NHL
1. In December, Ovechkin scored his 800th NHL goal, then beat Howe in the sniper race. Will Alexander submit to the ‘height’ of 850 goals in the new year?
– It turns out that you need 50 goals for the second half of this championship and the start of the next one? For Ovechkin, a very real figure. Alexander’s performance can only be limited by serious injuries. If they’re not, then he’ll break all those records.
Now the whole world is looking at his statistics. Even Chicago fans, when Ovechkin scored three goals against them, cheered him on.
When Gretzky set his NHL records, it seemed to everyone that they were forever. And suddenly a man appeared who could surpass them. Of course, everyone is interested in seeing that happen. Another thing is that now McDavid is scoring so many goals that it’s entirely possible to join the race.
2. Can the Minnesota Whims lead the NHL’s leading scorer this spring?
There is a chance, of course, but it is unlikely. McDavid is very good. But according to the results of the championship, Kirill is quite capable of entering the top 10 and becoming the best sniper among Russians. It’s real.
3. Will Vasilevsky and Kucherov lead Tampa to the Stanley Cup Finals for the fourth straight time?
“It will not be a sensation. Tampa is still a strong team, but success depends on too many reasons. First of all, it depends on the form that the leaders will take. Because this year Tampa made it to the Finals, but in the showdown with Colorado, it felt like a deflated balloon. And not because he got weaker. It’s just that, in my opinion, their rivals were more powerful on the way to the final than those of Colorado. And no one knows how this path will end for them in the spring.
4. Will Shesterkin or any of our other goalies qualify for the Vezina Trophy?
– Now Sorokin may be claiming more than Shesterkin. The fact is that they and Vasilevsky are the best goalkeepers. And if one of them turns out to be among the contenders for Vézina, no one will be surprised.
5. Will Fedotov start next season with Philadelphia?
– Nobody really knows what Ivan does when he serves in the Navy, if he has the opportunity to train and stay in shape. A missed season affects players in different ways. Some return to the ice, as if this pause did not exist at all, while others, as if they saw the stick for the first time.
But in fact, Fedotov has a contract with Philadelphia and he can only continue his career there. For the club’s general manager, it’s a safe bet. Ivan will be watched at summer camp. If Fedotov immediately begins to tear everyone apart, he will be in perfect condition, he will be taken to the NHL. Otherwise, they will calmly send them to the farm club and see if it has potential or not. If it turns out that there are absolutely none, they will separate. The money in the agricultural club pays little, here the manager does not risk anything.
KHL
1. Are SKA leading the regular season with such confidence that they will inevitably win the Gagarin Cup?
– The St. Petersburg army team has a good chance, but the main favorites do not always win the playoffs. If SKA is compared to CSKA, then St. Petersburg looks more stable. Muscovites are too feverish. Sometimes they show themselves as a super team, but in other matches it’s not at all. In what state Sergei Fedorov’s team will approach the playoffs is a big question.
In the East too, the leaders change regularly. There is no team that would be head and shoulders above all else. Theoretically, Avangard can make it to the playoffs in crazy shape, and Kazan is able to spring to life. Yes, today SKA is the favorite, but it is not a guarantee to win the Cup.
2. Will Ak Bars with its stellar line-up be eliminated, like in 2005, in the first round?
– Such a scenario is not excluded. But I won’t be too surprised if Kazan players go far in the playoffs. Because Ak Bars is a qualified team in terms of composition, the potential is very high. They have, as Professor Preobrazhensky said, “devastation in their heads”. Why the team does not play – no one knows, including themselves. Kazan’s coaching staff, led by Bilyaletdinov, will not be changed until the end of the season. Moreover, now there are players so powerful that they themselves can come together and decide everything. They just need a trigger.
3. Will the Russian player become the top defender-scorer for the first time in the last eight seasons? Alexander Nikishin has a good chance.
– Nikishin is very good this season, but I don’t consider him a strong shooter. The forwards were Kevin Dallman or Chris Lee. Alexandre is a very versatile player. He can win the race for top scorer among defensive players, but scoring is not his dominant quality.
In my opinion, Nikishin is already ripe for the NHL, so his new contract with SKA – until the end of the 2024/25 season – looks like a controversial decision. Alexander has everything to become a real star not only here, but also abroad.
For example, Orlov is a very good defenseman by NHL standards, but he lacks height, while Nikishin has a height advantage. Or take Sergachev – a very good general defender. But not as versatile as potentially Nikishin.
4. Will Lada return to the KHL next season?
– If the issue has been discussed at such a high level, the club and the KHL simply have no other choice. Another thing is who Lada will become in our league – again an underdog or a team claiming the Cup, as in previous years?
Everything here will depend on the budget. Although, in my opinion, only in Togliatti you can create a team that will play better than the funds invested in the club allow. There are traditions, a very good palace and a very good location. There are positive aspects besides the money.
With the right management, you can form a strong team. Of course, if the funding is not at the salary level of the genre. I think a payroll of 600-650 million per year is a real chance to create a team that claims high places.
5. By how much will the salary of the top Russian players increase due to the tightening of the foreign player limit?
– For some reason, everyone is talking about wage growth, forgetting that there is a ceiling and there is a market. In my opinion, all these thoughts about the wage jump fall into the category of theories, but nobody knows yet how everything will turn out in practice. If a person has driven a Zhiguli all his life, then for him, from the fact that Mercedes is becoming more and more expensive, nothing changes at all.
I don’t think that tightening the Legionnaire limit will necessarily cause a salary increase, although it is not excluded. But there is certainly no linear relationship here. Because the best players will not be left without work, and they will always receive money – Legionnaires or Russians – it does not matter. But I admit that average players can raise their prices. Have any clubs released their money due to the reduced limit? And how the agents will behave in this situation, it is not known. For example, they will take it and say: now we want more. And for any club there will be a dilemma – fight for a great player, offer him a crazy salary, or take three good ones instead? The second choice seems more reliable.
6. The KHL will continue to grow and the next regular season will have more than 68 games?
– Before deciding whether we need more games or less, we have to answer another question: what do we want to achieve in the end? If it is necessary to increase the prestige of the KHL and the interest of fans in the championship, then, of course, the number of matches must be increased. But then the number of strangers in the application cannot be reduced. After all, Legionnaires allow poor clubs to catch up with the average level. But the number of players applying for the season should instead be reduced so that they do not sit on the benches of the top clubs, but are more evenly distributed across the league.
However, judging by the latest decisions, such a task is not worth it. So is there another one? And how the increase or decrease in league matches will affect its implementation, I don’t know. Because nobody talks about this problem.
National team
1. Without the participation of the Russian team, will the Finns become world champions again?
– For me, the main favorites at the World Championships are always the Canadians. Especially if the Russian team does not participate in the tournament. We remember how the Finns last became champions – if a man hadn’t hit himself in the face with a club, it’s still unclear how it would have ended. It cannot be said that the Finns endured everyone.
It all depends on who will come to the World Cup. The Swedes and Swiss can also form good teams.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
