Ilya Kovalchuk re-signs with the Devils (Photo © nypost.com)

Russian superstar Ilya Kovalchuk will be back with the New Jersey Devils as he will re-sign with the team. The contract’s details will be released during a conference the team will host on Tuesday afternoon.

Kovalchuk is a recent addition by the Devils as they added him to their lineup during the 2010 NHL trade deadline. But the move didn’t boost the Devils like expected as they were defeated by the Philadelphia Flyers during the playoffs’ first round.

During this year’s free agency Ilya Kovalchuk was reported to have refused offers from the Los Angeles Kings, the Atlanta Thrashers and SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL.

SKA offers Kovalchuk $14M per year (Photo © nj.com)

SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL has offered Ilya Kovalchuk a $42M, 3-year contract (which makes its $14M per year), as reported by Russian newspaper Sport-Express.

In case Kovalchuk accepts the offer, he will also get a huge signing bonus.

SKA has long been trying to get Kovalchuk (we wrote about this in November, December and February).

2010 WC: Russia trumps Finland 5-0 (Photo © REUTERS/Grigory Dukor)

Team Russia defeated team Finland 5-0 in the last Qualification Group game of the 2010 World Championship. Alexander Ovechkin ended his goal streak.

Team Finland started well the first period, putting a lot of pressure over Varlamov. But despite a long 5-on-3 chance with Alexei Emelin and Dmitry Kulikov in the penalty box, the Finns didn’t manage to score. With the teams back on even strength Kulikov had a good chance getting out of the sin bin, but he was hooked down by a defenceman, thus drawing a penalty for Bykov’s team. On the consequent man advantage team Russia cycled well the puck, but couldn’t get it into Vehanen’s net.

At the sixteenth minute team Russia scored the first goal of the game: the puck moved fast from Alexander Ovechkin to Alexander Semin to Sergei Fedorov and went in after the veteran’s easy touch.

In the second period Russia started pushing a bit more and midway through the game they had a great chance when Evgeni Malkin and Kovalchuk exchanged the puck while on a 2-on-0, but Vehanen robbed Malkin of a goal with a fantastic save on the forward’s one timer.

At the 33rd minute, with the man advantage, a good rush put Russia up by two goals. Ilya Kovalchuk got the puck deep in the slot, but instead of shooting he nicely served Evgeny Malkin, who one timed the puck between Vehanen’s legs.

The consequent face off was won by Rangers’ Artem Anisimov. Maxim Afinogenov rushed fast on the right and shot, Nikolai Kulemin picked up the rebound and put it in the back of the net.

The thid period started well for Russia as they managed to quickly score twice. First Alexei Emelin scored with a great slap shot from the blue line, then Maxim Afinogenov spoiled a wrong change by Finland to get in front of Vehanen and make it a 5-0 goal with a quick wrist shot. After this goal team Finland benched Vehanen and brought in Predators’ Pekka Rinne.

The rest of the game was considerably slower and the Russians could celebrate a deserved win. Semyon Varlamov started between the pipes and finished the game with a 36-save shutout.

Team Russia’s next game will be the quarterfinal game against Canada, scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th.

2010 WC: Russian preliminary roster is out (Photo © Sport-Express)

Team Russia released the preliminary roster for the upcoming 2010 World Championship, that will be played in Germany from May 7th to 23rd.. Bykov and Zakharkin made some changes from the LG Hockey Games line-up. The roster is made up of 11 NHL players and 12 KHL players. The team’s captain isn’t decided yet. Most likely the starting goaltender duties will be shared between Eremenko and Varlamov, with Koshechkin acting as third goalie.

