CarpathianForest Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Kovy is a world class talent. He played RW (even though is he is a natural LW) on an all round offensively challenged team where he often was the only truly gifted player on his line, and in NJ, the only real shooting threat on the PP. He still managed to put up "decent" numbers, assuming retiring with 1 PPG is still considered good in this crowd. He also lead all players in scoring in our run to the finals untill game 6, and would clearly have been a Conn Smythe candidate had the Devils won. And while I realize the "advanced stats" guys here may not like him (or Ovie), he was the only truly spectacular player to watch on our team, and I will surely miss him a lot.. That said; it might work out for the best in the long run. You better check the Devils roster. You're selling a lot of players short on the excitement meter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevilNurn Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 This is how I like to look at the situation, and it's funny, because literally the day before this whole thing happened, I was sitting, and thinking, comparing Kovalchuk to other NHL superstars. How I ultimately felt, after comparing him to most notably, Giroux, was that yes, they both bring amazing skill and talent to the game, but Kovalchuk's game wasn't very electric. We rarely saw Kovalchuk net a late game, or go ahead goal. His game was just very static, carry the puck through the neutral zone, stop by the boards, wrap the puck around the corners. He never really tried to create chances for himself with dekes, in his last year or two, he was just a pure shooter, and a pure shooter that played a criminal amount of minutes. A final thought that I was left with, after this all happened, was how our shootouts are going to suffer dearly. There was a significant drop off when we lost Parise, now losing them both, our only dependable shootout guy is Patty, other than that, we're screwed. Kovalchuk had never been an electric player with NJ. Not the same player he was in Atlanta certainly. You could see it dragging on him a little this year after he got to play with SKA during the lockout (injury notwithstanding). But he's a superstar. Not the kind that puts butts in seats (non-hockey fans don't care about Kovy, or know who he is). Not like Brodeur, who is somewhat of a local legend here and will continue to be after his retirement. Kovalchuk will be forgotten in a few years. But I'll always remember this as the most significant Kovalchuk moment: And it makes sense that he assisted on the Henrique OT goal vs. NYR. He makes the guys around him better. He's exciting to play with. He's super exciting when he scores. You can't build a team around him like you can with Ovechkin but he's certainly a huge, devastating loss. In retrospect I'm much more disappointed about Zach (still). Zach was truly a great player and a great man who grew up with this team and embodied this team. I still can't help but think he misses NJ a little bit and the role he'd get to play (especially post-Kovy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoArmySports Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 (edited) For those of you who need a laugh today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HrJyhndlX7Y#at=10 Edited July 12, 2013 by GoArmySports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microwavepizza Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 my sister and Brother-in-law got a dog about 3 years ago and they named her Kovy... instantly all of us told her to change the name of that dog immediately. So yesterday my Bro-in-law posted this on facebook... and as of now, they aren't changing their dogs name... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarpathianForest Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 my sister and Brother-in-law got a dog about 3 years ago and they named her Kovy... instantly all of us told her to change the name of that dog immediately. So yesterday my Bro-in-law posted this on facebook... and as of now, they aren't changing their dogs name... Oh sh!t! I got my dog 3 years ago and named her Kovy. My mother said the name was stupid so changed her name to Suzy. Her name is Kovy on the registration paperwork still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazer Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 i like this thread. it's a TRAP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microwavepizza Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Oh sh!t! I got my dog 3 years ago and named her Kovy. My mother said the name was stupid so changed her name to Suzy. Her name is Kovy on the registration paperwork still. hahaha good choice... we loved the name when he was around (Kovy loved it cuz everytime kovalchuk scored, Kovy cot a carrot haha) still have to find a new name to call "Kovy" and if they can be convinced to change it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim777 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Actually, you can change a dog's name every year if you wish, but I wouldn't. Every other year would not mess with the dog - they learn it and go from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 hahaha good choice... we loved the name when he was around (Kovy loved it cuz everytime kovalchuk scored, Kovy cot a carrot haha) still have to find a new name to call "Kovy" and if they can be convinced to change it Love the "Archer" avatar!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microwavepizza Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Love the "Archer" avatar!!! haha thanks, that is one of my favorite episodes (when he gets cancer) cant wait for the next season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 haha thanks, that is one of my favorite episodes (when he gets cancer) cant wait for the next season Me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95Crash Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Well, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who doesn't really care. I don't even care if this seals the deal on me knowing my ass from a hole in the ground - I just don't think he was that big an impact player. The hole left was a hole there anyhow. There was no edge offered by his name. He was a nice solid player but to me it all evened out and he just wasn't any big deal on the team. The only thing that impressed me was his willingness to play the system. But he made it a big drag and didn't share the enthusiasm so it was all a wash. What we gain in losing him makes everything all a wash. I really dont care. I think I'm hanging out here reading and writing just trying to find a reason to