How Much Longer Until Ilya Kovalchuk Decides To Go Back To Russia?
Ilya Kovalchuk is 35 years old. I don’t know how important hockey is to him anymore. He’s been playing his entire life and has made a pretty decent chunk of change in doing so. And when Ilya Kovalchuk signed with the LA Kings this past summer, I think that was the statement he was attempting to make. Kovy is 35. Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter and Dion Phaneuf are all 33. Even Anze Kopitar is 31. So heading into this season, the Kings were the oldest team in the league and it’s not like anybody had them down as being legitimate contenders to win the Cup. I think it’s safe to say that living on the beach in Los Angeles was more of a priority to Ilya Kovalchuk than finally getting his hands on the Stanley Cup.
But even living on the beach and getting paid over $6M a year can only make up for so much losing. And right now, I feel like the cons might be starting to outweigh the pros for Ilya Kovalchuk. The Kings are currently in 31st place in the NHL at 3-7-1. I know that we’re only a month into the season but it doesn’t look like things are going to be turning around anytime soon considering Jonathan Quick had to get surgery for a torn meniscus. That’s at least an 8-week recovery for an elite athlete, could end up being closer to 3 months depending on how cautious they are with getting him back out there.
So the Kings already have the least amount of goals for in the league with 22 goals scored in 11 games. And not only are they not scoring goals, but their goalie could be out through January depending on how *quick* he’s able to recover post-op. Not great! So if the Kings continue on the path they’re on right now and stay in the basement of the league, is the beach really worth it anymore to Kovalchuk? Or would he rather just head back home, be best buddies with Vladimir Putin, stay on the Russian gas and keep playing a few final seasons in the KHL? Only time will tell. But here is a live look at Ilya Kovalchuk waking up every morning in his current situation.
Now I understand that as I’m writing this blog, the Flyers are playing the Kings tonight. Which means that you can probably expect Kovalchuk to score a pair of goals and the Kings will win 5-2 or something like that. But that’s neither here nor there. Because I won’t be there to mush the Kings to greatness every night. The team is old. The team is slow. The team doesn’t score. LA has a lot of traffic. All I’m saying is that I’m gonna start drafting up the “Ilya Kovalchuk Is Going Back To Russia” blog now so that it’s ready to publish once it happens.
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