Goalkeepers:
Alexander Eremenko (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Semyon Varlamov (Washington Capitals)

Defencemen:
Konstantin Korneev (CSKA Moscow)
Vitaly Atyushov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Dmitriy Kalinin (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars Kazan)
Alexei Emelin (Ak Bars Kazan)
Denis Grebeshkov (Nashville Predators)
Dmitry Kulikov (Florida Panthers)

Forwards:
Maxim Afinogenov (Atlanta Thrashers)
Evgeny Artyukhin (Atlanta Thrashers)
Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)
Alexander Semin (Washington Capitals)
Alexei Tereschenko (Ak Bars Kazan)
Artem Anisimov (New York Rangers)
Ilya Kovalchuk (New Jersey Devils)
Nikolai Kulemin (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Maxim Sushinsky (SKA St. Petersburg)
Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant Mytischi)
Sergei Fedorov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles Kings)
Alexander Svitov (Avangard Omsk)

Ilya Kovalchuk: “We need to win now like never before” (Photo © Bruce Bennet/Getty Images)

Ilya Kovalchuk gave an interview to Russian newspaper Sovetskiy Sport where he talked about going to the World Championship without a contract in the NHL, his favorites to win the Stanley Cup, what Russian players agreed to do after failing at the Olympics.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

Many thought that you won’t play for the national team. It is very risky as you don’t have a contract for the next season in the NHL. Besides your wife gave a birth to your son in March. Was this decision hard to take?

Kovalchuk: “After failing in Vancouver all guys agreed to go to the World Championship if there is a chance. We must win and make this season end well.
My wife Nicole understood me at once, told me that the whole family would be watching games on TV and cheer for us. She and the kids stayed in Miami. I spent a week there and flew to Russia.”

Many teams will have either weak or very young rosters. It will be easier for Team Russia to win the gold?
Kovalchuk: “In first place we have to think about our team. It doesn’t matter against whom we will play. All teams will fight against Russia. Especially the young guys, who will want to show themselves. But our team is young too, we have Kulikov, Anisimov, Varlamov, Radulov, Ovechkin, Semin… They aren’t old men, are they?”

But now there is more responsibility. What if we lose to the youngsters from the USA team in playoffs? It will be a low blow like at the Olympics 1980 in Lake Placid. What a shame it was…
Kovalchuk: “You think the Americans will ice students against us? (laughs). No way! The USA will have a good team, as well as Canada will. I saw the rosters, there isn’t a trace of the Miracle on Ice. And besides I don’t even want to think about losing, we aren’t going to Germany to lose.”

Have you talked with Ovechkin and Semin?
Kovalchuk: “Yeah, right after the Capitals were eliminated from the playoffs. I was really surprised that they lost to Montreal. It’s illogical when the 8th team in the East defeats the first. But such surprises are usual for the NHL. Every team has a chance. The Canadiens fought hard and they deserved to advance to the second round.”

Who is going to win the Stanley Cup now?
Kovalchuk: “I think it will be either San Jose or Chicago. Most likely the Sharks. They had hard time defeating Colorado in the first round but now they are 2-0 against Detroit and have good chances of getting into the semifinal. Moreover, I think that the Sharks will be on fire later.”

Do the coaches name the captain?
Kovalchuk: “We had and have the captain, it’s Alexei Morozov. It just happened so that this year he won’t be at the World Championship.” (Morozov is injured – RussianHockeyFans.com)

What would be your reaction if you became the captain?
Kovalchuk: “I was the captain in Atlanta, I know what it means. But we have a lot of leaders in Team Russia. You know, to win the gold you must have 22 captains on the team. And it doesn’t matter who has the C letter on his chest.”

Some say that there should be no World Championship in the Olympics year. What do you think?
Kovalchuk: “I don’t agree. A lot of our fans will go to Germany. And besides, it will be a huge event for Europe. Take the opening-game Germany – USA as an example! It will be played in a football stadium, there will be 76,000 spectators! It will go right into the Guinness World Records. And who can say that we don’t need such a championship?”

Russia’s first game will be on May 9 against Slovakia. Germany, 65 years since the Great Victory. What does it mean for you?
Kovalchuk: “A lot! The Victory Day is a marquee event for our country. We must pleasure our veterans and fans.
My grandfather fought in the war. He was a tankman, he reached Berlin. When I was a kid he told me lots of stories about the war. The WC final will take place in Cologne. And let’s hope that Russia will reach it’s own Berlin — win the gold. We need it now like never before.”

