I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around how good Ilya Kovalchuk has
been this season. Remember last year when some media outlets mentioned Hossa as
a possible MVP candidate around the midpoint of the season? Kovalchuk is playing
better than that. A week ago everyone was raving about what a beast Henrik
Zetterberg has become, but now Ilya is just two points behind him and two goals
ahead of him with a league-leading 15 goals in 18 games. He's
third in overall scoring with 25 points, just behind Zetterberg and Sidney
Crosby, and he's showing no signs of slowing down.
But here's the most remarkable thing to me- Ilya is a different person than
he was a year ago. He used to be somewhat shy in the locker room, but now he's
sticking around to talk to the media. With the reputation he had early on his
career for being a bit of a hot dog (not that you cold blame a teenager for
showing off with the skills that he had back then) you might think that he's
sticking around to talk about how great he has been playing, but that's just not
the case.
Getting Ilya to talk about himself right now is like pulling teeth. When he
was asked about his OT goal last night the first thing he said was that it was
all about Todd White's hard work. He's deflecting attention from himself and
heaping praise on his teammates at every opportunity. I'm convinced that if a
reporter offered him $1,000 in cash to take credit for a goal he'd pass it up
right now. In the two or three minutes I listened to him last night after the
game I don't think he used the words 'me' or 'I' more than once. Instead it was
all about 'them', 'us' and 'we'.
"We're having a lot of fun."
"Things are going well for us."
"We're a good line."
"We were the better team tonight."
"They're good linemates."
"It was all because of them."
Ilya Kovalchuk has been a great hockey player for a very long time, but now
he's emerging as a great teammate. There can be a big difference between the
two, and now Ilya is both.
It's enough to make you want to vote
for him as an All-Star.
