovalchuk scored only two goals,....
Posted by edillac from isolation on 09/04/10 at 10:51 AM ET