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Ilya Kovalchuk, Denis Grebeshkov and Alexander Frolov added to Team Russia (Photo © RIA Novosti)

As reported by the official site of the Russian Hockey Federation, forwards Ilya Kovalchuk (New Jersey Devils) and Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles Kings), as well as blue liner Denis Grebeshkov (Nashville Predators) have been added to team Russia’s roster for the upcoming 2010 IIHF World Championship in Germany as their NHL teams were excluded from the Stanley Cup run.

This is surely a boost for team Russia, who will miss Anton Volchenkov and Igor Grigorenko due to injuries. Bykov and Zakharkin will be also without Alexei Morozov, Danis Zaripov and Sergei Zinoviev, all sidelined with injuries. Salavat Yulaev’s Alexander Radulov got a mild injury too and will miss the upcoming LG Hockey games in Sweden, but will play in Germany.

2010 Olympics: Team Russia aftermath (Photo © sovsport.ru)

The 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament has probably been the biggest disappointing ever for Team Russia. The early quarterfinal elimination against Team Canada was the worst result ever.

As soon as the tournament was over for Russia, we published the Top 5 reasons for this fail, now RussianHockeyFans.com judged all the players on the roster.

Goalkeepers

Ilya Bryzgalov: B+
He played a good game against Slovakia, but he got a L and thus he got benched in the following matches. He should have get more chances.

Evgeny Nabokov: D
In the first match against Latvia he didn’t look too good, but it was an easy game. Against the Czechs he did his job, but in the quarterfinals he had just a terrible night. He should have been benched earlier. He was really disappointing.

Defencemen

Andrei Markov: C+
Unfortunately he wasn’t in his best shape. He tried hard being useful for his team but he didn’t play his best and also he didn’t get enough ice time.

Anton Volchenkov: C+
One of the best blueliners for this team. He always tried hard, blocked a lot of shots, played physically. But against Canada he didn’t particularly stand out .

Dmitriy Kalinin: C
He didn’t look out of place. He wasn’t team Russia’s best blueliner but he did his job.

Sergei Gonchar: C
Just like Markov he didn’t get too much ice time. And he appeared in the score sheet only once.

Fedor Tyutin: C-
He didn’t do anything special. As a NHL player he should have bring more to the team.

Ilya Nikulin: C-
He didn’t make disasters, but it showed that he’s not used to face elite level competition and he faced some hard time in the own zone.

Denis Grebeshkov: C-
He didn’t impress, even in the round robin games. He still has a lot of room for improvements, but he has to deliver better performances.

Konstantin Korneev: C-
He didn’t look bad, but he was the only pointless player on the roster. The CSKA captain didn’t look out of place in the round robin, even if he has been played most of times in an unusual and unexpected role. His ice time has been limited in the game against Canada.

Forwards

Sergei Fedorov: C+
The proof that you can be a good player even at 40. Even if he looked a bit slow, he played well throughout the whole tournament and despite the infamous quarterfinal game he was one of the best players in Team Russia jersey.

Evgeni Malkin: C
Malkin, just like most of the forwards, played fairly well in the round robin matches, but he didn’t show up when it mattered more.

Pavel Datsyuk: C
Maybe he didn’t gel with his linemates, but Datsyuk didn’t really impress during these Olympic games, he didn’t look the key player he is for the Red Wings, just think about the shoot out attempt against Slovakia.

Alexei Morozov: C
Team Russia’s captain tried hard, but didn’t impress too much. He scored an important goal against the Slovaks, but that’s pretty much all.

Maxim Afinogenov: C
He went unpleasantly unnoticed in the first couple of games, then he improved a bit and scored a nice, yet unuseful, goal against the Canadians.

Danis Zaripov: C-
The ZZM line has always had good chemistry, too bad in Vancouver they played on small ice…He did fairly well in the first couple of games, then he slept away.

