30 goals Kuzmenko

Fans of Vancouver are unlikely to leave pleasant memories of the current regular season of the National Hockey League.

Despite the presence of stars in all lines, the Canadian team is at the bottom of the Western Conference standings and has a 99.9% chance of not making the playoffs for the second year in a row.

One of the rare bright spots is the bright performance of Andrey Kuzmenko, who in his first season can overcome the bar of 70 points.

He currently has 57 to his credit and is fourth on the Canucks' top scorer list, trailing only Elias Petterson, Quinn Hughes and JT Miller.

Once again, Kuzmenko flashed in the home confrontation with Ottawa, which ended in favor of the hosts - 5:2.

He scored two accurate shots and became only the third Russian to reach the grandmaster mark of 30 goals in the current regular season.

Besides him, only Kirill Kaprizov (39) and Alexander Ovechkin (36) can boast of this.

Thus, he helped Vancouver extend the successful streak to four matches, and he deservedly received the title of second star, losing only to the same Miller.

At the same time, not to say that Kuzmenko's goals turned out to be incredibly spectacular.

Rather, they once again demonstrated his ability to be at the right time in the right place and calmly use his chances.

First, he promptly broke into a penny and removed both the defender and the goalkeeper in one movement, after which he sent the puck into an empty target.

And then he completely hit the gate left by Mats Sogaard.

In the end, the Senators went for broke and were punished.

Namestnikov's transformation

But if Kuzmenko demonstrates high productivity throughout the championship, then his compatriot “explodes” with episodes.

And the brightest of them came at the beginning of March - after he was traded from Tampa Bay to Winnipeg.

Another attempt to gain a foothold in the Lightning failed, but moving to Canada clearly benefited.

For the Jets, Vladislav Namestnikov played only four meetings, but has already chalked up five (2 + 3) points.

While in the previous 57 matches he scored only 15th.

At the same time, the guest confrontation with Florida turned into a benefit performance for the Russian striker.

At the end of the first period, Namestnikov organized a counterattack and helped Nikolai Elers to distinguish himself, and then he himself demonstrated sniper skills.

In less than 14 minutes, he twice opened up great on a penny and left Sergey Bobrovsky out of work.

Thus, Vladislav reached the mark of eight goals for the tournament and scored the first double since November 2021.

Despite all this, Namestnikov was recognized as only the third star of the match.

The first was Mark Scheifli, whose pair of goals gave the Jets a 5-4 overtime victory, and the second was Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, who broke out three (2 + 1) points at once.

But Vladislav should not be upset.

More importantly, in Winnipeg, he finally began to demonstrate his skills and enjoy the trust of the coach.

And this was not enough for him in recent years. 

Finishing off Panarin and 32 saves by Shesterkin

Unlike Namestnikov, the Rangers striker has not had problems with this for a long time.

Artemy Panarin is rightfully considered the leader of the team and never gets tired of proving it on the ice.

Two days ago, he assisted partners three times in a meeting with Montreal, and this time he helped beat Buffalo in the New York derby (2: 1).

True, the wards of Gerard Gallan would hardly have been able to win if it were not for the excellent game of their goalkeeper.

During the current championship, Igor Shesterkin admitted that he was dissatisfied with his performance.

And it can be understood.

Although he ranks second among all goalkeepers in the league in terms of the number of wins, he is not even in the top 15 in terms of percentage of saved shots (91%) and reliability coefficient (2.63) (among those colleagues who have played more than ten games).

And this could not suit the current owner of the Vezina Trophy.

As well as the fact that since mid-January he has consistently missed at least two goals per meeting.

However, in the confrontation with the Sabers, the Russian was magnificent: he made 32 rescues and only once let himself be taken by surprise.

Jeff Skinner succeeded, taking advantage of the transfer of Ilya Lyubushkin.

However, this allowed Buffalo to only reach out to overtime, where Panarin said his weighty word.

The Russian was on the ice at the moment when Patrick Kane opened the account, but this time he took on the role of the finisher.

The striker caught the rebound after Adam Fox's shot and played on rebounds, strengthening his status as the second star of the match.

Shesterkin was the first, as expected.

It is noteworthy that another Russian goalkeeper was recognized as one of the heroes of the match between Colorado and Arizona.

At the same time, it was enough for Alexander Georgiev to parry only 18 throws, while his counterpart Connor Ingram averted the threat 41 times.

However, the Canadian was only third on the list, while the domestic goalkeeper was ranked higher.

Perhaps the reason for this was the final result.

The Avalanche broke the resistance of the Coyotes in overtime.

Sergachev's success and Orlov's achievement

While Panarin reached the mark of 73 points and came close to the second Russian scorer of the NHL season - Kaprizov, Nikita Kucherov came close to conquering the bar of 100 points.

He took the next step in a meeting with Chicago (3: 1), during which he acted as a carrier of shells.

It was the domestic striker who took part in organizing the winning goal, as a result of which he had 26 goals and 69 assists.

But on this day, it was not Kucherov who was the main assistant in the Tampa Bay squad.

This title was intercepted by Mikhail Sergachev, who twice brought Braden Point to the shock position.

Mikhail scored a double from assists in the third game in a row and moved to the eighth position in the list of the best passers in the league among defensemen (41).

Same for Miro Heiskanen and Vince Dunn.

Other star Russians also replenished their assistant account.

Alexander Ovechkin helped score Anthony Mante and thus participated in the defeat of the Islanders, and Evgeni Malkin and Dmitry Kulikov - Philadelphia.

"Washington" and "Pittsburgh" defeated rivals (5:1) and continued to fight for getting into the playoffs.

Currently, the Penguins are seventh in the East (76), while the Capitals are only tenth (71).

In the eighth match in a row, points were scored by Pavel Buchnevich, whose St. Louis on the road did not leave a chance for Columbus.

"Dallas" broke the resistance of "Seattle" thanks to the accurate pass of Evgeny Dadonov, and Denis Guryanov scored for the second time for "Montreal".

True, the Canadiens still lost to New Jersey and remained in penultimate place in the East table.

In turn, Alexander Barabanov and Dmitry Orlov, who set the Boston record, acted as assistants.

Previously, no Bruins defenseman had managed to reach the mark of ten points in just seven games.