The main events in hockey in 2019

Igor Rudinsky

Hockey boom in Ukraine

The fall of 2019 will definitely be remembered by hockey fans in Ukraine. The taste of big hockey was returned to the Ukrainians by the champion of the country – HC Donbass. In the middle of October, the matches of the second round of the Continental Cup took place at the Terminal Arena in Brovary. The Donetsk club received the Latvian Mogo, the Romanian Crown and the Serbian Crvena Zvezda as rivals.

In the first match, the team of Sergei Viter dealt with the Serbs without any problems, rolling the opponent under the ice – 7:0. The same number of goals flew into the gates of the Crown the next day, but the hosts failed to keep the gates shut – 7:1. In the decisive confrontation, the fans in the stands were fit to drink Corvalol: leading 1:0, Donbass managed to concede twice at the end of the final period, which actually deprived itself of reaching the next round. But a little over two minutes before the end of regular time, Mazur equalized the score and turned the game into overtime. The winner was determined in a shootout, in which Vasilyev’s shot turned out to be decisive.

On a positive wave, it seemed that the champion of Ukraine would be able to develop success in the next round. To do this, the Donetsk team had to defeat the Kazakh Beybarys, the Belarusian Neman and the Polish Cracovia in Krakow. In the first match, Donbass lost to the Neman in overtime (3:4), in the second, they defeated Beibarys (5:3). The decisive match again ended with a series of shootouts, but this time the champion of Ukraine was not lucky – Cracovia beat the opponent and, together with Neman, went to the next round.

But the most important thing is that interest in hockey in Ukraine has returned, even if only for a few days. The organizers of the matches of the second round in Brovary announced about 5,500 spectators who came to the matches of this stage. According to the management of the SEC Terminal, this is a record number of viewers over the past 10 years. In addition, the Continental Cup in Brovary was included in the top 10 sporting events in Ukraine, according to the 24 TV channel.

Team Ukraine U-20: the beginning of a long journey?

Literally two months later, big hockey returned to Ukraine. The tournament, of course, is not of such a scale, but no less interesting: the U-20 World Championship in Division 1B. Of particular interest to the Ukrainian fan was our team, which included a dozen hockey players who left to try their hand at student leagues overseas.

For the Ukrainian team, this tournament definitely cannot be called successful, but it’s also not worth sprinkling ashes on your head from the result. Wards of Oleg Ignatiev lost to the Hungarians (1:5), beat the team of Poland (3:0), but lost to the French in the third match (1:3). This defeat actually deprived the Ukrainians of the chance to win the home championship.

But the issue of maintaining a residence permit remained open, and here the wards of Oleg Ignatiev did not blunder, defeating the Italians (2:1 B) and Estonians (7:3). But the main thing that this championship gave Ukrainian fans is hope and discreet optimism about the future of the first team of Ukraine. Although, it is absolutely obvious: without a strong domestic championship and legionnaires in the strongest leagues in the world, it is almost impossible to build a team capable of solving top-level tasks.

Finns are back on horseback

Traditionally, before each World Championship, hockey circles discuss the favorite of the tournament. Most often they call Canada, which is quite obvious. Less often – Russia, Sweden or the USA. What happened in May 2019 in Slovakia will force some to be more cautious about forecasts and analyze the alignments more carefully.

The format of the tournament is as simple as a bicycle – 16 teams into two groups of 8 teams. At this stage, there were no sensations: all the favorites made it to the playoffs, and already at the 1/4 stage, the tournament became as attractive as possible. Already here the first deadly pair was formed – Russia – the USA. Following the results of the quarter-finals, Russia, Finland, Canada and the Czech Republic advanced to the next round. In the semi-finals, the team of Ilya Vorobyov could not cope with Finland (0:1), and in the parallel match, Canada knocked out the Czech Republic from the draw. By the way, the Czechs lost to Russia and the match for third place.

As for the final, the Finns won a strong-willed victory over the main favorite of the tournament, losing after the first period 0:1. After the second 20-minute period, Jukka Jalonen’s wards equalized the score, and in the last period they hit the opponent’s goal twice and secured the third league title in history. It is curious that not a single player from the Finnish national team was among the most productive in the tournament, and the MVP of the 2019 World Cup was recognized as Canada’s striker Mark Stone.

Note that until 2019, the Finns won the World Cup in 2011 and in 1995.

St. Louis won the Stanley Cup for the first time

Yes, and it happens. In the 102nd season of the National Hockey League, St. Louis won the Stanley Cup for the first time in history. At the beginning of the season, few could have imagined that the Blues would make the playoffs at all. For unsatisfactory results, Mike Yeo was fired. The place of the head coach, with the prefix “acting” was taken by Craig Berubi.

At the beginning of 2019, St. Louis fell to last place in the overall standings. There were no prerequisites for recovery, but a stellar weekend came to the rescue. After a pause in the championship, St. Louis produced an impressive spurt, which resulted in a third-place finish in the division and advanced to the playoffs. In the knockout games, the Berubi team alternately dealt with Winnipeg (4:2 in the series), Dallas (4:3) and San Jose (4:2), and in the final series broke the resistance of Boston (4:3).

Interestingly, in the decisive match, St. Louis beat the opponent on his site with a score of 4:1. By the way, the history of the path from the league outsider to the champion did not go unnoticed: St. Louis received the prize in the nomination “Best Comeback of the Year” according to the ESPY Award.

This season, the Blues are doing great – they are confidently leading the Western Conference standings, six points ahead of the closest pursuer – Colorado.

Jack from Florida

The first pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft was Jack Hughes, a forward from a hockey family. Since the New Jersey Devils won the draft lottery, it was this club that made the recommended number one pick in the final prospect rankings.

Jack Hughes was born in Orlando, Florida in 2001. Interestingly, Jack’s older brother Quinn was selected by the Vancouver Canucks a year earlier, and the younger, Luke, plays in the junior leagues. Jack’s father was also a hockey player, and his mother even became the world vice-champion as part of the US women’s team in 1992. With such genes, it would be a sin not to play in the NHL. However, Jax Hughes has no performance problems yet – he has already scored 14 points (5+9) in the goal + pass system. It is noteworthy that Hughes became the eighth American selected under the first number of the NHL draft.

Patron Zaker

The hockey player of Minnesota received an award in the nomination “Leadership and benefit to society” in the summer. Zucker and his wife Carly started a fundraising campaign for the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio at the Masonic Children’s Hospital at the University of Minnesota in 2017. The Zacker family started the project with a $160,000 donation and encouraged others to donate in multiples of 16, the number that Zacker plays under.

The good deed received a loud response: in the first year, Zucker managed to raise $ 1.2 million, and in the 2018/2019 season, the forward scored 21 goals, for each of which donated $ 1,600. Zacker received another 40 thousand from the National Hockey League Foundation. He can spend this money on charity at his discretion.

Bonus – the best goals of the decade in the NHL

The official YouTube channel of the NHL has published the best goals in the outgoing decade. Perhaps there can be no better conclusion for the final material. Enjoy!