Viktor Kozlov: C-
His call was questionable, and he didn’t do too much to make people change idea. That being said, he could have get a chance in the shootouts against Slovakia.

Alexander Radulov: C-
Radulov didn’t play bad, but not great either. He almost spoiled the party against the Slovaks when he missed a chance, got a penalty and then injured Zinoviev, but he probably deserved more ice time.

Sergei Zinoviev: C-
Kudos for playing in the quarterfinals on one leg, but he should have sat on the bench, especially after that terrible turnover in the neutral zone that led Canadians to a goal.

Alexander Ovechkin: D
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the tournament as he was the most awaited player. He was a no factor against Canada and overall lost the phenom fight against Crosby.

Ilya Kovalchuk: D
What a difference between the Kovalchuk we admired at the last two WC in Quebec and Switzerland. He looked more the player on ice at the Turin Olympics. One goal is definitely not enough for a player of his caliber.

Alexander Semin: D
Just like other Russian superstar forwards, he didn’t show up.

Ovechkin, Gonchar, Kovalchuk, Volchenkov talk about Czech Republic, hit on Jagr (Photo © Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

After the 4-2 victory against Czech Republic many players agreed that the Ovechkin hit on Jagr turned the momentum in Russia‘s favor. Team Russia players felt that this was the key event of the game and it helped their team getting the edge over Czech Republic.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of short quotes taken right after the game from Sergei Gonchar, Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeny Nabokov, Alexander Ovechkin and Anton Volchenkov.

“Ovechkin has a very good physical play, that’s why he always tries to pressure the opponents”, Sergei Gonchar told Sport-Express. “Successful actions are always reflected to the team’s morale. This was the case of today’s game. I think the first line played very well.”

Ilya Kovalchuk agrees with him: “It was good when Ovechkin hit Jagr”, Kovalchuk said to Sovietskiy Sport. “He played hard, we got the puck and quickly scored the 3-1 goal. That helped us a lot. Hopefully Zinoviev will be allright. We will play for him too.”

Also Evgeny Nabokov felt that Ovechkin’s hit changed the flow of the game. “The hit on Jagr by Ovechkin was one of the most important moments of the game. Ovechkin is Ovechkin. In any situation he shows who he is and why he’s different from any other player”, he told Sovietskiy Sport. “These games are never easy. It was a very important game for us. We wanted to get the first seed in the Group B and get a bye for the quarterfinals. The game was very intense. It had plenty of shots on goal and battles in the slot. On the powerplays, the Czechs put two players in front of me so to cover my vision. A couple of times they managed to do so that I lost the puck from my field of vision, but the defensemen manage to clear it. The hardest moment was when we were up 3-2 as in such situations usually the opponents give you a good pressure.”

But Alexander Ovechkin himself played down the event a little bit, stating through Sovietskiy Sport that “every shift is important as it’s part of the game. When you want to help your team and play harder, and you are successful in that, you can wake up your team. I wasn’t the only one to play hard, all my team mates fought hard and did everything they could.”

Also Anton Volchenkov wanted to share his opinion, published at Sovietskiy Sport: “The most important part of the game was Kozlov’s goal. We finished the second period ahead. And in the third period Ovechkin had a great hit on Jagr. I know what hits are. That was an outstanding hit and after it we even scored. This too was a really important moment of the game.”

Translation by RussianHockeyFans.com

Ilya Kovalchuk: “At the Olympics you should shove your ‘I’ up a certain place” (Photo © Bruce Bennet/Getty Images)

Ilya Kovalchuk talked about the bad powerplay of team Russia in the 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament, the changes that the team will undergo for the next game against Czech Republic and his ice time in an interview to the Russian newspaper Sovietskiy Sport.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

– The coaches created “the great line”, made up of Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Semin, Malkin, Gonchar. But it didn’t work out well. Why this line failed in playing simple hockey?
Kovalchuk: “It’s not enough to create ‘the great line’, you have to work on the ice. We try hard to improve the powerplay during the practices. We get so many penalties in our favor, they must be used better.”

