Ovechkin punished the Canadian for arrogance, Malkin repeated Fedorov’s record

Florida Panthers 2-4 Washington Capitals

Washington played the final three games of the National Hockey League’s regular season without their leader, Alexander Ovechkin – the Russian was recovering from an upper-body injury. In his absence, Caps lost all three games by 4-12 goals. Many were skeptical that Ovi would be able to rally for the playoffs, but Alexander the Great dispelled fears by picking up the ice.

“These are going to be very different games compared to the regular season games,” Ovechkin said before the first game of the series against Florida. official NHL website. – It’s clear that Florida has a very cohesive team, they were the best of the regular season. But in the playoffs, everything is different – a different mentality, a different pace, a different level of confrontation.

We only need to take two steps, right? Reaching the playoffs first, then winning the Cup. That’s why we shouldn’t look for excuses.”

This season, transforming “Florida” is led by Joel Quenneville’s demanding coaching and then – acting. mentor Andrew Brunnett, contrary to predictions and expectations, turned out to be the best of the regular season and won the President’s Cup. At the same time, Washington finished fourth in the Capital Division and had no trouble finding a wild card to qualify for the playoffs. The statistics of the clashes between the “capital” and “Florida” in the completed draw of the “regular season” are also not in favor of Ovechkin and the company: out of three matches, the “Panthers” won two.

No one expected the game to be easy for Caps, and despite opening the score in the 22nd minute, they lost 1-2: the hosts countered Tom Wilson’s goal with accurate shots from Sam Bennett and Claude Giroud. That score remained until the middle of the third period, but then the Panthers unexpectedly failed in the end.

First, the Ovechkin-Kuznetsov tandem formed the second Washington disk. The Big Eight took the puck from Canadian Mackenzie Wigar, who thought she could arrogantly beat the Washington captain in the mid-circle area, and failed. Kuznetsov took the puck and tied (2:2).

And two minutes later, the decisive goal of TJ Oshi was scored, with another Russian, Dmitry Orlov, as an assistant (3:2).

In the last minutes, the Florida coach removed goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky from the game, which ended in an empty net with the guests’ goal – Lars Eller finished the match (4: 2). Note that Bobrovsky projected 34 shots in this game.

Of course, the playoffs are a special event with separate statistics. Therefore, there will be no reason to discuss Ovechkin’s record for the regular season. No matter how many goals he scores, those goals don’t count for Wayne Gretzky’s pursuit of goalscoring. However, it should be noted that in the last 45 games in the NHL playoffs, Ovi has already scored 46 points – he has 25 goals and 21 assists.

New York Rangers – Pittsburgh Penguins – 3:4 OT

Evgeni Malkin’s Pittsburgh also battled for the Stanley Cup, and the Russian was the protagonist of the playoff series opening game against the Rangers.

The team lost 2:3 in the 38th minute, but first Malkin helped Brian Rust equalize (3:3) and then the Russian scored the winning goal (4:3). True, this had to wait for a very long time: there is no conflict in the playoffs, and the audience saw Malkin’s goal in the 106th minute of the match only in the third overtime.

Thanks to these effective actions, Gino caught up with Sergei Fedorov in terms of the number of points scored by Russian hockey players in the playoffs.

Malkin scored 65 goals and provided 111 assists in Stanley Cup games. One more point will place him clearly in the first place among the Russians in this indicator.

However, if overtime had ended differently, no one would have mentioned Malkin, the first star of the meeting: everyone would have discussed the incredible play of Rangers goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin, who was recognized as the second star.

The Russian goalkeeper set a club record for the number of shots deflected – 79.

It is also the second result in NHL playoff history since the 1955/56 season when relevant statistics began to be kept. Columbus’s Finn Joonas Korpisalo had more saves: He knocked back 85 of 88 shots in the first-round playoff game against Tampa in 2020.

“I’m not a goalkeeping coach and I have no idea what makes Shesterkin special. But he’s amazing. I think he’ll win the Vezina Trophy.

We all know that matches against him are a challenge for the attackers: for me, for Sidney Crosby,” said Malkin about the compatriot Malkin game.

Colorado 7-2 Nashville

The match in Colorado was far less dramatic, where the local Avalanche leveled the Nashville ice. The guests seem to have forgotten to come to the game. Already in the 16th minute they were “burning” 0:5, in the second period Gabriel Landeskog sent the sixth puck to the “predators” and only after that they started and won back a goal. But it was clear that the match had already failed. Moreover, in the third period, Colorado scored for the seventh time – the author of the goal was Nathan McKinnon, who assisted Valery Nichushkin.