Friday
Feb052010
Kovalchuk as a Devil
Ilya Kovalchuk's Devils jerseySomebody was hard at work this morning customizing a New Jersey Devils sweater at the NHL Store in New York with Ilya Kovalchuk's name and No. 17.
If you were watching NHL Live this afternoon on NHL Network you got a sneak peek at the new red jersey there on display. But in case you didn't, I have it here for you.
Kovalchuk takes the ice for the first time as a Devil tonight as his new team hosts the Maple Leafs — another team with a handful of brand new players.
Update on Friday · Feb 5 · 2010 | 4:48 PM PST by
Chris
Chris
Kovalchuk dons the red threads in his first Devils game
The Devils just posted this picture on their web site so I thought I'd share it. It's real. There's Ilya Kovalchuk wearing his brand new Devils sweater. It looks good on him.
Reader Comments (11)
I can get used to this jersey. Looks pretty good.
Wooo!
Enjoy your temporary jersey! He's only signed until the end of the season. Unless the Devils come up with more than 101M for 10yrs, kiss him goodbye.
That was fast! ......That jersey will be a collectible by the summer, he ain't staying there for long!
His name looks good with the jersey but hard to imagine a high flying shooter on that team lol
Any guesses as to where he'll go after Jersey?
I'm guessing he already has a secret deal with the KHL.
He'll end up in the KHL... No team in this in the NHL would be dumb enough to use nearly a quarter of the cap space on one guy that seems to be too selfish for the team anyways, but we'll see. We should all start designing jerseys for the new Quebec City team...The 19 Thrashers fans have probably never heard of Oduya, Bergfors, and Cormier and probably won't last too long...Feel a little bad for poor Waddell, the guy did everything he could to keep him. Unfortunately for the Thrashers there isn't a face of the club anymore. Perhaps in 30 more years, the NHL will try to expand to Atlanta again for the third time. I always kinda liked the Thrashers even though they've never really be a good team.
JD,
You are nuts. The 19 Thrashers fans? The team has never won a playoff game in 11 years and you wonder why fans stopped coming to the games the last two seasons? The Thrashers set an expansion attendance record when they came into the league and outdrew the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, and Boston Bruins regularly. I mean look at the Devils, they just got a top 10 player in the league and their brand new arena is half empty. The Thrashers don't draw because their ownership is awful and their GM is an idiot and still keeps his job. Not to mention last year the owner actually cursed at a fan because the fan actually had the nerve to ask why does Waddell still have his job. The Thrashers are going nowhere. And I'm a huge hockey fan and I have barely heard of Oduya, Bergfors, and Cormier. So you can't expect casual fans to know who they are. Most people know Patrice Cormier as the insane guy who elbowed that kid in juniors. Oduya is good and should continue to improve and Bergfors is a toss up at best at this stage in his career.
Kovy isn't going to the KHL. He has said more than a few times that he likes playing in the NHL. The only reason he turned down 101 million is because it was Atlanta offering it. He'll still be one of the NHL's superstars next year, you wait and see. Whether or not he'll be a Devil (the red does look good, can't wait to see him in the red/green retro) is up in the air. I guess it all depends on if Lemaire tries to make him play the trap or not...
Scott, I'm just saying exactly what you did. Pardon me for being sarcastic about the 19 fans in Atlanta, there are definitely more than that. 11 years without a playoff win will make fans from any team restless. Trust me, I know, I'm from Calgary and I know how bad the Flames were in late 90's...It was absolutely awful. So much that we were so close to moving the team out of Calgary to the States somewhere...A few less season ticket packages sold and poof. Gone. And that's the thing, how much longer will the people of Atlanta put up with mediocrity that is the Atlanta Thrashers? (Perhaps the real reason IS Don Waddell) Sooner or later they are just going to stop coming. The average fan pull in Atlanta has been at best bottom 1/3 in the league since they got there and in the past 5 years it has been about 27 or 28th. This is a city of over 5 million people! Bad ownership or not, there aren't results being seen on the ice and there needs to be. The Thrashers organization can't possibly be making money with those kinds of numbers! My point is, there isn't a clear cut star player on the team anymore. Who then is "the average fan" going to go and watch? "Atlanta Thrashers? Meh, the team sucks and I don't really know anyone on the team anymore".....So why go? That's why I feel bad for Waddell, he's trying to rebuild his team like any other GM would, but the fans don't want anymore rebuilding...they want a winning team, now, and that's just not happening. Just saying, Mr. Peabrain Bettman has talked to guys in Quebec City about a possible team there (not next season or the one after or even the one after that....) and they're not going to expand again... We all know Bettman's romantic love relationship with the Coyotes....So it would lead me to believe that a team in the southeast will be moved, in the foreseeable future. If not Atlanta then perhaps the Panthers or the even Predators from the west... But at least a bad Pred's team consistently over achieves! These are consistently among the lowest revenue teams in the league. Call me nuts, but that's what I think.