Kovalchuk had teammates’ support

Mathieu Schneider, Slava Kozlov, Niclas Havelid and Colby Armstrong have the combined wisdom of almost 50 seasons of NHL playing experience.

On one key issue, they all saw things the same way: The Thrashers needed a captain, and Ilya Kovalchuk was the man for the job.

Their meeting with general manager Don Waddell led to Sunday’s announcement of Kovalchuk’s promotion from one of five alternate captains to the top role. Asked individually why they had chosen to step forward, the four remaining alternates cited the same four reasons:

— It was time.

— It might help shake the team out of its slump.

— There wasn’t any other logical candidate.

— It could help Kovalchuk, who was already an all-star, raise his game even higher.

“Everyone realized he was the obvious choice from the beginning,” Schneider said Thursday. “It was a point in the year where we’ve kind of stalled. I think it could be a bit of a kick-start for us.”

The Thrashers haven’t won consecutive games since the first half of November and rank 29th out of the NHL’s 30 teams in the standings. They reached the midpoint of the season at 10 games under .500.

“We just decided it was time we put someone as our leader, kind of put that behind us and move forward,” Armstrong said. “I think it’s important for Kovy, too. He’s the kind of guy that when he’s going we all follow. Hopefully this can put us in the right direction.”

The Thrashers have gone in varying directions, mostly from close loss to not-so-close loss and back again. There have been 14 victories, most recently a Jan. 8 shutout at New Jersey, but there have been 25 losses, most recently Wednesday against Ottawa in Kovlachuk’s debut as captain.

There were games in December and January where coach John Anderson and the players themselves questioned the Thrashers’ effort. The alternates hope naming Kovalchuk captain changes that.

“We need one leader, not five,” Kozlov said.

Kovalchuk leads the team in scoring this season with 43 points in 44 games. He has been with the franchise longer than any other player and leads it in career goals, points and games played. But he’s still just 25 and the eighth youngest on the roster. Rookies Joey Crabb and Nathan Oystrick are older.

Anderson expressed doubts earlier in the season about whether Kovalchuk wanted to be thrust into more of a leadership role. Now, he said, Kovalchuk is ready.

His teammates came at the issue differently. They seemed less concerned about whether Kovalchuk wants to lead them than with their calculation that they need him to do it.

“He’s a franchise player,” Kozlov said. “It’s a lot of responsibility, but I think he can handle it. Sometimes [as a captain] you can do things you can’t do without the C. He’s our leader, and we’re going to follow him.”

“It was time to give it to someone to run the ship,” Havelid said. “I think Kovy, he is this team. This is Kovy’s team.”