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The Australian team’s banner at the Olympic Village in Vancouver has displeased Olympic authorities. (CBC)

Members of the Australian Olympic team say they will defy an order to take down a giant flag they’ve hung on the side of a condominium building at the Olympic Village in downtown Vancouver.

The green and gold flag, measuring about 50 square metres, shows a golden kangaroo wearing red boxing gloves.

The International Olympic Committee has ordered the flag to be taken down because it’s a registered trademark. Showing a registered trademark goes against IOC rules.

The trademark is owned by the Australian Olympic Committee, which does not object to the flag’s use by the Australian Olympic team.

“We do it every Games,” Mike Tancred, an AOC spokesman, told the website news.com.au.

Tancred said the team intended to keep the banner flying.

Ilya Kovalchuk finally got his wish and was dealt away from the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday evening.

The New Jersey Devils wound up landing the proven Russian sniper, along with prospect defenceman Anssi Salmela, in exchange for defenceman Johnny Oduya, rookie forward Niclas Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier and a first-round draft selection.

Kovalchuk, the first overall selection in the 2001 NHL entry draft, was in Washington with his former Thrashers teammates when he found out he had been traded to New Jersey. The Thrashers play the high-flying Capitals on Friday, while Kovalchuk will play for the Devils when they entertain the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday.

The 26-year-ancient never demanded a trade from the Thrashers, but he certainly made it clear to Atlanta general manager Don Waddell that he wanted out when he turned down two different lucrative proposals last fall.

Waddell revealed that he was willing to make Kovalchuk the highest-paid player in the league, but that Kovalchuk turned down a 12-year, $101-million US tender and a seven-season, $70-million pact.

So Waddell went swiftly to rid himself of a major-league headache. He told Kovalchuk and his agent on Thursday to expect a trade by the weekend. Waddell later issued a statement, outlining the frustrating negotiation process with Kovalchuk earlier Thursday.

“Our goal from the start of this negotiating process was to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a long-term contract,” Waddell said in the statement. “During the process, Kovy affirmed his desire to be a Thrasher for life.

“We’ve spent several months exploring scenarios with Kovy and his agent to reach a mutually beneficial agreement and offered many lucrative packages in an attempt to meet his financial objectives … he has declined all of our proposals and we can’t reasonably go any higher,” Waddell said in the statement.

“If we went beyond these offers,” he continued, “we would not be able to retain the young players on our roster when it came time to sign them or invest in other top-tier players needed to assemble a truly competitive team.”

Word is Kovalchuk, scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer, simply didn’t want to sign on with Atlanta long-term because of the club’s uncertain future. Thrashers ownership has had internal legal battles for years, and Kovalchuk was concerned that the team would not be around by the end of the proposed long-term contract.

Devils desperate for roster shuffle

Enter the Devils, who desperately needed a roster shuffle. Since forward Patrik Elias was sidelined with concussion problems last month, New Jersey has struggled along at 3-6-1 in their past 10 games.

Now they have landed Kovalchuk and Salmela, a minor-league defenceman originally signed by New Jersey and traded to the Thrashers a year ago.

In Oduya, the Thrashers get a solid two-way defender from Sweden. But he has never accounted for more than 22 points in his four NHL seasons.

The 29-year-ancient has two more years at $3.5-million a season remaining on his contract.

Bergfors, 22, is a restricted free agent on July 1. In his first full season with the Devils, he has scored 13 goals and 27 points in 54 games.

Cormer, meantime, is a top prospect, but the former Canadian junior captain arrives with baggage. He was the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies player who last month landed a vicious elbow to the head of Quebec Remparts opponent Mikael Tam and was banished for the season and playoffs by the QMJHL.

But this sort of elite-rental player trade rarely favours the team giving up the huge-name player.

The Thrashers were in a similar situation two years ago, when they gave up Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round pick, which turned into centre Daultan Leveille, a Michigan State sophomore from St. Catharines, Ont.

Armstrong is the only player currently in the Thrashers lineup. Christensen was later dumped in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks for Sudbury Wolves junior Eric O’Dell and Esposito’s career has been hindered by a series of serious injuries.

