Posted by Lou Lamoriello has done it again!
Whenever dark clouds hover over Devilsland, the whole population shrugs their collective shoulders and thinks: “Lou will handle it. He will come
Lou Lamoriello
up with something.” This year’s dark cloud was the lack of scoring.
In early February every year, right around Groundhog Day, like Puxsutawney Phil, Lou comes above ground, looks at his shadow, foresees the coming of spring and pulls another scoring rabbit out of the hat. Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk, Alexander Mogilny and now… (drum roll) Ilya Kovalchuk.
The hockey press has been filled the last few days with speculation about trades involving Kovy. Will it be the Rangers? The Bruins? The Maple Leafs? Will he re-sign with Atlanta? Not a single mention of New Jersey.
Suddenly, like a Stealth bomber unseen in its approach, an unseen hand reaches out, a deal is struck, and another 40-goal-a-year man is on the next plane to Newark. From the Delaware Water Gap to Hoboken the news travels like wildfire. Ilya Kovalchuk is now a Devil !!! The Devils are on their way to their Fourth Cup. Ovi who?
The beauty of these deals is that Lou always has an attractive set of lesser players to act as the carrot for these deals. Oduya is a proven defenseman, Bergfors had a great first half of the season and Cormier became trade bait with an errant elbow smash two weeks ago. Anssi Salmela, the forgotten man in the trade who came to the Devils along with Kovalchuk, played here last year and can be inserted in the lineup immediately if Coach Lemaire sees it that way.
Playing it close to the vest is a Lamoriello trademark. It is this element of surprise that makes this kind of trade a motivating force in the Devils’ collective make-up.
Congratulations to the brain trust that runs the Devils organization. They have done it again.
Now… on to the playoffs!
Photo: nancyr5213 / Flickr
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[...] might have found a place for Ilya Kovalchuk had the deal been there, but not at the cost of any of the young stars that Dean Lombardi has [...]