really honestly give a sh!t. I hear posters in my head saying "well you should care" and the proceeding list of why I'm stupid. I sincerely feel completely apathetic. I only didn't say so because I care what people think of me -- which luckily I'm gleaning is pretty much nothing anyhow I think if Clarkson hadn't left I might have felt more. but the whole Clarkson thing was so much more real and both sides had so much invested and going on so many more levels. I had fear anger resentment and finally when it was all out on the table - I wish him well and feel content about the whole thing. Kovalchuk - hehh.. so what? When you look deeply to get riled you see it's nothing. an empty apathetic wash You're not the only one who is apathetic about it. I was never a Kovy hater, but I never thought he fit in here. The Devils had so much invested in him, but all too often it fvcked up the whole team. It was like the coaches never knew how to use him. He almost never got to play his natural position, he would be double-shifted way too often, or he would get stuck out on the powerplay for too long. My most vivid memories of him with the Devils is him with the puck in the O-zone trying to create space for himself, making some wild lateral shift and shooting the puck but not scoring on the play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njdevsftw Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 You better check the Devils roster. You're selling a lot of players short on the excitement meter. Well.. anyone who makes the top 6 on an NHL team is clearly a very good hockey player.. More often then not we played Kovy with the Palmieri/Loktionovs of our team, instead of the Elias/Zajacs though.. Kovy is a finisher more then a playmaker.. Would have given my left nut to see him play a season next to someone like Thornton (who's UFA next summer!) or St. Louis. Kovy was an out of character move by the Devils in the first place. They didn't try to play to his strength, but had him adapt to the Devils style of hockey.. Which sorta worked.. after a while. Not an ideal fit in any way, but one that I was hoping would get better and better for at least a few more seasons.. Here's hoping LL signs up either Boyes/Grabo/Raymond + Jagr. Could still be a fun season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triumph Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Well.. anyone who makes the top 6 on an NHL team is clearly a very good hockey player.. More often then not we played Kovy with the Palmieri/Loktionovs of our team, instead of the Elias/Zajacs though.. Kovy is a finisher more then a playmaker.. Would have given my left nut to see him play a season next to someone like Thornton (who's UFA next summer!) or St. Louis. Kovy was an out of character move by the Devils in the first place. They didn't try to play to his strength, but had him adapt to the Devils style of hockey.. Which sorta worked.. after a while. Not an ideal fit in any way, but one that I was hoping would get better and better for at least a few more seasons.. Here's hoping LL signs up either Boyes/Grabo/Raymond + Jagr. Could still be a fun season. Kovalchuk rarely got ice time with Elias but he played with other good players plenty. Here's a breakdown of the forwards he played with most over the last 3 years: Zajac Parise Henrique Palmieri Zubrus Elias Ponikarovsky Josesfon Arnott Loktionov Tedenby I'll stop there, but he played with plenty of skilled players, and his game meshed well with Palmieri's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derlique Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 It'll be interesting to see how Loktionov will be used now. I think we pretty much all expected him to play with Kovalchuk since they had success together for the brief stint Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarDew Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 For those of you who need a laugh today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HrJyhndlX7Y#at=10 I could use a laugh however this video is Private. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devlin Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 Well...at least Patty won't get upset about "him" not showing up to camp late again! Sent from my Galaxy TAB using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshall Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 I'm kinda glad I was out in the woods with only twitter so I couldn't hop on the board and rage up and down about his departure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainRafalski Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 Looks like it is time for zajac and henrique to kick it up another level. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyboyike Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 My friends, as a new member, I'm nowhere near the expert some of you are, but I'll stick my neck out to offer some perspective. What are my qualifications? None, other than my legal first name is Ilia (same name as the gentleman in question, just different spelling) and I'm a native speaker of Russian, although I'm not an ethnic Russian. Neither is Kovalchuk, but I digress.... On the whole "going home" business, I'll offer this: in Russian and Russian-speaking cultures being near family is a very big deal. Big enough deal where being away starts to mess with your mind, affects your work (or in this case athletic) performance, your health, etc. I'm a rare exception to that, I subscribe to George Burns' immortal "happiness is a loving, caring family...in another city". Now, I've been following the Devils since around 1992, and what brought them much success was being a great system team. What do I mean by that? For years you could tune in a Devils game and, unless you read the sweater numbers, you had no idea which line was on the ice, because everyone played more or less the same game. This was a working team, a "blue-collar" team, if you will, and not one that relied on "superstars". More recently, however, that had changed, and the organization started leaning more towards a team of great players, rather than a great team of players. We started relying on superstars. There is nothing wrong with that, except that I don't think that approach has worked. Save for last year, the team's performance has been pretty average, certainly not near as good as it could be. So, how does one go about changing that, about going from a superstar-oriented approach to a team-oriented one? By getting rid of the superstars. I'm going to miss my namesake #17, but I'm not going to miss the mindset that resulted from his (and even Zach's) presence. Everything hung on those two (and on Marty, but that's a separate conversation), and I don't think ultimately that's very healthy. This latest development gives the team a chance to do a master reset, a Ctrl-alt-del. There is now the money and, more importantly, the necessity to rethink things, to look at new ideas without worrying about how so-and-so will play with #17 or what not. Hopefully, this will finally force the organization to start developing some young talent, something they've been slow to do. Between that and the fact that we've finally acknowledged that Marty is not immortal (by acquiring Mr. Schneider), I'm cautiously optimistic. Will this hurt in the short term? Sure. Will the benefits outweigh the losses? Only time will tell, but I think they just might. