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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Kovy Says The Magic Words, For Now
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ilya Kovalchuk’s comments just after Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss in Philadelphia spoke volumes about how frustrating a year this has been for the prolific goal scorer. Just minutes before, he had come oh-so close to tying the game in the waning seconds of the game…this only seconds after pulling the team to within striking distance with his 50th goal of the season.
He spoke of how this, his 6th NHL campaign, was his “most disappointing season”. This is saying something as he has played on teams that have finished with 54 points, 74 points and 78 points. But those were his first three years in the league and the Thrashers were a young team. Now he is an established player and the Thrashers are finishing their 9th year of play and their first decade in existence. (However, they still are being called a young team by some in the Thrashers front office).
“After I sniffed playoff hockey, I’m really disappointed”. He went on to say, “I’m hoping next year we’re going to battle not just for the playoffs but to win the cup”. And then, “We need to make the right moves in the summertime and get ready to go for next year”.
Now, here are the words that stand out to me, “We’re” and “We”.
This indicates to me that even though this ’07-’08 Thrashers season has been as bad as…worse than…anyone could have possibly imagined, the star forward is still using such inclusive words. One would think a lesser character would employ such verbiage as, “the team” needs to make the right moves or “the front office” needs to get it together this off-season. You know…it’s their fault…it’s their job…they should deal with this.
But for now, he still is saying “we”. This is a good thing considering the Thrashers have him under contract for only the next two seasons. I say “only” because, if you think of it, the Thrashers organ-I-zation two years from now could be in the same situation with our star player as they were last month with Marian Hossa if the team fails to make the “right moves”.
That may seem a long way off, but it’s less time than the team had with Hossa after the Danny Heatley trade brought him here…and we saw how “convinced” he was that the team was, shall we say, “moving in the right direction”.
It may be a little thing, but in this “disappointing” season I think it means a lot when a player like Kovalchuk…who has busted his hump all year…still uses the “we” word to link himself with this franchise.
God help use the day he stops doing so.
Over And Out
Wednesday’s night’s 5-3 loss to Carolina officially put an end to any possibility that The Thrasher could repeat as Southeast Division champs.
It Still Doesn’t Help
The Thrashers outshot Carolina 34-33. In fact, they have outshot their opponents in two of the last three games as they bettered Florida 30-25 in that stat last Sunday evening. Of course, both games resulted in losses. Prior to this week Atlanta had not outshot an opposing team since January 20th when they played Edmonton…a 4-2 loss.
A Night To Remember…NOT
Thursday night marked the first NHL game for the 6’-7”, 2004 first round pick defenseman Boris Valabik. Let’s just say much room was left for improvement. For the record he was -2 with a SOG and 2 PIM in his 17:55 TOI. However, he was on ice as all 5 goals were scored on us, (to be fair, he was also on the ice while 2 of Atlanta’s 3 goals were scored), and at times looked a bit lost.
But I won’t come down hard on the kid, as one game is not going to make or break his career. The games played in a Thrashers jersey the next couple of weeks should be considered as an extended preseason for him and we can judge his progress next fall.
He’s sure to get better…crossing fingers.
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