Stars of the day: how Ovechkin scored the first goals of the season, and Panarin strengthened his lead in the NHL scorer race

The end of Ovechkin's dry streak

One of the most anticipated matches of the day of the NHL regular season took place in the US capital, where the local "Washington" hosted "Vancouver".

The high interest in it was due not only to the participation of five Russian hockey players at once (and subject to the possible return of Ilya Mikheev to the ice, their number could increase to six), but also to the unsuccessful series of Alexander Ovechkin.

In the first three meetings of the season, one of the greatest snipers in the history of the league never hit the opponents' goal and stopped a step away from a personal anti-record.

At the start of the 2012/13 championship, he could not distinguish himself in four confrontations in a row, however, later he still managed to rectify the situation and scored 56 (32 + 24) points in 48 games.

However, Ovechkin killed the intrigue already at the 56th second, when he once again succeeded in the majority.

His throw was not the most well-aimed and strong, but this was enough to force Thatcher Demko to capitulate.

In the remaining time, the American missed another five goals, and three of them were organized by the leader of the Capitals.

First, he assisted John Carlson and Conor Sheary, and then he put a spectacular end himself.

Evgeny Kuznetsov performed a powerful throw from the blue line, and Alexander substituted a stick.

It is noteworthy that Kuznetsov not only helped Ovechkin get the title of the first star of the meeting, reach the mark of 782 goals in the NHL and bypass Brett Hull in the number of matches with two or more goals (159), but he himself designed an assistant hat trick.

The last time he succeeded was in November last year, when he organized three Florida goals.

Vancouver recruit Andrei Kuzmenko did not leave without points, but his pass did not allow the guests to avoid defeat - 4:6.

Benefit Panarin

On this day, Artemy Panarin also fully demonstrated his skills.

As in the case of Kuznetsov, three of his passes led to goals at once, while the Rangers forward himself chalked up the winning one.

At the end of the second period, he broke into the operational space and carefully directed the puck over the trap of John Gibson, thereby provoking the replacement of the goalkeeper.

Anthony Stolarz has already entered the third segment, but he could not defend to zero either.

Mika Zibanejad scored in the majority and strengthened the advantage of the hosts, and his star Russian teammate again took part in the attack - 6:4.

Panarin repeated his achievement in the match against Minnesota and scored four points for the second time in the season, which helped him with 10 points (2 + 8) to gain a foothold in the first place in the scorers race.

The closest pursuer in the face of the same Zibanejad has two points less.

Thus, Panarin not only earned the title of the second star of the match, but also set a club record.

To date, no Rangers player has managed to hit the 10-point mark in four games.

Moreover, only Connor McDavid scored more than him in this segment.

Last year, the Edmonton forward broke out with six goals and five assists.

Doubles of Malkin, Kaprizov and Svechnikov

The stars of Minnesota and Pittsburgh show slightly less outstanding performance at the start of the regular season, but also regularly replenish their scorer accounts.

This time, Evgeni Malkin and Kirill Kaprizov simultaneously scored a double, but in both cases this did not allow their teams to succeed.

True, if the Penguins failed to extend their unbeaten streak, then the Wild suffered their third defeat in a row.

The last time the team started the championship so unsuccessfully was in 2019, when they experienced the taste of victory only in the fifth match.

Despite this, after replacing Bruce Boudreau with Dean Evason, they managed to get into the play-in, but in the first round they were beaten by Vancouver.

In many ways, the failure can be explained by a complicated calendar.

“Minnesota” has already managed to meet with Panarin’s wingman “Rangers”, but this time they could not do anything with the current owner of the Stanley Cup - “Colorado”, in which not only Nathan McKinnon and Cale Makar shine, but also Valery Nichushkin.

Like the Russians mentioned above, he has never left the ice without scoring points, and in the confrontation with the Wild he collected a collection of a goal and two passes.

And his achievements should not detract from the fact that he managed to hit an already empty net - 6:3.

Kaprizov, in turn, twice did not notice resistance from the newly minted Avalanche goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev.

Moreover, in both cases, he acted not only effectively, but also effectively.

First, the Russian supported a quick attack and powerfully threw from his knee, and then, in the style of Ovechkin, he converted the majority.

The forward was left unattended in the right faceoff circle and sent the puck into the net in touch.

In a similar vein, Malkin distinguished himself, recalling his ability to attack outright.

Already at the beginning of the second period, he brought Pittsburgh ahead, and after 244 seconds he strengthened the advantage of the guests.

It is all the more offensive that it was not possible to bring the meeting to victory, for which Mike Sullivan's team is largely "owed" to Jeff Petrie.

The American defender not only became the only player on his team who earned penalty minutes during the match, but also retired in the overtime debut.

"Montreal" took advantage of the numerical superiority and the second time took the upper hand under the leadership of Martin St. Louis.

Andrey Svechnikov took even less time to double.

In 70 seconds, the striker left Philip Grubauer out of work twice and thereby brought down the attacking impulse of Seattle.

By the middle of the second period, the hosts were “burning” 0:2, but reduced the backlog to a minimum and could well develop success if it were not for the efforts of the Russian.

After that, Kraken were already unable to recover and lost big (1:5).

Andrei, in turn, reached the mark of five (3 + 2) points and took third place in the list of the best domestic scorers of the current championship.

Above only Panarin and Nichushkin.