– Ilya Bryzgalov said that your line played too much on the flanks and that you guys need to crash the net more.
Kovalchuk: “I agree. Someone must stay in front of the goalie. We will make some changes”

– Instead of Semin now there will be Datsyuk.
Kovalchuk: “First of all we should not give up. A single game in such a tournament means nothing. I’m not looking for excuses. We played very badly the third period against the Slovaks and we also allowed a goal. All the players who went for a try in the shootout, including me, should have done a better job. I don’t remember the last time we lost to them. Only in 2006 we lost 3-5. It’s unpleasant. But it’s better to lose a game now than in the play-off. We will learn from this defeat and will support each other. It’s like that for us, the worse, the better.”

– Do you consider shootouts to be your strong side?
Kovalchuk: “Well, it’s fifty-fifty. I tried doing what usually works, but I couldn’t score.”

– During last year’s World Championship in Bern you played 30 minutes a match. Now you spend less time on ice. Is this the reason behind your relative lack of success?
Kovalchuk: “I’m happy by my ice time. Here you should shove your ‘I’ up a certain place. You need to hit the ice and do what the coaches and the partners ask you. We can win only if we do like that. If we start complaining and look offended, then it’s better to stay at home.

– Maybe it’s good that team Russia drove itself into a corner? Now we need to beat Czech Republic to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
Kovalchuk: “We didn’t really drive yourselves into a corner. We should relax and play our way. We will drive ourselves in a corner if it happens in the quarterfinal or the semifinal (knock on wood), and then we would have no chance to redeem. But now we should go to the game against Czech Republic head-high.”

Team Russia latest news: Fedorov misses practice, Kovalchuk out of Malkin’s line, Nabokov to start against Czechs (Photo © Shaun Best, Reuters)

Here is the latest news from the Russian team at the Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver.

Evgeny Nabokov will start in the game against the Czech Republic
Igor Zakharkin, Russian coach to Pavel Lysenkov of SovSport: “We think that with Nabokov in the net our players feel more confident.”

Sergei Fedorov missed a practice
Zakharkin: “Fedorov has an individual program. But he’s alright, there is no injury.”

New lines in the game against the Czech Republic
Zakharkin: “Maybe we are going to swap the center forwards. We think that Kovalchuk’s efficiency should be higher. We remember what chemistry Malkin and Kovalchuk had at the World Championship 2008, but two years have passed and they are different players now, their styles changed too. There is a bit of imbalance on the Kovalchuk-Malkin-Afinogenov line. We hope to fix it.”

Only first three shootout players were known beforehand in the game against the Slovaks
Zakharkin: “We knew who would have first three shootout attempts, but when it went on… Bykov has a good intuition, but this time it didn’t work. We hoped that the game wouldn’t get to the shootout. Now we are going to make a list of players beforehand.”

New power play lines
According to Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express, the new power play lines look like this:
1. Alexander Ovechkin – Pavel Datsyuk – Evgeni Malkin, Kovalchuk – Gonchar
2. Alexander Semin – Viktor Kozlov – Alexander Radulov, Andrei Markov – Ilya Nikulin.
Ovechkin and Radulov were positioned in front of the goalie, screening him.

Update: Team Russia’s coaches swap Malkin with Datsyuk
According to sports.ru, the new top two lines look like this:
1. Alexander Ovechkin – Evgeni Malkin – Alexander Semin, Sergei Gonchar – Fedor Tyutin.
2. Ilya Kovalchuk – Pavel Datsyuk – Maxim Afinogenov, Konstantin Korneev – Denis Grebeshkov.
The other two lines remain the same:
3. Alexei Morozov – Sergei Zinoviev – Danis Zaripov, Ilya Nikulin – Andrei Markov.
4. Viktor Kozlov – Sergei Fedorov – Alexander Radulov, Dmitriy Kalinin – Anton Volchenkov.

Translation by RussianHockeyFans.com