July 11, 2013: Ilya Kovalchuk is just 30 years old, and one of the top hockey players in the world. Nevertheless, on this day, he announces his retirement. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family.
When I read that, I wrote this in my blog, Uncle Mike's Musings:
Uh... huh. When a politician says he's resigning, or not running for another term, because he wants to "spend more time with my family," that means "I did something wrong, and my wife found out about it, and I have to make it up to her."
Did I mention Kovalchuk is just 30 years old? This past season was shortened because NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is an asshole and locked the players out, so Kovy only played 37 games and scored 11 goals. But look at this chart: Year, age he was when the season ended (his birthday is April 15), goals scored:
2002: 19, 29 (debuts in NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers)
2003: 20, 38
2004: 21, 41 (leads the League)
2005: 22, 0 (entire season canceled, lockout, Bettman's an asshole)
2006: 23, 52 (Jonathan Cheechoo led the League with 56)
2007: 24, 42 (Vincent Lecavalier led with 52)
2008: 25, 52 (Alex Ovechkin led with 65)
2009: 26, 43 (Ovechkin led with 56)
2010: 27, 41 (1st season with the Devils; Sidney Crosby & Steven Stamkos both had 51)
2011: 28, 31
2012: 29, 37
2013: 30, 11
Total goals in NHL play: 417, seemingly well on his way to Hall of Fame election.
Did I mention Kovalchuk is just 30 years old? This past season was shortened because NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is an asshole and locked the players out, so Kovy only played 37 games and scored 11 goals. But look at this chart: Year, age he was when the season ended (his birthday is April 15), goals scored:
2002: 19, 29 (debuts in NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers)
2003: 20, 38
2004: 21, 41 (leads the League)
2005: 22, 0 (entire season canceled, lockout, Bettman's an asshole)
2006: 23, 52 (Jonathan Cheechoo led the League with 56)
2007: 24, 42 (Vincent Lecavalier led with 52)
2008: 25, 52 (Alex Ovechkin led with 65)
2009: 26, 43 (Ovechkin led with 56)
2010: 27, 41 (1st season with the Devils; Sidney Crosby & Steven Stamkos both had 51)
2011: 28, 31
2012: 29, 37
2013: 30, 11
Total goals in NHL play: 417, seemingly well on his way to Hall of Fame election.
Total goals with the Devils: 89.
In 2012, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup Finals, and in the Playoffs, Kovy had a league-leading 8 goals, plus 11 assists.
He came from one of the great sports clubs on this planet, Spartak Moscow, better known for its soccer team, which, from its 1935 founding, was the most popular sports team in the Soviet Union, and it remains the most popular in the Russian Federation. He's also scored 6 goals for Russia in Olympic play.
What bothers me about Kovy's "retirement" is not that it happened, but how, when, and the appearance of why:
How: At the age of 30, when most hockey players are well in their prime. True, since the 2010-11 season began, he hasn't been what he was from 2002-03 to 2009-10. But he sure seems like a good option, especially since there are only 2 players on the Devils who scored more goals in 2012-13, and one of them, David Clarkson, has already buggered off to his hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Right. Have fun trying to win a Stanley Cup there. It's only been 46 years.) The other is Patrik Eliáš, and he signed a new contract with the Devils, and at age 37 shows no sign of slowing down.
Indeed, this should be another sign: For whatever reason, hockey players maintain their peak longer than athletes in the other major sports. Dainius Zubrus just turned 35, and while he's not an out-and-out scoring cog, he's still a good all-around player, and shows no sign of slowing down.
When: After the NHL Draft, making it harder for Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello to make the kind of moves that have Devils fans frequently saying, "In Lou we trust."
Why (apparently): The rumor is that he's sick of Bettman's assholery and the shenanigans of his puppetmasters, the NHL team owners, and would rather play back home in Mother Russia, in the Kontinental Hockey League. (That's not a purposeful misspelling, meant to tweak the Russkies: It is actually spelled with a K.)
On the other hand, playing in the KHL, which doesn't have a salary cap, means that he can pretty much make as much money as he can con someone into paying him. Considering that Spartak are building a new stadium for their soccer team, I'm guessing it won't be them. Anzhi Makhachkala, for the moment, only play soccer, not hockey, but if they start a hockey team, they can certainly afford Kovalchuk.
