There's More to the Truce than We Realized

If it wasn't for a fellow Russian orchestrating the peace talks, we may not have seen Malkin and Ovechkin being as friendly as they were with each other at the All-Stars skills competition and game this past weekend (let alone see Malkin involved in Ovechkin's comedy routine in the Breakaway Challenge).

It would seem that Ilya Kovalchuk is a lover; not a fighter. Yes, it's sneaky and I feel violated - ok, maybe I'm overexaggerating, but you still have to admit that it was a pretty calculated move on Kovalchuk's part. It was his idea for all of the Russian antics between Malkin and Ovechkin throughout the entire weekend! And now I feel dupped (I KNEW this whole situation wasn't geniune - well, at least on Ovechkin's part anyway; I think Malkin is as sincere as they come!)!

According to the Washington Capitals blog, Capitals Insider, it was Kovalchuk's idea that he masterfully executed from beginning to end.

Friday night, during the dinner with other fellow All Stars, Kovalchuk got the two of them together and proposed to finalize the peace talks (which began earlier that day with the handshaking incident) and make it all official. "He poured it for us", said Malkin after the Super Skills last night, talking about a Russian peacemaking ritual, the deep-hidden essence of which you can easily guess.

"Yes, he poured us some water," added Ovechkin, just to clarify the deep-hidden essence of the Russian peacemaking ritual for those of us that are slower on the uptake.

And with how hungry Ovechkin is to be the center of attention, do you really think he thought up using Malkin to hand him his props and squirt the Gatorade in his mouth? NO! It was all part of Kovalchuk's plan!

Of course, it was also Kovalchuk's idea to let Malkin dress Alex (and give him a squirt of Gatorade) during the final Breakaway Challenge. Alex wanted to take the props out himself, but Ilya convinced him to use Malkin, thus putting the final touch on his peacemaking efforts.

So what's in it for Kovalchuk? I didn't have to search too far for the answer because it was also included in the article posted by Capitals Insider.

Between his gold-medal goal at the World Championships last year and his mediation of the Ovie-Malkin dispute with the Olympics looming ahead, Kovy [Kovalchuk] is on the fast track to becoming Russia's favorite son right about now.

Interesting!

And this just solidifies the fact for me that Ovechkin is a bigger ass than ever (whether he agreed to the truce or not).