Ovechkin's 809th goal, Kuzmenko's double and Buchnevich's assistant hat-trick: how the Russians re-ignited the NHL

Another "shot" Ovechkin

The leader of "Washington" continues to amaze with his performance.

In the last three matches, Alexander Ovechkin scored more than in the previous eight and joined the race for the Maurice Richard Trophy with renewed vigor, which could be his tenth.

A couple of days ago, he caught up with Vancouver's Bo Horvath, who was in third place, and at the end of the meeting with Columbus, he approached Buffalo's second-placed Teiju Thompson.

And he was helped in this by a branded click, which already now bears the status of a legendary one.

A few hours before the confrontation with the Blue Jackets, a message appeared on the official account of the Capitals on social networks that some rinks in the US capital would install Ovechkin's Office logos in the left faceoff circle.

And Alexander himself did not fail to celebrate this event.

During the draw of the majority, the Russian was left without guardianship and “shot” into the near corner from his favorite position.

Elvis Merzlikin did not have time to move on target, thereby allowing the Washington captain to draw a line under a crushing victory (6: 2) and bring the total number of goals in his career to 809.

Thus, Ovechkin had several reasons for joy at once.

He helped the team win their 22nd meeting of the season and climb to eighth in the Eastern Conference.

Distinguished for the 29th time in the regular season and reduced the gap from the race-leading snipers Connor McDavid to four goals.

He also overtook Teemu Selanne and, with 1458 points, climbed to 16th place in the table of top scorers in NHL history.

A great addition to this was the 13th hit in the number of participants in the Star Game, which was not previously possible for any hockey player from the "capital".

Unlike Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov did not receive such an honor, but this did not stop him from shining in the confrontation with Columbus.

The center forward chalked up two assists and entered the top 8 of the best regular season assistants, equaling Quinn Hughes, Matthew Barzal and Mitchell Marner (all with 30).

Dmitry Orlov and Alexander Alekseev also scored passes.

Double Kuzmenko in two minutes

If Ovechkin and Kuznetsov have already managed to become league stars, then the newcomer to Vancouver is only approaching this status, but very confidently.

In the very first year, Andrey Kuzmenko became one of the leaders of the team and is already writing his name into its history.

In the first 37 meetings, he "shot" 34 points - only his current partner Elias Petterson managed more (42).

And he scored two of them in a game with the current owner of the Stanley Cup - "Colorado", having received the title of the first star.

By the middle of the second period, the Canucks managed to miss twice and were in an extremely difficult situation when the Russian striker came to the fore.

With a difference of 119 seconds, he hit the gates of Alexander Georgiev twice and instilled confidence in his teammates, who subsequently finished the match (4:2).

Kuzmenko twice turned out to be the most agile on the penny and dealt with his compatriot in close combat, first converting the transfer of Ilya Mikheev into a goal, and then all the same Petterson.

It is noteworthy that Mikheev himself did not stop there and subsequently again acted as a “carrier of shells”.

Together with Bo Horvath, they forced Cale Makar himself to make a mistake and gave Brock Bözer the opportunity to surprise Georgiev for the third time.

The goalkeeper was furious and nearly broke his stick on the crossbar.

By the way, he was not involved in the last puck - it flew into an empty target already.

Buchnevich's organizational skills

However, on this day, there was a Russian who surpassed both Mikheev and Kuznetsov in terms of the number of assists.

Forward "St. Louis" Pavel Buchnevich became one of the main creators of the guest victory over New Jersey, assisting partners three times.

Already in the 12th minute, with an incredible roundhouse pass, he found Jordan Kaira, who opened on a fiver, in two other cases, Robert Thomas became the addressee.

It is all the more surprising that this did not allow him to even get into the top three stars of the match.

But his compatriot Ivan Barbashev was on the list.

He limited himself to only two points, but he threw himself and helped Brandon Saad do it - and all this in six minutes.

And the goal turned out to be “thoroughbred”.

The Russian effectively dealt with Jonas Siegenthaler and hit exactly the nine gates of Akira Schmid.

Perhaps later this will allow him to recover and brighten up the impression of not the most successful season.

At the moment, he has only 18 (6 + 12) points in 31 meetings.

Against this background, Buchnevich's performance is more than solid (12 + 20).

In turn, Artemy Panarin continues to fight for the title of the best passer of the championship.

The leader of the Rangers took part in the defeat of Montreal (4: 1) and chalked up the 34th transfer in the regular season.

Only five hockey players have more, including the leaders of the race - Nikita Kucherov (41) and Connor McDavid (42).

At the same time, Vitaly Kravtsov, who still has difficulty adapting to the team, organized Braden Schneider's goal with him.

Although he scored points in two games in a row for the first time this season, he looks rather depressing overall (2 + 3 in 20 meetings).