Ilya, you could have been a Devils Legend. Instead, you're a weasel.
Granted, there have been more hated former players. The most hated would have to be Scott Gomez, for going to the hated Rangers for more money. But he has done nothing since leaving the Devils: Not for The Scum (hockey edition), not for the Montreal Canadiens, not for the San Jose Sharks. Whereas, for the Devils, he appeared in 3 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 2 Cups.
Eventually, we should forgive Gomer. But Kovy? He's a rat jumping off a ship he thinks is sinking.
In the short term, we're going to have to come up with a player, or players, capable of scoring 30 goals in a season. In the long term, that's a lot of money we won't have to pay him.
But I'm reminded of something that Angelo Cataldi of Philadelphia sports-talk station WIP said of the only 2 coaches ever to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl berth, and how Delaware Valley fans compare them.
In spite of winning more regular-season games, winning more Playoff games, reaching more Playoff berths, and reaching more NFL or NFC Championship Games, than any other Eagles coach, Andy Reid, now gone, is not as loved as Dick Vermeil, who was bossman of the Broad Street Birds for a comparatively brief time and left while he still should have had a lot of good years left.
However, but, by his own admission, Vermeil might not have had a lot of good years left if he had stayed, because he was running himself ragged. "Burned out" was the term he used. Since he's still alive, and, after a long layoff that included college football broadcasting on ABC, won a Super Bowl with another team, it's hard to say he made the wrong decision.
Cataldi: "Vermeil has friends all over America. Reid has money under the cap."
So, again, in another league, a salary cap dictates how competitive a team is allowed to be.
I hate salary caps. Sure, they give lesser teams a chance. But they don't give them much of a chance. And when your team does start winning, it means that winning has to stop sooner than it would have if you were allowed to make the adjustments necessary to stay on top.
So Kovalchuk is gone. He could have been a Devils Legend.
Instead, he's a reminder that, while our club is a good one, with a good history, it could have been so much better.
This is not the time to rip into the Cult of Saint Lou. There will be other times to expose Lamoriello as The Big Bald Cheapskate. This is not his fault.
This is Gary Bettman's fault, for being an asshole who has harmed the National Hockey League far more than he has helped it.
And this is Ilya Kovalchuk, for taking a bad situation, and making it worse, when he could have stayed and, at least for his own team, made it better.
The dirty Russian weasel. Ilya Kovalchuk. A quitter of a hockey player from Russia. Sarah Palin can see his contract from her house.
In 2012, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup Finals, and in the Playoffs, Kovy had a league-leading 8 goals, plus 11 assists.
He came from one of the great sports clubs on this planet, Spartak Moscow, better known for its soccer team, which, from its 1935 founding, was the most popular sports team in the Soviet Union, and it remains the most popular in the Russian Federation. He's also scored 6 goals for Russia in Olympic play.
What bothers me about Kovy's "retirement" is not that it happened, but how, when, and the appearance of why:
How: At the age of 30, when most hockey players are well in their prime. True, since the 2010-11 season began, he hasn't been what he was from 2002-03 to 2009-10. But he sure seems like a good option, especially since there are only 2 players on the Devils who scored more goals in 2012-13, and one of them, David Clarkson, has already buggered off to his hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Right. Have fun trying to win a Stanley Cup there. It's only been 46 years.) The other is Patrik Eliáš, and he signed a new contract with the Devils, and at age 37 shows no sign of slowing down.
Indeed, this should be another sign: For whatever reason, hockey players maintain their peak longer than athletes in the other major sports. Dainius Zubrus just turned 35, and while he's not an out-and-out scoring cog, he's still a good all-around player, and shows no sign of slowing down.
When: After the NHL Draft, making it harder for Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello to make the kind of moves that have Devils fans frequently saying, "In Lou we trust."
Why (apparently): The rumor is that he's sick of Bettman's assholery and the shenanigans of his puppetmasters, the NHL team owners, and would rather play back home in Mother Russia, in the Kontinental Hockey League. (That's not a purposeful misspelling, meant to tweak the Russkies: It is actually spelled with a K.)
On the other hand, playing in the KHL, which doesn't have a salary cap, means that he can pretty much make as much money as he can con someone into paying him. Considering that Spartak are building a new stadium for their soccer team, I'm guessing it won't be them. Anzhi Makhachkala, for the moment, only play soccer, not hockey, but if they start a hockey team, they can certainly afford Kovalchuk.
