On the night of Thursday in North America, the 89th season of the National Hockey League (NHL) opened with the match of the current Stanley Cup holder Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabers. For Russian fans, the overseas championship is primarily interesting because of how quickly the newcomer to the Pittsburgh Penguins Evgeni Malkin will find himself in the new conditions and whether he will be able to become the best debutant of the league.
It will not be easy for Malkin to repeat last year’s achievement of his friend in the Russian national team, Alexander Ovechkin. The absurd shoulder injury sustained by a fugitive from Magnitogorsk two weeks ago in the very first Penguin exhibition game nearly put an end to his debut season in the NHL. Fortunately, there was no surgery, the young body is quickly recovering, but Evgeny will probably have to miss the October matches of the regular season. Although the arbitration of the Russian Hockey Federation forbade Malkin to play before resolving disagreements with Metallurg, the owner of the Pittsburgh club Mario Lemieux hopes that the Russian coupled with young Canadian talent Sydney Crosby will soon start earning points for a team that wants to get out of the league outsiders to the number of candidates for trips in the playoffs. According to the official website of the Penguins, on Tuesday, Eugene had already spent 20 minutes on the ice in a training game.
Evgeni Malkin is not the only Russian debutant of the new season. The escape of Alexei Mikhnov from the Yaroslavl “Locomotive” to “Edmonton Oilers” did not cause much resonance, although the handwriting is similar. Mikhnov escaped Loko’s location at foreign training camps, notified the club of the termination of the contract by fax and was disqualified by the Russian Hockey Federation, which, however, does not matter to the NHL. During the exhibition matches Mikhnov regularly earned points for the “oil industry" and received flattering reviews from the Canadian press. The former teammate of Malkin Alexei Kaygorodov made his way to the main team of Ottawa Senators, amicably parting with his native Magnitogorsk Metallurg, but promised to return if he did not fit the team. In the meantime, “Magnitogorsk” will have to do without it.
But other NHL newcomers, Andrei Taratukhin and Vadim Khomitsky, have already been sent to the Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars pharmacy clubs, respectively. Joining FHR to the treaty of the International Federation with the NHL would allow our clubs to take penalty kickbacks for these players. However, while the head of the federation, Vladislav Tretyak, cannot dock the desire of club bosses to receive more than the average 200 thousand dollars for a player with the ability of the American League to pay differential compensation for young stars.
If you step aside from an unsettled relationship with the NHL and try to outline the circle of favorites for the new Stanley Cup race, then the circle of applicants for the most prestigious hockey trophy in the world, according to Russian and overseas experts, is very wide. It is believed that last year’s club budget limit and the introduction of a “ceiling” on players ’salaries ($ 44 million for the whole team) led to a leveling of forces and an intensification of the struggle for a place in the playoffs, where 16 clubs go. Potential season leaders included Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabers, Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and Calgary Flames. However, as has often happened, the Stanley Cup can again go to the “gray horse”, on which so far no one is betting. Perhaps it was not in vain that the Penguins from Pittsburgh fought so fiercely for our Malkin?