World Championship – Ilya Kovalchuk: “We need to win now like never before”
RussianHockeyFans.com May 4, 2010
RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.
Many thought that you won’t play for the national team. It is very risky as you don’t have a contract for the next season in the NHL. Besides your wife gave a birth to your son in March. Was this decision hard to take?
Kovalchuk: “After failing in Vancouver all guys agreed to go to the World Championship if there is a chance. We must win and make this season end well.
My wife Nicole understood me at once, told me that the whole family would be watching games on TV and cheer for us. She and the kids stayed in Miami. I spent a week there and flew to Russia.”
Many teams will have either weak or very young rosters. It will be easier for Team Russia to win the gold?
Kovalchuk: “In first place we have to think about our team. It doesn’t matter against whom we will play. All teams will fight against Russia. Especially the young guys, who will want to show themselves. But our team is young too, we have Kulikov, Anisimov, Varlamov, Radulov, Ovechkin, Semin… They aren’t old men, are they?”