Ottawa forward Jason Spezza, right, sends the puck into the crease, where it would eventually skid past Vancouver goalie Andrew Raycroft. (Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press)

The familiar refrain of Jason Spezza scoring and Brian Elliott stopping everything in sight continued on Thursday night as the Ottawa Senators extended their franchise record winning streak to 11 games with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Spezza scored for the eighth consecutive game, a goal that held up as the winner. Milan Michalek scored early in the first, with Chris Kelly capping the night off with an empty-net goal.

Elliott finished with 29 saves to extend his personal win streak to a franchise record nine games. Elliott sports a paltry 1.21 goals-against average over the past nine games.

The Canucks made the Senators sweat late in the game. Already down a defenceman with Erik Karlsson hitting the dressing room with an undisclosed injury, Ottawa blue-liners Matt Carkner and Anton Volchenkov took successive penalties to give Vancouver life.

After making a number of stops, Elliott had no chance on Kyle Wellwood’s goal for the Canucks, the result of a pretty passing play.

The Senators have outscored their opponents 37-13 during their streak. They will try to make it a dozen Saturday in Toronto (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET).

Vancouver has now dropped two in a row on its Olympic-imposed road trip. The Canucks return to action Saturday afternoon against the struggling Boston Bruins, losers of nine straight.

Canucks goalie Andrew Raycroft made 18 saves in his first start since Dec. 5. He played two periods of shutout hockey in relief of Roberto Luongo on Saturday to help Vancouver come back against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

About the only aspect of Ottawa’s game that hasn’t been fully clicking is the power play, but the Canucks quickly obliged their hosts via a Mikael Samuelsson high-sticking penalty just 52 seconds after puck drop.

Michalek deftly redirected Mike Fisher’s pass from the boards past Raycroft.

Alex Kovalev also helped on the goal, giving him 11 points in his last 11 games.

Ottawa kept coming and buzzed around the Vancouver net just past the six-minute mark. Peter Regin misfired on a fantastic chance from the slot, while defenceman Carkner hit Raycroft high with a point shot soon after.

The Canucks stemmed the tide only at the midway mark of the period when Senators forward Chris Kelly went off for a minor penalty.

Mason Raymond rang his shot off the post, with the puck then bouncing off Elliott’s back and just wide of the opposite post.

The Senators went up by two late in the first, when Vancouver defenceman Christian Ehrhoff got caught in the Ottawa end.

Spezza outwaited Shane O’Brien on a 2-on-1 with teammate Michalek and sent the puck into the crease. Michalek, O’Brien and Raycroft all whiffed with their sticks, extending Spezza’s franchise record goal-scoring streak.

Tanner Glass of the Canucks tried to give his team a boost during the period by starting a fight, but all he got for his troubles were several Carkner blows to the head.

Jarkko Ruutu deflected a shot to test Raycroft early in the second, but it was Vancouver who would start to delight in the best scoring chances.

Wellwood had two chances during a Vancouver flurry midway through the period, and Elliott stretched to make a glove save on Canucks defenceman Alex Edler.

The intensity picked up in the final minutes of the period. Aaron Rome belted Fisher into the boards, while Chris Neil and Rick Rypien engaged in a prolonged scrap.

Kovalev cut in from the wing on Raycroft but could not slide the puck past the Canucks goalie, while at the other end Henrik Sedin’s shot got through a screen but was stopped by Elliott.

Ottawa defenceman Chris Campoli fell to the ice in the waning seconds of the period, allowing Steve Bernier to skate in alone. The huge Vancouver forward could not get his backhander past Elliott.

Senators forward Jonathan Cheechoo kept Raycroft honest in the third, forcing the Vancouver goalie to make a glove save, but the best chances came from the Canucks.

Ryan Kesler skated in alone but could not lift the puck over the hot Ottawa netminder, while Sami Salo’s blast from the point was gobbled up without a rebound.

Ottawa lost both games to the Canucks last year and had last beaten them in the 2003-04 season. The teams will play again in Vancouver on March 3, the day of the NHL trade deadline.