Alexander Ovechkin still hasn’t returned to his best form and hasn’t pulled Washington from the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
As the Russian currently scores eight goals in 17 games – he ranks only 30th in the NHL sniper race this season.
Against Tampa Bay Lightning, Ovechkin failed to score and scored no points and finished with a -2 utility score.
What’s more, the attacker frustrates Washington by raising his stick and blasting it in the face of Tampa forward Steven Stamkos in exactly four minutes into the second period.
Altogether, the Big Eight this season has a -14 utility gauge, and it’s a disaster. To make matters worse, he’s helping out “St. Louis Blues” Jordan Kairu, the only striker to score “-16” on his team.
But the Russian players of “Tampa” were pleasantly pleased, and above all – defender Mikhail Sergachev, who suddenly played the role of a real striker.
Only in the first period the Russian player scored four (!) points – two goals and two assists.
Sergachev opened the score with a perfect long-range shot in the second minute and scored a double on the 17th – he nearly shot again from the blue line.
Between two goals, he also managed to make two assists. First, he carefully passed to the right circle of the match, where Nikita Kucherov hit the target with a touch.
And then Sergachev launched an attack on his territory, helping American defender Nick Perbiks score a goal. NHL analysts counted the Russians’ actions as a pre-goal pass.
Thus, Sergachev almost single-handedly organized the score (4:0) in favor of Tampa at the time-out.
The Russian player became the first Lightning defender to score four points in just one period in 16 years.
Moreover, Sergachev is Tampa’s first defender in history to show such a performance, usually in the kickoff period of the game.
Finally, the Russian repeated the NHL record for the number of points scored by a defender in any 20-minute game. Louis Blues defender Morgan O’Reilly last scored four points in a period in October 2019.
After such a performance, it becomes clear why Yıldırım extended his contract with Sergachev over the summer and increased his salary from $4.8 million to $8.5 million annually.
The Russian was recognized as the first star of this match as well as the entire NHL game day.
Washington Capitals assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, who plays the role of Peter Laviolette in the COVID protocol, spoke emotionally after the game about the failed first period.
“We got on the ice but showed that we were completely unprepared for the game. It was as if we were trying to jump into the accelerating car. The Tampa players consistently won the puck. It was a horrible, nightmarish 20 minutes,” the official NHL website quotes McCarthy.
With this win, Tampa climbed to seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 17 points, while Washington remained in 12th place with 16 points.
Source: Gazeta
Gregory Robert is a sports aficionado and a writer for “Social Bites”. He provides in-depth coverage of the latest sporting events and trends, offering a unique and knowledgeable perspective on the world of sports.