The couple is gray -haired

Why Ovechkin Kovalchuk, if Washington has everything?

And who said that Ilya Kovalchuk in Washington will be fine, and “Washington” with Kovalchuk - especially? Yes, everyone said ... Well, almost everything: the new Russian five, two super-skis in one club, is expected to go to the Stanley Cup and the Play-Off Life for Kovalchuk, whose parish is the real strengthening of Washington, deepening and expanding the attack. But they didn’t say and did not write. I promised to respond when Kovi has a “minus four”, but also “minus two” received in a twin duel with Winnipeg Jets, perhaps, for a start, is enough for a start.

I do not want anything bad for the defendants. Good luck in all endeavors and continuations. It is clear that both the head coach of Washington Todd Rirden, and General Manager Brian Mcelllan, having received Kovalchuk, were full of optimism. Rirden played with Kovi at the beginning of the zero for Atlanta, for which the young striker was the king and God. McLellan substantiated interest in the veteran with his successful game for Montreal, where Kovalchuk successfully hit after a forced parting with Los Angeles. In California, the striker did not succeed at all, and even talk about the re -return of Kovalchuk to Russia, but now he and the big family, it seems, is not going to leave in the States and is not going to leave the NHL.

“Montreal”, despite all the efforts of the new recruit (9 goals and 13 assists in 39 matches), lost the chances of getting into the playoffs, among the applicants for the Stanley Cup, the cult club has not been listed for a long time, so Kovalchuk did not have much reason to stay in Canada. The Stanley Cup remains for him the main motivating goal, and a sin not to take advantage of the newly arising interest. True, the choice of the club was surprised - according to agent Ilya Jay Pi Barry, Kovalchuk could even sign the main applicant for access to the final from the Eastern Boston conference. But Kovi chose to go to Ovi, which became known immediately after the “best sniper of all time and peoples” abandoned, finally, his 700 puck in the regular championships.

It was clear to me for a long time that the more “Washington” would hide on the historical achievements of Alexander Ovechkin, the less the chances of team success would be.

No, of course, no one, and above all, the captain of Washington himself, does not pedal the topic of such a skew. But since Ovechkin burst into the ten best NHL snipers in history, the excitement around his person has intensified many times. In February, the feeling was created that the expectation of an anniversary washer overshadowed everything. Washington fell, losing to everyone in a row, but the hockey world did not pay attention to such trifles, the answer to the question was important to him: when Ovechkin would take another historical step.

This happened in a lost match with New Jersey: 34-year-old Ovechkin became the eighth NHL sniper and the second most age after Wayne Gretzka, who reached 700. It is just right to establish something like a giant dial in the US capital, on which Ovechkinskiy washers will be counted, which remain before the beaten of the Gretzka super record-he stole 894 goals as a career.

This goal, which only the lazy does not speak, in fact much more important than the Stanley Cup. And what in this format to do Kovalchuk with his blue dream?

Of course, the arrival of Ilya was glad of both the main character, and center forward Yevgeny Kuznetsov, and defender Dmitry Orlov, and young goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov. In the second match of Kovalchuk for the new club, all Russians were on ice, but Samsonov turned out to be the best - if it weren’t for him, then Washington would have gone from Winnipeg with a full wallet, and so the matter was limited to three goals and zero scored heads. Todd Rirden even released Ovechkin and Kovalchuk several times on the ice - about the fact that this is a dead number, he was not reported to him.

Together, Ovi and Kovi performed at nine world championships and three Olympic tournaments. The title for two is one, and it fell on a “miracle in Quebec” -2008. Attempts to combine them into one link, as a rule, ended in failure, including such grandiose as 10 years ago the horror in the Olympic Vancouver. In general, Ilya, as it seems to me, is confident in the composition without large stars-about this version of the Russian national team, he became a two-time world champion and the most valuable player in Bern-2009. In most other cases, the super -bomber was remembered only by “adds”.

So Kovalchuk began at Washington - tried, but gave a goal to the opponent in a home match with Winnipeg. It’s good that Ovechkin helped, having abandoned the 701st puck, and realizing the victorious shootout. In the second meeting with Winnipeg, nothing succeeded. The 36-year-old Kovalchuk has nothing to count on the game in the first two links and for 20 minutes of playing time. With him, Washington will be more like a heavy tank of an outdated structure-unless, of course, a miracle does not happen in the playoffs.

It remains to rely on him.