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Ilya Kovalchuk is making Russian players look really good

New York Rangers v New Jersey Devils - Game Six

NEWARK, NJ - MAY 25: Ilya Kovalchuk #17 and Zach Parise #9 of the New Jersey Devils celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers by a score of 3-2 to win Game Six of the Eastern Conference Final during the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Prudential Center on May 25, 2012 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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Remember earlier in the playoffs when Russian players were getting a bad rap? Alexander Radulov was out partying, Alexander Semin had his usual ups and downs, and Ilya Bryzgalov had a rough playoffs.

Through all that negativity and occasional needless potshots at Russian players, Ilya Kovalchuk has prevailed for New Jersey. His 18 points leads everyone in the postseason and after never getting out of the first round in his career before this year, he’s become a force to be reckoned with.

Coach Peter DeBoer tells Katie Strang of ESPN.com says Russians get an unfair knock and the Devils couldn’t have made it this far without him.

“Superstars often get bad raps, especially Russian superstars,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said before the series began. “That couldn’t be further from the case. This guy could be born in Canada or the United States and you wouldn’t know the difference other than his accent.

“He’s here to win. He’s a team-first guy. He’s very unselfish and he’s just a great person. I don’t think that’s common knowledge around the league.”

Kovalchuk’s play in the postseason has shown why he’s one of the best players in the league and why the Devils gave him a monster 15-year contract two summers ago. The whole stigma of Russian players being “enigmatic” is pretty silly to begin with (Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk seem to be OK) but Kovalchuk is helping to make sure this one talking point goes away for a while.