“Washington” – “Philadelphia” – 9: 2
The next game day of the NHL regular season was marked by a landslide victory for Washington over Philadelphia: Caps literally destroyed their opponents on the ice with a 9:2 win. Thanks to this success, the Capitals continued their current four-game winning streak. However, this season is a telling indication of Washington’s instability: Peter Laviolette’s guards have never won more than four consecutive games this regular season. We’ll find out if they’ll manage to improve that indicator on Friday night when the Capitals play Toronto away.
But for now, we are talking about the game against Philadelphia, where the leader of the Capitals, Alexander Ovechkin, continues to improve his personal statistics. He opened the goal in the seventh minute and started the goal.
Moreover, after the goalkeeper repulsed the first shot of the Russians, the “pilots” managed to score a rebound from the back of goalkeeper Carter Hart from a negative angle.
Moments later, TJ Oshie extended the home advantage, after which James Van Riemsdyk recaptured a puck. And then, until the final minutes of the meeting, only the guests missed: in the middle of the third quarter, the score was 8:1 in favor of Washington. At the same time, Conor Shiri scored the fifth goal with assists from Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov. In the end, Van Rimsdijk scored once again, but the hosts had the last word: a minute later, Johan Larsson set the final score.
“We want to improve our next position and go higher. I think the overall picture is to keep trying and play well.
And for four games in a row, we do everything right, we make the right decisions in the centre, we attack consistently and we defend firmly,” he said. NHL.
Ovechkin scored his 46th goal of the season and his 776th goal of his NHL career in this match.
He is 25 goals behind Gordie Howe, who is currently second on the league’s all-time top scorer list.
Caps still have nine more regular season games ahead and we will no doubt see Alexander’s goals again.
In addition, the Big Eight are close to being ranked among the top 20 NHL goalscorers of all time. Two points against Philadelphia put him four points behind Dale Havcherchak, who is 20th on this list. Currently, Ovechkin has 1405 points (776 + 629).
We note another interesting achievement. Alexander scored the first goal in this match and now ranks second with Brett Hull in terms of opening goals. 131 times in his career Ovechkin became the author of the first goal. According to this indicator, only Jaromir Jagr is higher than him and Hull with 135 such targets. It seems that here Ovechkin will soon be the first.
Other matches
“The Rangers” – “Carolina” – 2: 4
The New Yorkers were beaten on the ice, especially thanks to Hurricanes forward Andrey Svechnikov, who dropped the puck and scored an assist. As part of the home team, goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin spent the entire game dodging 21 shots, and striker Artemy Panarin was on the ice for 22 minutes, finishing the game with a benefit index of “-1”.
Boston 2-4 St. Louis
The match in Boston ended with a similar score, the hero of the meeting was the leader of the “bluesmen” Vladimir Tarasenko. Due to double, including the winning puck. In addition, in both cases he was helped by Pavel Buchnevich. Ivan Barbashev and Aleksey Toropchenko were also among the guests who could not score with the results.
Toronto – Buffalo 2: 5
The match was not successful for Maple Leaves, which featured Ilya Lyubushkin and Ilya Mikheev on the ice. They could not help their team in any way, Mikheev’s utility coefficient was “-1”.
“Florida” – “Anaheim” – 3:2 Overtime
Largely thanks to goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida managed to pull out of that match, with the Russian goalie on the ice for 63 minutes and repelling 22 hits. Teammate Maxim Mamin played in just under nine minutes.
Islanders – Pittsburgh – 5:4 B
Pittsburgh suffered their fifth defeat in their last six games. This was the first of four matches missed by Russian team leader Evgeni Malkin. In the previous game, Nashville defender Mark Borovetsky was disqualified for hitting his hands and face with a club. As for the match in New York, one of the heroes was the goalkeeper of the “Islanders” Ilya Sorokin – 43 reflected shots on his account. And rightfully considered the first star of the meeting.
Detroit – Ottawa – 1:4
“Detroit” took their eighth defeat in their last 10 games, and the guests took turns interrupting a streak of three consecutive failures. “Ottawa”‘s Russian defender Nikita Zaitsev spent almost 18 minutes on the ice and finished the game with a “+1” efficiency indicator.
Minnesota – Edmonton 5:1
As part of the “savages” Russian striker Kirill Kaprizov earned one more point in the season. He earned two assistant points and currently has a total of 91 points for the season (42+49). Also, in the match against Edmonton, Kaprizov’s teammate Dmitry Kulikov recorded an assist at the end of the game with a utility factor of “+3”.
Nashville – San Jose – 1:0 Overtime
In a stubborn skirmish, only one goal was scored without the participation of the Russians. Nashville forward Yakov Trenin was on the ice for 16 and a half minutes and San Jose forward Alexander Barabanov was on the ice for about 20 minutes, but he couldn’t help the team and finished the game “-1”.
Calgary – Seattle 5:3
Thanks to this success, “Calgary”’s winning streak has already reached five games. In this match, the home defender Nikita Zadorov made no effective moves while playing for 22 and a half minutes.
Dallas – Tampa – 1: 0
Tampa, which is their fifth loss in Lightning’s last six games, is still in a rush. Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev could not help their team in any way, both took “-1” at the end of the match. Goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevsky was recognized as the third star of the match, despite the team’s defeat: he repelled 28 hits. Denis Guryanov and Vladislav Namestnikov got playing time as part of Dallas.
Vancouver – Vegas – 5:4 Overtime
With this win, Vancouver extended its winning streak to four games. Evgeny Dadonov came out as a guest on the ice – he played for 17 minutes, earned an assistant point and finished the match with a +1 utility indicator.