Many famous current and former players took part in the Ovie vs Kovy game including: Evgeni Malkin, Nikolai Zherdev, Slava Kozlov, Alexei Kasatonov, Slava Fetisov, Alexander Kharlamov, and Dominik Hasek. Many top Kremlin officials, KHL President Alexander Medvedev and various celebrities were in attendance.
Kovalchuk and Ovechkin invited their first coaches to participate in the game as managers.
After the game Kovalchuk admitted that it had been a pleasure for him to play at Sokolniki — at his home arena (where HC Spartak Moscow plays). He also said he and his family had suffered from the Moscow smog. For those who haven’t heard, the city of Moscow and its surrounding areas were recently blanketed in smoke from fires burning near the city, as the Russian capital endured extraordinarily high summer temperatures.
Ovechkin said that such charity activities should be developed in Russia. He added that he had been in the Moscow smog, too.
Former Atlanta Thrasher Slava Kozlov admitted he hadn’t defined his future career yet. He asked not to link his visit to Russia with contract talks — his purpose there was to visit his parents. Kozlov also said that the New Jersey Devils didn’t call him — only Kovalchuk asked him to join.
Here’s a video from the show which ended 13:13.
And here are photos from the Russian media and various open sources


Tanya! You rock. Fabulous pictures. Great video too. It makes me so sad seeing Kozlov we will miss him in Atlanta.
Kovalchuk’s devotion to Kozlov is just so heartwarming.
Thanks for this post!! Great stuff!
Aww and I think Kozlov is wearing a pair of Kovalchuk’s gloves.
I’m glad you loved it! And I love the idea they started such charity shows – maybe it will help!!!
hey, nice blog…really like it and added it to my hockey bookmarks. keep up with good work
Sweet pix!
Cool!!