Kuznetsov said hello to his daughter
If you didn’t know, Sasha Ovechkin was a San Jose fan growing up. In an interview, he explained it to me like this: “I really liked their emblem, like a shark biting a stick. “And the Sharks entered the NHL in the early ’90s, and a lot was written about them in the newspapers.”
The years have passed. Ovechkin already has gray hair, his NHL career is on the decline, and San Jose is a sad sight. This club loses against everyone and can beat its own anti-record, established in the early 90s: 71 defeats in a season. For the moment, the Sharks have eight defeats in nine matches at the start. And this team is very weak.
The ideal opponent for Washington to gain confidence. Because the Capitals started badly too. And the match against San José was not easy. After two periods, the visitors led 1:0.
But in the third period, Dylan Strome evened the score. At the end of the match, the winning goal was scored by Tom Wilson, assisted by Ovechkin. And in the last minute, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his first goal of the season, still on a pass from Ovi. After scoring a goal, Zhenya came up to the protective glass and said hello to her little daughter – it was cute.
Interestingly, new Washington head coach Spencer Carbery doesn’t want to put Ovechkin and Kuzya in the same top three, even though it was previously one of the best combinations in the league. Ovi now plays with Strome at center and Wilson on the other wing. But in this match, a combination happened when Ovechkin came out with Strome and Kuznetsov on the edge. This link looked good. Maybe we should leave them together?
Ovechkin is close to the height of “1500”
We’re used to seeing Ovechkin (824 career goals) striving to break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record (894). But we must not forget that Alexander the Great is ready to conquer other statistical indicators.
Thus, Ovechkin has already delivered 669 assists during his career. This is the 69th result in NHL history. Another 27 successful passes – and Ovi will catch up with Sergei Fedorov (696), who was a center forward, and passes are his livelihood. And the leader among the Russians is the brilliant Evgeniy Malkin (763).
But another figure is more interesting, which, due to the Ovechkin-Gretzky chase, remains in the shadow of our attention. But in fact it is grandiose. Alexander Ovechkin ranks 16th in NHL history among the league’s top scorers (1,493 points). And very soon it will reach the incredible height of 1500 points.
Should I say that no one among the Russians has ever achieved this? Current Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby (1511) leads the way. But higher up are Paul Coffey (1531), Mark Recchi (1533), Joe Thornton (1539), Ray Bourke (1579)…
If Ovechkin maintains his pace, he will score 83 points (21+62) this season. That’s a cool number if you look at it. In other words, Alexander the Great can have 1568 points at the end of the championship. That would be 13th all-time if Crosby continues to go higher.
In total, while the contract is in effect, Ovechkin can reach 1,800 points in his career. The first three look like this: Wayne Gretzky (2857), Jaromir Jagr (1921), Mark Messier (1887). It is clear that Gretzky will not be able to catch up in this race. But scoring 2,000 points in a career, becoming second in history, is something you can dream of. Certainly, for this it will be necessary to sign a new contract and strictly regulate for another six or seven years.
Miroshnichenko received the nickname “Ivan Drago”
In general, Washington gives his fans optimism. The team is not as bad as it seems at first glance. Getting to the playoffs is real. Yes, and perestroika is underway. Talented young people are visible…
Ivan Miroshnichenko, 19, didn’t immediately make the Capitals’ starting lineup. But for now, he’s getting experience in the AHL. The former Avangard striker scored 5 (2+3) points in eight matches. And now he also fought, and it was a game against the Pittsburgh farm club, Washington’s main competitor in the NHL.
Miroshnichenko challenged Taylor Fedun, who is 16 years older than him. Of course, Vanya understood it – but not that much. Both fell to the ice, Fedun was on top and he formally won this fight.
But Hershey won the game 6-1. And after the match, in the locker room, Bears head coach Todd Nelson handed Miroshnichenko boxing gloves wrapped in cellophane. We don’t know where he got them from. Perhaps, following the example of Andrei Razin, Severstal wanted to introduce boxing matches for its hockey players.
“For the Russian bear, Miro, this is for you,” Nelson said.
And among Americans, Miroshnichenko quickly earned the nickname “Ivan Drago” – remember the Russian played by Dolph Lundgren in the fourth episode of “Rocky”?
By the way, recently, at the forum “Russia is a sports power” in Perm, the Russian Hockey Federation signed a contract with the Boxing Federation. Miroshnichenko therefore constitutes the best collaboration of this cooperation.
“” invites the Russian Boxing Federation to annually award boxing gloves to the hockey player who performed best in ice fights. If this comes to fruition, Ivan Drago has already made a strong offer for this price.
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.
