Ovechkin stability
One of the main events of the next NHL game day was the confrontation between two stellar teams. In recent years, fans have become accustomed to seeing "Washington" and "Boston" among the main contenders for the President's Cup, but this season both are noticeably feverish. The former are not among the top four in the East, while the latter occupy only the eighth line and risk not getting into the playoffs. Stability is demonstrated only by the leaders of both teams - Alexander Ovechkin and Brad Marchand, who claim to be the top scorer of the regular season.
The captain of the “capital” spent almost a three-week period from the end of December to the beginning of January rather dull, but the crisis is in the past. In the previous five matches, he consistently scored points, and did not make an exception in the meeting with Boston. Already in the fifth minute, Ovechkin dispersed the attack and performed a cross along the gate. Tom Wilson couldn't close the pass, but Evgeny Kuznetsov picked up the puck near the port side. The defenders of the Bruins did not figure out who should be nominated for the Russian and paid the price. Throw in the far nine took Linus Ulmark by surprise.
"Washington" led, but could not develop success, having suffered a sixth defeat in the last eight meetings.
Boston made a comeback and prevailed with a score of 4: 3, and Kuznetsov subsequently managed to check in with a minus sign.
The striker desperately tried to prevent Patrice Bergeron from scoring, but cut the puck into his own net.
From the hook of his club, it slipped past the shields of Vitek Vanechek.
In addition to Kuznetsov's own goal, the match was remembered for an abundance of hard collisions, as a result of which three athletes were immediately forced to leave the site ahead of time.
Washington lost defenseman Nick Jensen, and Boston lost Marchand and Anton Blid.
The timing of the return to the ice has not yet been reported.
As for Ovechkin, he not only reached the mark of 56 (27 + 29) points and strengthened his lead in the scoring race.
He entered the top hundred in terms of the number of games played in the NHL (1238), and also rose to third place in the number of assists among Russian legionnaires.
Alexander assisted his partners for the 619th time, which allowed him to catch up with Sergei Zubov, who is now in charge of the Russian youth team.
Bypass forward only Evgeni Malkin (682) and Sergei Fedorov (696).
Malkin's third goal and Bobrovsky's impenetrability
By the way, the Pittsburgh veteran also looks pretty good in January.
At the beginning of the year, he returned to action after a serious injury and immediately began to help the team.
In four previous meetings, Malkin scored twice himself and helped his teammates to distinguish themselves, after which he upset Ottawa as well.
As a result, the Russian was recognized as the third star of the match, losing only to Josh Norris and Mike Matheson, who scored doubles.
Malkin lit his name on the scoreboard in the 12th minute - more than ever on time.
By this time, the teams had exchanged goals, and the Senators hockey players had the advantage.
But a faceoff won in the opposing zone helped the Penguins to take the lead.
Yevgeny opened up on the "penny", caught the goalkeeper's mistake and left Anton Forsberg out of work in close combat.
Evgeny could have scored a double, but the second goal was canceled due to offside.
As it turned out, it was Malkin's goal that helped Pittsburgh seize the initiative. Subsequently, his initiative was supported by the same Matheson, Sidney Crosby and Jake Gunzel, who provided Pittsburgh with a landslide victory - 6:4. This allowed the Penguins to extend their unbeaten streak to three meetings, bypass Washington and climb to fifth place in the conference table. The opponents have 53 points each, but the team from Pennsylvania played two games less.
The leader in the East is Florida, in which the Russian goalkeeper Sergey Bobrovsky is more than successful. In terms of the number of wins this season, he is second only to Yusa Saros from Nashville and Andrey Vasilevsky from Tampa Bay, and in terms of the percentage of reflected shots he is in ninth place. However, for the first time he managed to leave the gate intact only in the middle of the season. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner made 40 saves to help the Panthers hold off a formidable Oilers offense.
Already in the second minute, Bobrovsky prevented Connor McDavid from implementing an impromptu bullet, and then repelled two more shots performed by the Canadian. None of the best snipers in the league, Leon Draisaitl, or the overactive Jessi Pulujärvi and Darnell Ners, who hit the puck five times, failed to break through it. As a result, "Edmonton" despaired and conceded six unanswered goals, and Sergei was recognized as the first star of the match. For him, this “cracker” became the 35th in his career, which allowed him to get around Ilya Bryzgalov and Semyon Varlamov. At the moment, he ranks third among domestic goalkeepers, behind only Nikolai Khabibulin (46) and Evgeny Nabokov (59).
“The opponent started strongly, but our guys defended well, blocked shots and had a great game overall.
We have a great, close-knit team.
I love my partners and believe in them.
We managed to create a great atmosphere in the dressing room.
I have said this many times, but I am just very happy to be part of this team, ”the NHL press service quotes Bobrovsky.