When New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello made the trade that brought Ilya Kovalchuk over from the Atlanta Thrashers there were plenty of prognosticators that felt the acquisition would cement the Devils as a Stanley Cup favorite.
Kovalchuk is arguably one of the games best snipers, a tremendous talent who possesses incredible speed and great on-ice vision and a nose for the net—all the tools that make up a superstar in today’s NHL.
Unfortunately for the Devils, Kovalchuk is yet to show his true worth, struggling to adjust to his new line mates and new system since coming over from the Thrashers, and now, struggling to find his game in the playoffs.
Thus far in the Devils series versus the Philadelphia Flyers, Kovalchuk has managed to light the lamp just once. Kovalchuk fans will point to the fact that he leads the Devils in points with five, but the Devils didn’t acquire Kovalchuk to set up teammates, he’s here to do one thing and one thing only—score goals.
More alarming is the fact that Kovalchuk has amassed a paltry six shots through the first three games—none in game number three. His inability ...
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Article written by Mark Ritter
New Jersey Devils Sniper Ilya Kovalchuk Needs To Step Up His Game
April 19th, 2010 by Mark Ritter Leave a reply »
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