I am glad Kovalchuk is out there a lot. He will continue to make mistakes, but at the same time he will score a ton of goals. Parise should double shift with him more and sit down players like Janssen and Boulton. I'm sure the team will do a lot better with Parise and Kovy on the ice more.
Kovy does seem to get better as the game progresses but how bout giving him someone to play with on that 4th line? Maybe Sykora or Henrique at center because it might as well be Kovy 1 against 3 or 4 - the other skaters are just background filler. Maybe when Travis Zajac gets back and the depth of forwards gets pushed back, our 4th line will actually be something, but right now the only guy from that 4th line who has done anything is Janssen. Kovy is just keeping the meter running until everyone is ready to go again. Pelley, Mills, Boulton this could be your last shot, so you better try and do something with it.
draw or not, Kovalchuk is beneficial to us actually having some scoring on this team. Sure defense wins games, and many don't care if we win 1-0 in regulation, or even if it goes to OT or a shootout. What the casual fans come to see is the scoring (isn't that really the only reason they keep that stupid shootout anyway?) So that will definitely help get people in the seats. As far as the team, ever noticed, the more scoring you do, the better GF you have an that's a tie-breaker in the standings, so we DO need to amp up our scoring. You have a guy who for the first 7 years WAS the whole team, now he has to be just one of many weapons, you can't break that mentality overnight, in 1 or 2 seasons or you may not totally ever. It's a gradual continual process to get a player not to force what isn't there when it's been his mindset for a long time...
