Will the real Alex Kovalev please show up!

Its a statement that Sens fans have said to themselves over and over again. Will we see the Alex Kovalev that rightfully deserves the 5 million Melnyk is paying him? well we didn't, we certainly may have got the worst case scenario in Kovalev's first of 2 seasons in the Capital, well other than an injury lasting the majority of the season. Still 18 goals and 31 assists for 49 points is a pretty solid season, NOT if your name is Alex Kovalev and you only missed 5 games though. Worth mentioning is 7 of the 18 goals came in 2 games, a hatrick against the Canes at home and a 4 goal effort on a Sunday afternoon against Philadelphia in Ottawa which just happend to be the next time Kovalev scored after the Trick against the Canes, 10 games later not counting the 3 he missed due to his Mother in law's death. So it basically (as much as it pains me to write it) means Kovalev scored 11 goals in 75 games. Kovalev also had his lowest total of shots on goal (165) in (77 games) since 1998-99 where he had 156.... in 63 games though. I personally think we should have gotten more out of AK27 last year and that all the blame should not be placed on Alex's shoulders, and I'll explain why I feel thats the case.



Alex was predominately put and left on the second line with Mike Fisher. Granted we seen the best we have ever seen out of Fish, it however left us begging for more from Kovalev. For the most part Kovalev was a main stay on the 2nd PP unit... NOT THE FIRST... Sure we seen him come out with Alfie and Spezz on unit 1 but not consistently, and not on a regular basis, and to my recollection during a game CC would put him out on unit 1 during one PP, and then Sens will get another and he'll be on unit 2, and the likes of Ryan Shannon would be in AK27's spot. I couldn't and still can't believe CC didn't STRESS getting Kovalev the puck on the PP for the off-wing one time.. You know the way Malkin gets set up by Gonchar... There is no reason why, except poor coaching, and well in CC's case INEXPERIENCE. But with that said I can't help but ask myself. If I noticed this, how can an NHL calibre head coach miss it. Kovalev had a grand total of.. count em... 4 powerplay goals last season, FOUR! the last 2 seasons prior to coming to Ottawa he had 28 PP goals COMBINED in Montreal. 17 in 2007-08 and 11 in 2008-09. One thing that one can't deny is his production in the shoot-outs for us going 5 for 8.

Coach Clouston jumbled and mixed lines like he was rolling dice in his hands all season, and in my opinion it's the reason why the likes of Cheechoo, Kovalev and Michalek had lackluster seasons. Jumbled the lines he did, but one combination that was non-existent was Kovalev with Spezza. I think I can count on one hand how many times I seen Kovalev out with Spezza even strength. If you ask me it should have been a no-brainer. For instance: you have a sniper who has scored about 400 goals in his career and one of the most gifted passers in the NHL today in Spezza. They could have lit up opposition goaltenders on some nights together. I brought this up a few times with people and some experts. Most said Kovalev and Spezza are both puck possession players, you can't have them on the same line. WTF... What kind of horsepoop is that? I don't and won't buy it. In my opinion pretty much everyother coach in the world would have at least tried it for a period of 5 or 10 games, but we got to see them together about 5 or 10 times TOTAL... I'll be the first to admit that watching Kovalev on a lot of nights was downright nauseating,, but AT TIMES,, it was MAGICAL.

I mentioned the Gonch-Malkin connection for the off-wing onetime, well as Sens fans are well aware the man who is the BEST offensive defensemen (next to Lidstrom) in this ERA is now an Ottawa Senator. Clouston should ensure that Kovalev and Gonchar are on the same PP unit FOR GOOD, and we could verywell see Kovalev top 30-40 goals and 10 or maybe even 15 on the PP this coming season. Keep Kovalev with Spezza and have Alfie play on the Right side of either Regin or Fisher... The makings are there for success and free pizza everyother night at SBP, Coach Clouston just has to play his cards right. And let's not forget Alex Kovalev is Russian, and in the final year of his contract! If we wants a job next year he has got to have a solid productive season, because a repeat of last year will have him playing in the KHL with Nabokov.