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steadevils Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 (edited) My friends, as a new member, I'm nowhere near the expert some of you are, but I'll stick my neck out to offer some perspective. What are my qualifications? None, other than my legal first name is Ilia (same name as the gentleman in question, just different spelling) and I'm a native speaker of Russian, although I'm not an ethnic Russian. Neither is Kovalchuk, but I digress.... On the whole "going home" business, I'll offer this: in Russian and Russian-speaking cultures being near family is a very big deal. Big enough deal where being away starts to mess with your mind, affects your work (or in this case athletic) performance, your health, etc. I'm a rare exception to that, I subscribe to George Burns' immortal "happiness is a loving, caring family...in another city". Now, I've been following the Devils since around 1992, and what brought them much success was being a great system team. What do I mean by that? For years you could tune in a Devils game and, unless you read the sweater numbers, you had no idea which line was on the ice, because everyone played more or less the same game. This was a working team, a "blue-collar" team, if you will, and not one that relied on "superstars". More recently, however, that had changed, and the organization started leaning more towards a team of great players, rather than a great team of players. We started relying on superstars. There is nothing wrong with that, except that I don't think that approach has worked. Save for last year, the team's performance has been pretty average, certainly not near as good as it could be. So, how does one go about changing that, about going from a superstar-oriented approach to a team-oriented one? By getting rid of the superstars. I'm going to miss my namesake #17, but I'm not going to miss the mindset that resulted from his (and even Zach's) presence. Everything hung on those two (and on Marty, but that's a separate conversation), and I don't think ultimately that's very healthy. This latest development gives the team a chance to do a master reset, a Ctrl-alt-del. There is now the money and, more importantly, the necessity to rethink things, to look at new ideas without worrying about how so-and-so will play with #17 or what not. Hopefully, this will finally force the organization to start developing some young talent, something they've been slow to do. Between that and the fact that we've finally acknowledged that Marty is not immortal (by acquiring Mr. Schneider), I'm cautiously optimistic. Will this hurt in the short term? Sure. Will the benefits outweigh the losses? Only time will tell, but I think they just might. Great first post and welcome! I agree with everything you said, although I think Parise could have been more of an Elias than a Gomez (if that makes sense) if he had become a FA 1 year later when the 8 year max length was put in place. But overall I agree wholeheartedly that it's time to go back and become the "how are these guys beating us?" Devils! Edited July 13, 2013 by Steadevils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njdevsftw Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 But overall I agree wholeheartedly that it's time to go back and become the "how are these guys beating us?" Devils! Haha.. agreed! One of the reasons I fell in love with the Devils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEWHistory Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 The points about the decline are BS. The league is booming, it's just you're in a forum full of NA who follow other sports which have no competition. There is nothing they can do about this. They have a wide player pool and someone else has been able to tap in on this in the model of soccer, with stupid money and no intention of running a business. The only way the NHL has reaped what they sow is in their transfer dealings where they lowball everyone. So there is zero built-in sympathy. And sooner or later player pool countries in Europe will all have KHL franchises in their countries. I've seen this point being made a few times now and I simply have to disagree. MLB competes with the Japanese baseball league, which is a fairly well financed institution in a wealthy and populous nation. And there are many solid basketball leagues around the world. In fact, much to my chagrin, b-ball is one of the most popular sports in the world. Even Israel has a league that has attracted the odd ex-NBAer, albeit usually minor. So the situation facing hockey is not unique except insofar as how where the competition is coming from. For baseball that competition will come overwhelmingly from Japan, not the poorer nations to our south. For basketball, that competition seems to come from European leagues in general. Look at the significant number of European players to come into the game in recent years. As for hockey the competition seems to be heavily weighted toward Russia (although let's face it, Russians are not the only peeps going home...). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njdevsftw Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 The NA market is unique on this planet in that it has 350 million people with high purchasing power that all speak the same language and share the same culture. Even with your ironically socialist-like draft model and salary cap system, the american leagues offer very high salaries because of said market, even though I think entry-level and two-way contracts will one day be a thing of the past. Especially so if the KHL keeps expanding west into Europe and includes clubs in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ELIAS6 Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 i wonder if anyone is going to come across him until he leaves to go back to russia... he lives in bergen county right in alpine.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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