That's Why Call Him the Czar, Part III

From the Caps beat writer at the Washington Post:

You have to admit it, you are loving all the showmanship the Russian delegation is putting on. From The Handshake to The Gatorade Squirt, the Ovechkin-Malkin kiss-and-make-up melodrama is easily the top story of the All Star weekend. Well, one thing you should probably know is who was behind the truce. It was none other than Ilya Kovalchuk, the noble southern gentleman and the upright family man that he is.

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.

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. 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 is on the fast track to becoming Russia's favorite son right about now.

Kovy came up with the whole Malkin-dressing-up-Ovie extravaganza! He brokers peace between warring factions! He truly is the Czar of all the Russias. Always seeing the bigger picture, that Kovalchuk; will he be his country's captain in 2010? We think so.