Difficult day for the Lightning
At the end of December, Mikhail Sergachev unsuccessfully blocked an opponent’s shot and injured his left leg in the NHL regular season meeting with St. Louis. It was initially planned that he would be able to return to duty before the New Year, but the recovery was delayed. As a result, the Russian defender missed 17 matches, and his return to the lineup took place only after a stellar weekend - in the away match against the Rangers. But it didn’t go at all as the fans of the club from Florida expected.
Sergachev spent a little more than ten minutes on the ice and was on it at the moment when Jimmy Vesey opened the scoring. The Russian made an impressive dash into his own half and blocked the direction of the pass, but the forward found a way out of the situation and made a most insidious shot. Not only Mikhail was unprepared for such a development of events, but also his compatriot Andrei Vasilevsky, who missed the top nine, but also the near one.
And already in the second period, disaster struck. Sergachev tried to pin Alexi Lafreniere to the boards, but he stumbled extremely unsuccessfully and twisted his left ankle, receiving a serious injury. The Russian was unable to leave the site on his own and was carried out on a stretcher, and at that moment he himself could not hold back his tears. Even encouragement from Nikita Kucherov, who accompanied his teammate on the way to the tribune room, did not help.
As Lightning partners later admitted, witnessing such a spectacle was extremely painful. According to captain Steven Stamkos, Sergachev spent a lot of time recovering from the previous injury. And it was extremely difficult to watch him get another serious injury in the first game after returning. Victor Hedman agreed with him. In his opinion, the team hopes for the best, but assumes that this time the Russian may miss much more than a month and a half.
At the same time, Lightning head coach John Cooper urged not to give up on Mikhail’s prospects to take to the ice this season. Sergachev himself left a message on social networks in which he was perplexed why misfortune befell him. He called the incident an injustice and admitted that he now feels terrible.
It was not easy to get ready after this. Before the end of the second period, the guests conceded for the second time - Johnny Brodzinski missed Vasilevsky with a flick - and were forced with all their might to go forward in the final period. But despite the loss of one of the best defenders, they managed to impose a fight. And Kucherov, as usual, took on the role of leader. This time he showed dispatching skills and helped Brandon Hagel score, thanks to which he scored his 86th point (32 + 54) in the regular season.
Thus, Kucherov was able to take advantage of Nathan MacKinnon’s misfire and once again become the sole leader in the NHL scoring race. The day before, the Canadian played more than 24 minutes in the confrontation with New Jersey, but was not effective. And thus, he not only missed the chance to beat the Russian, but also failed to save Colorado from a second defeat in a row (3:5).
In turn, the Lightning fought to the last and could easily have sent the match into overtime, but luck was clearly not on their side that day. Kucherov eliminated Jacob Trouba with a smart feint, but lost in a head-to-head duel to Jonathan Quick, and then the same Hedman hit the frame after a solo pass. And a little over a minute before the final siren, the guests let through an empty gate. Four Floridians incredibly managed to lose the battle at the boards to two opponents and only watched as Vesey scored a double - 3:1.
Awakening of Dadonov
In turn, the Dallas striker, who had not scored for almost a month until that moment, also scored a double. The last time Evgeniy Dadonov upset his opponent was on the night of January 17, when he took part in the defeat of Los Angeles, after which he was “silent” for seven matches. The series ended in a confrontation with Toronto, in which the Russian scored both from play and from a set piece.
In general, the meeting turned out to be extremely bright and tense, but it was dictated by the Maple Leafs. They took the lead already in the seventh minute and subsequently were in the role of catching up only once. And Dadonov contributed to this. At the end of the first period, he picked up the puck in the middle zone, left Jacob McCabe out of action with a spectacular feint, and turned on the red light behind Ilya Samsonov's goal for the second time. Before that, he was mostly caught off guard by Jamie Benn.
However, the Stars failed to build on this success. Already by the middle of the second segment, William Nylander, John Tavares and Auston Matthews managed to score a goal each, as a result of which the guests again had to win back. And then Dadonov came to the fore again. The Russian received the right to take the penalty and did it above all praise, hitting the near top corner. And he became the 32nd hockey player in history to make three or more free throws in his career. According to this indicator, Evgeniy shares third place in NHL history, while Pavel Bure tops the list (seven).
As a result, Dadonov not only scored his first double since April 2023 (then he scored twice against Minnesota in the playoffs), but was also recognized as the third star of the match. True, I didn’t really have time to rejoice. Just 52 seconds later, Toronto again led with a comfortable advantage, and in the remaining time they only managed to reduce the gap - 5:4.