Tuesdays With Hildy: Counterpoint to Jooo-an's Rosterbation.

I think I said “fuck anyone who doesn’t want Kovy” on the other post, but that may have been a bit hyperbolic. No one likes a locker room disruptor, but don’t you think that may have had something to do with the other players as well? I’m not trying to justify being a douche, but the Blues are a different team than the Thrashers, and I’m not quite convinced that your reasons should be enough to avoid signing a player of his quality. Although I’m sure there will be similar options, Kovy would be fucking sick in a Blue note, right?

Bah. I just finish counter-pointing your counter-point on the other post, and I click home, and you’ve moved it. Anyways, here it is again. And again, bah.

It seems that a lot of the dissent in ATL was due to him being a great player on a bad team (and not to rag on the Thrashers, cause they’re kinda my 2nd team too, but they were bad. Getting better, but were bad.) He never had played anywhere else and was tired of losing. Now, as an UFA, he can choose where he wants to go. From all the stuff I’ve read on him (granted, I don’t know how much is actually his thoughts, not just people blowing smoke for a story) it seems he isn’t going to just jump at the highest offer, but take time and weigh factors that are important to him. I don’t see anyone being unhappy after signing an $8 mil contract in a city he wants to play in. I know I wouldn’t be.

Also, as russkidan said, I don’t see him as needing to be a team leader. We have Brewer as the C. Tangent Brewer as C defense. Brewer, for all the bad things that have been said about him, I have never heard them come from the team, and especially about his leadership. So we all might think he is terrible, old, fragile, and stupid, but if the team likes him as a leader, which again I have heard nothing against him, he apparently is doing something right. So we have Brewer as C for this year, then I’m hoping it goes to Backes, who to me, seems just as likely to lead by checking his own teammates when they fuck up as talk to them.

Summary: I don’t see him being a team cancer getting that kind of money and playing somewhere he has the choice to go to. And I don’t see him needing to be a team leader, so take that pressure off, and 60 goal seasons, here we come.

Also, I like the idea of taking the pressure off Boyes. Maybe he can learn to shoot the puck at the net instead of the hot chick five rows back. Cause I’m pretty sure no girl is impressed by a puck hitting them in the face. And with Boyes back to 40, thats 100 goals from two guys. Drool…

This is spot on. Everything you hear out here in the East is about his terrible teammanship.

In Lou We Trust also gave a little knock on his powerplay performance

he hasn’t produced enough nor has he done enough to make the power play threatening

Kovalchuk was exclusively used on the left point after his rookie year, he usually played the full 2 minutes. He annually led all Forwards in PP TOI. He was successful in terms of racking up a lot of PP goals, but he also got a TON of PP ice time. His PP pts/TOI per 60 minutes was in the top 10% of all forwards if I remember correctly. The problem in Atlanta is that every team knew we wanted Kovy to shoot and they would just camp out in his lane. Kovy is also picky and will not attempt a one-timer unless the pass is just so. The Thrashers Shots per PP were lower than most teams because of his selectivity.

From everything I’ve heard, Kovalchuck’s a prima donna that we really don’t need wearing the bluenote.
He’s a hell of a player, but he’s not worth what we’d have to pay, both in fiscal terms and as a team.

… I’m just going to quote something that Falconer posted to the Kovy stat post from this AM’s links.

Two Thoughts
1) For those who think Kovalchuk is really a decent player who was drowning on a terrible Thrashers squad, I would urge you to go back and look at three seasons. In 2005-06 Kovy played with Marc Savard on a team that missed the playoff by 2 points. In 2006-07 the Thrashers made the playoffs and last season (2009-2010) the Thrashers were in the hunt until the final two weeks and ended up short by 5 points. If you look carefully at the 2 seasons right after the lockout it is clear that at Even Strength it was the Hossa+Kozlov line that was carrying the load while Kovalchuk+Savard wasn’t as valuable.

2) Also worth nothing is that Kovalchuk’s style of play contributes to a bad team ratio of zone starts. What do I mean? He fails to cover his wing in the D-zone, puck gets rimmed around and opposition holds the puck for another shot save—>faceoff in the Thrashers end—which he helped create. Another common outcome, Kovalchuk carries up the ice and wires a hard shot, if it misses the net the force of the missed shot often rims around the boards and contributes to the opposition being able to break out quickly which gives them more opportunities to create favorable faceoff ratios.

As a Thrashers fan and writer I didn’t want to believe the stats at first. But the stats caused me to watch his shifts more carefully and over time I was converted to the position that the numbers capture the cumulative effect of many small but meaningful bad plays.

What that dude said.

Blueshirt Banter had a little discussion about the 2011 class of UFAs….i love the comments about how the Rangers are going to “land” Backes next off season…good luck..dumbasses.

If the Blues signed Kovalchuk, he would probably be treated the same as Paul Kariya: “Hey, St. Louis! We just signed an All-Star goal scorer! Bring the family to the Scottrade Center for some exciting hockey!” Payne would need to convert him into a team-player who could fit into the 5-man-unit, and utilize him while not basing the entire team’s performance on him. Kovalchuk could bring goals to a team that has had trouble finding the back of the net, and take some of the pressure off Perron and Boyes.

It really just depends on if Kovalchuk can immerse himself into the team and do his job. Will be interesting to see where he goes.

for the right price. There’s a threshold somewhere that would make me balk.

I think if he were to show up in a situation where it wasn’t all on him, he’d be a better fit in the locker room.

From what Hildy has written about why Ilya liked ATL, he’d also like STL a LOT. Many similar characteristics. Sure, he’d be a marquee player, with the requisite spotlight .. but I don’t see St Louis fans committing so much on a single player like that, nor the front office.

I am just curious though, when people are saying that Kovy would take the right money to play for a better team, are the blues really the better team? I thought he left ATL because they were young guys that left him as the marquee player. How exactly does that change in St. Louis? We have players that could become marquee with a little time, but right now very few teams would pick many of the Blues players to market around. Well, maybe Halak, but I don’t consider him official until he has a signed contract.

I think Kovy is too much me me me.

zap Kovy’s azz and carve some DNA off him and inject it into Boyes

/marquee scorer problem

And I’ll leave a comment over on his thread about it, I guess.

Great article and a good read…. but I want Kovy because my blues can’t score. Thats pretty much the only reason why I want him. I also don’t think that Kovy would be the media darling that we all may think… Oshie is right now the face of the blues.

Both Hildy and Gallagher make very convincing arguements….

I think the bottom line though is what does Davis Payne want???….After all this is his tema now and I think what ever makes his job easier is the way hes gonna lean….

Does that mean Armstrong goes after a guy who may or may not be bad for the locker room? Does he get a guy with a gifted hand that can take the pressure off of Boyes and Perron to perform?

Ill be honest……The love of scoring guy in me would love to see Kovy in a Bluenote to take that pressure off of the guys already here…but the dont ruffle any feathers guy in me would like to keep seeing the RIGHT kind of deals made( ala Halak) and build from within

That building from within and making the right deal at the right time will make winning all that much sweeter…….I say save the money for the talent we have……If EJ and Petro become the D-men theyre capable of…then were gonna need the extra bucks to keep them down the road……

the Blues may not really make a big FA splash. They may sign a minor deal, who i dont know, but like dablues said, save your money for the guys we have now who we’ll want to keep around for a long time. i think once our russian draft pick joins the team, we’ll be ready to rumble.

But I hope they make a pitch to him.

He’s the right age.
He fills our greatest need.
He’s a boring homebody who doesn’t need or want LA or NYC.
He won’t be asked to lead anything other than the team’s goal scoring list.