Ilya, you could have been a Devils Legend. Instead, you're a weasel.
Granted, there have been more hated former players. The most hated would have to be Scott Gomez, for going to the hated Rangers for more money. But he has done nothing since leaving the Devils: Not for The Scum (hockey edition), not for the Montreal Canadiens, not for the San Jose Sharks. Whereas, for the Devils, he appeared in 3 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 2 Cups.
Eventually, we should forgive Gomer. But Kovy? He's a rat jumping off a ship he thinks is sinking.
In the short term, we're going to have to come up with a player, or players, capable of scoring 30 goals in a season. In the long term, that's a lot of money we won't have to pay him.
But I'm reminded of something that Angelo Cataldi of Philadelphia sports-talk station WIP said of the only 2 coaches ever to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl berth, and how Delaware Valley fans compare them.
In spite of winning more regular-season games, winning more Playoff games, reaching more Playoff berths, and reaching more NFL or NFC Championship Games, than any other Eagles coach, Andy Reid, now gone, is not as loved as Dick Vermeil, who was bossman of the Broad Street Birds for a comparatively brief time and left while he still should have had a lot of good years left.
However, but, by his own admission, Vermeil might not have had a lot of good years left if he had stayed, because he was running himself ragged. "Burned out" was the term he used. Since he's still alive, and, after a long layoff that included college football broadcasting on ABC, won a Super Bowl with another team, it's hard to say he made the wrong decision.
Cataldi: "Vermeil has friends all over America. Reid has money under the cap."
So, again, in another league, a salary cap dictates how competitive a team is allowed to be.
I hate salary caps. Sure, they give lesser teams a chance. But they don't give them much of a chance. And when your team does start winning, it means that winning has to stop sooner than it would have if you were allowed to make the adjustments necessary to stay on top.
So Kovalchuk is gone. He could have been a Devils Legend.
Instead, he's a reminder that, while our club is a good one, with a good history, it could have been so much better.
This is not the time to rip into the Cult of Saint Lou. There will be other times to expose Lamoriello as The Big Bald Cheapskate. This is not his fault.
This is Gary Bettman's fault, for being an asshole who has harmed the National Hockey League far more than he has helped it.
And this is Ilya Kovalchuk, for taking a bad situation, and making it worse, when he could have stayed and, at least for his own team, made it better.
The dirty Russian weasel. Ilya Kovalchuk. A quitter of a hockey player from Russia. Sarah Palin can see his contract from her house.
In the 10 seasons since, the Devils made the Playoffs only once. Are the Devils under "The Curse of Kovalchuk"? Or is there another reason for their struggles? Probably poor management, which is usually the case when a sports team seems to be "cursed."
*
Kovalchuk signed with SKA Saint Petersburg, and played with them until 2018, winning 3 KHL titles. In 2018, with the Russian Federation suspended from Olympic competition, a team called "Olympic Athletes from Russia" was set up, and he led them to the Gold Medal at the Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
He then returned to the NHL, playing the 2018-19 season with the Los Angeles Kings. He played the COVID-interrupted 2019-20 season with the Kings, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Washington Capitals, bringing his NHL goal total to 443. He then returned to Russia.
As if I needed another reason to despise Kovalchuk: In 2018, he joined Putin Team, a group of Russian celebrities founded by Ovechkin, to support President Vladimir Putin. Among the other members were hockey stars Pavel Bure and Evgeni Malkin, and figure skater Evgeni Plushenko.
(UPDATE: He retired in 2024, after 1 last season with Spartak. As of the elections of 2026, he has not been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.)
*
July 11, 2013 was a Thursday. This was also the day that the TV show Orange Is the New Black premiered. I have a separate entry for this event.
These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-4 at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte outpitched Ervin Santana. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base, and an RBI. Alex Rodriguez was injured, and did not play.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Nationals, 3-1 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 3-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.
* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. How many Cubs does it take to pitch a 4-hit shutout? This time, 5: Edwin Jackson allowed 3 hits over 7 innings, and 4 relievers finished the job.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-1 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2 at Petco Park in San Diego.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-7 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Daniel Nava singled Jackie Bradley Jr. home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. David Ortiz went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.
* And the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Angels, the Miami Marlins, the New York Mets, the Oakland Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.
