Athlete Bios
Hockey
Kovalchuk seeks gold in third Olympic appearance
Last Updated: Monday, February 8, 2010 | 3:20 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Russia's Ilya Kovalchuk became the first from his country to be chosen No. 1 overall in the NHL draft. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)"I am who I am," Ilya Kovalchuk once said. "I was born to score goals."
He might have added that he was born to score goals for Russia. As a boy in Tver, a city northwest of Moscow, he would watch his father's videotapes of the 1972 Summit Series, the epochal eight-game clash between Canadian NHL stars and the Soviet national team that marked the ascendancy of Russian hockey to best-in-the-world status. It must have left its mark, because much of what Kovalchuk has done since has been about maintaining Russia's place alongside Canada at the game's top level.
Just weeks after being named the tournament most valuable player for leading Russia to the world U-18 championship in 2001, Kovalchuk became the first from his country to be chosen No. 1 overall in the NHL draft - and wound up in the unlikeliest of places: Atlanta. The Thrashers were a two-year-old club trying to establish itself, but Kovalchuk took to the job immediately. "I love the city," he said. "I love the fans. They're my fans."
Kovalchuk scored 29 goals in his first season, 38 in his second and in 41 his third. He spent the NHL lockout season with Ak Bars Kazan in the Russian Superliga, and upon returning to Atlanta scored 52, 42, 52 and 43 goals.
Yet in all that time Kovalchuk and the Thrashers have made it to the NHL playoffs exactly once, in 2007, when they were swept in the first round. The 2009-10 season is the last one on Kovalchuk's Atlanta contract, so to keep him in the fold, Thrashers general manager Don Waddell made him team captain and brought in Russian-speaking forwards to play alongside him. However, Kovalchuk's time with the Thrashers came to an end on Feb. 4, 2010, when he was traded to the New Jersey Devils.
Kovalchuk's biggest achievements have come while wearing the white, blue and red of Russia. He played in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics and in all but one International Ice Hockey Federation world championship since he came to North America. In all, he has scored 25 goals for his country in 66 games at the senior level. One of them was the most memorable of his career.
It came in the final of the 2008 world championship in Quebec City, in overtime against Canada. Russia was on a power play and had a chance to win its first world title in 15 years. Kovalchuk took a pass at the blue-line, walked in unopposed to the high slot and fired home a wrist shot before ripping off his helmet in jubilation and leaping against the glass, mobbed by his teammates.
"This is just a huge win for Russia and I'm proud to be a part of this," Kovalchuk said. "I'm so happy for our fans and for the team."
As it happened, back home in Tver, a Russian television channel had set up a camera to watch the final with Tatiana Kovalchuk, Ilya's mother, in the same modest living room where he grew up watching tapes of the 1972 series. "Ilya!" she shouted when her son scored, then jumped up and down with family members.
She, and all of Russia, will be watching her son again come February.
