Alex Kovalev appreciation thread

I know this is a little bit early especially since he hasnt played a game for the sens yet but there is an article
http://senators.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=487066

just a couple of points i want to highlight

Now the player with the jaw-dropping moves on the ice is stickhanding
his foundation toward the capital region. Kovalev intends to partner
his charity’s work with that of the Sens Foundation. It’s expected
he’ll make an initial donation of $10,000 to $15,000 from the proceeds
of his second annual charity golf tournament, which is set for Thursday
at the Elm Ridge Country Club in Île-Bizard, Que.


“We’re planning to give a donation to the Ottawa Senators Foundation to
help some kids with cardiac problems,” said Walter Valentini, the
general manager of the Kovalev and Friends For Kids Foundation.

“Alex has done a lot of work (in the past) with the Montreal Canadiens
Foundation and he wants to have to same kind of interaction with the
Ottawa Senators Foundation. We want to work together.”


and

Last week, the Kovalev Foundation brought 65 youngsters to a camp in
Montreal. Tomorrow’s golf tournament, which raised $160,000 last year,
is expected to be another huge success. A fundraising fashion show in
Montreal, organized by Kovalev’s wife, Eugenia, is planned for the fall.

In addition, Kovalev released a hockey tips and training DVD in March
2008 with 100 per cent of the proceeds – more than $120,000 to date –
going to his foundation.



i know there is a lot of questions about him but it seems to me despite that i want this guy on the team he is going to be a good community guy read the article for the full goods on his charity

:****: :___: :KKK: :####:

:%%:

well he chose to sign here, other than that spoiled brat # 15 that wants to get out of here, so that enough puts Kovy in my good graces, he will definitely help the community out tremendously, possibly doing joint ventures between his organization in Montreal and his new home in Ottawa. He will bump up our power play immensely, so yes, we should have a higher success rate on the 5 on 3 power play, that will be so great. AK27, thanks for coming here and making this team better.

i really love how 100% of the proceeds from his video went to the charity to me thats amazing yes he doesnt need the money but that doesnt always stop people from taking it

watching Alfie play keep away with the rest of the league on the first PP unit, then watching Kovalev do it on the second PP unit is going to be amazing. Honestly, if Alfie, Spezza, Kovalev, Fisher, and Kuba get to play once in a while on the same PP unit, there won't be a more potent PP in the league.

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:i really love how 100% of the proceeds from his video went to the charity to me thats amazing yes he doesnt need the money but that doesnt always stop people from taking it

agreed, I wish all pro players (and I am sure a generous percentage of them do) realized that what they are doing is a privilege, they have lots of cash to go around, so they should be helping the less fortunate, even if it's not through money. Fisher is always devoting his time to causes in Ottawa, some not even being registered charities. I am sure we all remember the story of little Elgin.

Oh wow...that's so awesome that he's helping kids with cardiac problems. From Heatley...to this...very nice.

:^^:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh wow...that's so awesome that he's helping kids with cardiac problems. From Heatley...to this...very nice.

:^^:

The first thing Heatley did after signing his new deal with OTT is give $4-5 mil to a charitable organization in Snyder's name.

Don't let this incident blow things out of proportion. Heatley is not the next Hitler, no matter how badly you or any die-hard Sens fan wants him to be. Stop drinking the Brennan cool aid.

rooneypoo wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh wow...that's so awesome that he's helping kids with cardiac problems. From Heatley...to this...very nice.

:^^:

The first thing Heatley did after signing his new deal with OTT is give $4-5 mil to a charitable organization in Snyder's name.

Don't let this incident blow things out of proportion. Heatley is not the next Hitler, no matter how badly you or any die-hard Sens fan wants him to be. Stop drinking the Brennan cool aid.

and it would be really unfair for us to think he is, but he has definitely left a bad taste in the mouth of Sens fans, and sure we may go a bit overboard with the criticism/lack of niceties, but for now, we figure it is justified.

rooneypoo wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh wow...that's so awesome that he's helping kids with cardiac problems. From Heatley...to this...very nice.

:^^:

The first thing Heatley did after signing his new deal with OTT is give $4-5 mil to a charitable organization in Snyder's name.

Don't let this incident blow things out of proportion. Heatley is not the next Hitler, no matter how badly you or any die-hard Sens fan wants him to be. Stop drinking the Brennan cool aid.

Thats the LEAST he could do.

rooneypoo wrote:The first thing Heatley did after signing his new deal with OTT is give $4-5 mil to a charitable organization in Snyder's name.

Don't let this incident blow things out of proportion. Heatley is not the next Hitler, no matter how badly you or any die-hard Sens fan wants him to be. Stop drinking the Brennan cool aid.

I remember that. And I remember thinking, did he do this because he wanted to, or did he do this because he felt 'it was the right thing to do'.

Kovalev has been doing this for years and years and years. I didn't know about this one, but it doesn't surprise me in the least.

Is Heatley Hitler? No. Is he an asshat? For sure.

