I can't belive this..?

Question

The Score said that Ilya Kovalchuk is going to win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard trophy this year, AND they said that Kovalchuk is BETTER then Pavel Bure.

Does anyone else find this Ridiculous?

Better then Pavel Bure?

the guy had one good season, chill.

K so they have him winning the Rocket Richard trophy and being better the Bure.


i think it's BS,

what are your thoughts?

(i wanna hear bob's take on this one)

Thank you LITY.

you deserve a cookie.


but "Richard Nash"?

call him Rick :P

Bulian- Well he is, Rick is a better consistant, fluent, goal scorer then Kovalchuk is.

oh yeah, k go to the hockey menu, and look at the top of the screen, whos picture do you see there?



yeah, thats what i thought.

Bob almost makes me wanna change my mind lol, he just made me understand everything.

Wow. lol. holy.

LITY comes out and says that He's not even close, Bob comes out and says he's gunna win.



I see it this way, If Kovalchuk plays the rest of the season without any days off, then he has a shot, if he (hopefully) gets injured then i think he is putting himself well behind.

I don't underestimate him Mike, I just hate him, i understand he had 2 40 goal seasons previously, i just think he's being OVERrated lately.

haha LITY, you know your old fashioned when..

Answer 1

I saw the program you are referring to and I would agree he is the frontrunner for the award (seeing as he has a 3 goal lead to boot). It also wouldn't be his first, would it? I think he shared the award one year.
As for the Bure comparison, Bure was much faster, I think what they alluded to most was that Kovalchuk has better hands to which I think I would tend to agree.
Watching Bure play alot, I used to marvel at what a poor (or nonexistant) backchecker he was, when the puck was in his own end he would hang out between his own blue line and center waiting for the puck to zip him off on one of his frequent breakaways. Kovalchuk (can't believe I am saying this) seems to backcheck more and gets into dirtier areas and relies on his great hands to score, more than with pure speed.
Imagine Bure now in today's game with no center line. It would be a mockery, he'd be at the other teams blueline. Bure may well be one of the worst cherry pickers in the history of the game. An amazing talent nonetheless. I think Kovalchuk will be a 60 goal guy in this league too, perhaps even this year.

I think when all is said and done- I'll disagree with everyone and take Kovalchuk.

Answer 2

Chris, why do you hate Ilya so much?? You say he's had one good season?!? I say he's had THREE great seasons out of his 5 in the NHL (not counting this season). He's won the Rocket Richard before playing in a league where it is tougher to score. While I have never seen Bure play, I can't say Kovalchuk is better than him. Bure has scored 60 goals twice(albeit in the early 90s, when it was much easier to score) while Kovalchuk hasn't yet. But you REALLY underestimate Kovalchuk Chris.

Answer 3

Sorry but I think you are giving him 0 credit. He could win his 2nd Richard trophy and he is only 24. Sure Bure was good but he played back when people could score 60 goals (like what Mike said).

I wouldn't say he is better than Bure right now but he will be better than him soon. He is an amazing goal scorer.

LITY, I agree with the first 2 but Rick Nash? Really?

Answer 4

Kovalchuk "isn't half as skilled as Pavel Bure"?
Come on...
The guy's a perennial 40+ goal scorer for a by-and-large crappy team. In fact, he sounds a lot like Bure when Bure played for the Canucks, doesn't he?
And, maybe he'll get to spend the majority of his career without suffering from terrible injuries that derail him.
Now, if the two were in the same draft year or something, I wouldn't suggest Kovalchuk would be a better choice than Bure but they're sufficiently enough alike in offensive skill that either one would have made a good pick and Kovalchuk has a chance to easily eclipse Bure's numbers despite playing in a much more defensive era than Bure did when he racked up his big seasons.

BTW, if my math is correct, Bure scored 264 goals and 488 total points in his first 468 NHL games, covering 7 years (because of frequent injuries).
Kovalchuk's stats are 229 goals and 424 total points in his first 420 games spanning 5.5 years with no significant injury history.
So, the ppg and gpg are fairly close and Kovalchuk stays healthy...

Better than Bure? No. Equal to Bure? Pretty damned close with the potential to have a better career, for sure.

Answer 5

Ilya Kovalchuk isn't half as skilled as Pavel Bure.

But then, I think that Dany Heatley, Alexander Ovechkin, and Richard Nash are also better natural goal scorers than Kovalchuk.


Chris..........his paycheques say 'Richard Nash' on them. So, I'll call him Richard!

Answer 6

Keep in mind Kovalsmuck is only 24 years old. He still has a TON of good years ahead of him.

He's been a 40-goal scorer in his last three seasons. Does that compare to Bure? No. Bure scored 60 in two of his first three seasons.

Is it off the mark? Yes.

Answer 7

I don't think llya is as talented as Pavel. I got to see him close up while he was in Florida. Not at his prime, but still deadly. He could have a shot at the Richard trophy but, right now he isn't that close. He is a good player on an iffy team. I think The Score said that to get people talking about them anyway. Publicity, wheather you are an idiot or not then people are talking about you.

Answer 8

Pavel almost single handily won them the cup in '94 with Vancouver and I think he was a special player.Kovalchuk could be but not as of right now IMO.

Answer 9

who da heck says rick nash is better pure goal scorer hahaha

Answer 10

bob could it possibly be an apple and oranges thing...