SpezDispenser wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:The first thing Heatley did after signing his new deal with OTT is give $4-5 mil to a charitable organization in Snyder's name.

Don't let this incident blow things out of proportion. Heatley is not the next Hitler, no matter how badly you or any die-hard Sens fan wants him to be. Stop drinking the Brennan cool aid.

I remember that. And I remember thinking, did he do this because he wanted to, or did he do this because he felt 'it was the right thing to do'.

Kovalev has been doing this for years and years and years. I didn't know about this one, but it doesn't surprise me in the least.

Is Heatley Hitler? No. Is he an asshat? For sure.

Man, that is cynical -- and a sad testament to the Heatley hatred on this site.

Look, you could make that exact statement about ANYONE, ANYTIME they give charity. "Kovalev just did it to ingratiate himself with the new fans"; "Fisher just does it to look like a good Christian"; "Alfie just does it because he wants his number hanging from the rafters in OTT". It'd be BS to say that of them, just like it's BS to say it of Heatley.

Heatley wants off this team. Who cares about why right now. Just get over it. He doesn't want to be here. It's not the end of the world. We'll get something of value for him, or we won't move him. If that happens, he's an Ottawa Senator, and you're going to have to deal with him being on your team. If you cheer against him, you cheer against Ottawa and you're hurting the team. It's as simple as that.

Put aside the hurt feelings and the 'what if' scenarios. Put aside unfounded assumptions and the desire to demonize. It's a job, and Heatley doesn't like his work conditions, for whatever reason. That doesn't make him Hitler for sure. I'm not even sure if that makes him an asshat -- and even if it does, he's OUR asshat until the day he gets traded.

While I think a lot of the Heatley hatred amongst Sens fans is overstated, but I don't think that means we should just act like nothing's changed.

In regards to his character, I doubt we know everything, but the way this has come out just makes him look like a crybaby.

This is how I've begun to envision the negotiations/
Heatley: I want more ice-time
Heatley: I don't want coach to criticize me
Heatley: I want to have a penalty-killing role
Heatley (inferred): I don't want to have to work for anything
Heatley: I want a trade
Heatley: I don't want to go to Edmonton, I want to pick where I go
Heatley: Murray isn't working hard enough to trade me

and on and on.

I'm sorry, it's hard to look at the guy in the same light as the adulation I held him in when he started that '05-'06 season with however long that point-streak was (38 games?).

rooneypoo wrote:
Man, that is cynical -- and a sad testament to the Heatley hatred on this site.

Look, you could make that exact statement about ANYONE, ANYTIME they give charity. "Kovalev just did it to ingratiate himself with the new fans"; "Fisher just does it to look like a good Christian"; "Alfie just does it because he wants his number hanging from the rafters in OTT". It'd be BS to say that of them, just like it's BS to say it of Heatley.

Heatley wants off this team. Who cares about why right now. Just get over it. He doesn't want to be here. It's not the end of the world. We'll get something of value for him, or we won't move him. If that happens, he's an Ottawa Senator, and you're going to have to deal with him being on your team. If you cheer against him, you cheer against Ottawa and you're hurting the team. It's as simple as that.

Put aside the hurt feelings and the 'what if' scenarios. Put aside unfounded assumptions and the desire to demonize. It's a job, and Heatley doesn't like his work conditions, for whatever reason. That doesn't make him Hitler for sure. I'm not even sure if that makes him an asshat -- and even if it does, he's OUR asshat until the day he gets traded.

My point wasn't to demonize Heatley for giving to charity, my point was that in this case Kovalev has been doing it for most of his professional career. It's no surprise. Is Heatley a nice guy? Sure, he's probably the salt of the earth, who knows but his friends and family.

Is he a good player? Sure - although, I think he's been riding a downward slope for a solid year now.

Bottom line (for me) is that I will support you if you wear our sweater. I love the team too much to cheer against Heatley if he stays. But ask me to ever like him again? No, I won't do it. He's dead to me as a hockey player and as of now, as a human being. It's one thing to appear to not be giving it your all, but to denounce the new, successful coach and to say unequivocally that he wants out of my town, from my team - and then vetos a trade when we finally get one to our (Murray's) liking? I hate this guy now. Hate him. And I'm sure I'm not along here Rooney - you can't Diddle with people's teams and expect to get away with it without character assassination. Try doing it in the NFL. You'll see talk shows, papers, everywhere burning up with calls about this 'loser', 'deadbeat', 'cancer'. You name it, it'll be spewn out there with more venom than you can possibly read on a hockey forum (by me anyway).

to be fair, and i do agree with rooney that heatley is being demonized, we are only seeing one part of the story whether we ever find out the truth i doubt it do i like heatley like before no but he obviously has some issues making him want to leave...To counter my own arguement heatley has only made himself look worse with that press conference last friday and he now looks like a whiner all about himself now he has his character in question. In the end it is all about where you are seeing this from if you step up and feel associated to the situation and are close feel he is the worst....If you can manage to distance yourself then you can see that maybe he isn't as bad as brennan is making him out to be.