Vladimir BYCHEK
HERO OF THE WEEK
He scored in every match of the week. I was not afraid to box with the Buffalo tough guy, Andrew Peters, and in both matches with the “blades” I wrote down three points on the “goal + pass” system on my personal account. Finally, one cannot fail to note the enviable aggressiveness and focus of this attacker on someone else's goal: 8 power moves and 22 shots on target in three games! It's about Ottawa striker Dani Heatley . Through his efforts, the "senators" confidently entrenched themselves in the eight strongest in the Eastern Conference and even got involved in the struggle for the fourth issue of "sowing". As for our hero, retaining the momentum gained, he has every chance to beat last year's achievement - 103 points. Twenty games before the end of the current championship, Heatley scored 79 points.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
“When you lose all hope, you gain freedom,” Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, used to say. Settled far from the Enhael front line , the Boston left reliable, but boring, like home slippers, trenches, and rushed headlong to the front line. Having won three consecutive victories last week, the “bears” have noticeably approached the playoff zone. Like Winnie the Pooh, they took off to where there is a lot of tasty. It remains to run a paw into the hollow and feast on fragrant honey, but ... Firstly, there are too many wrong bees around, and this is "ff" for a reason. Secondly, the ball is about to burst - and then goodbye, a dream. Boston goalkeeper Tim Thomas gave birth to him, he can kill her. Or heroically lay down their arms in an unequal battle with the enemy, as happened on Saturday in Florida. All your life you try to become God, and then you die - it's about the Enkhael goalkeepers.
MORTGAGE OF THE WEEK
The first rule of a fight club is to not tell anyone about the fight club. On Thursday in Buffalo, it was once again rudely violated by the strongest league on the planet. After the Ottawa tough guy, Chris Neal, with a crushing ram, pulled the Buffalo attack leader Chris Drury out of the game, Lindy Ruff, the coach of the “blades,” completely released the siloviki. And this is against the first link of the "senators"! Andrew Peters grappled with Dani Heatley. Adam Mayr met melee with Jason Special. Seeing such a party, Ottawa guard Ray Emery, a famous admirer of Mike Tyson's talent, could not be content with the role of an outside observer. He arbitrarily left the fiefdom and inflicted quick reprisals on the enemy goalkeeper Martin Biron. After, however, he himself got a head from Petrus who was in earnest screaming ... The result of the scuffle was 100 minutes of a fine and Ruff's sharply shaken reputation. “I sent the leaders to the venue, and the rival - five guys who were called to organize a fight. Raff needs to be punished,” Ottawa coach Brian Murray was indignant. That evening, he held the 1200th match in a coaching post. The league listened to the hero of the day and fined the mentor “Buffalo” for 10 thousand dollars.
RUSSIAN WEEKS
On fishlessness, as they say, you will make an elephant out of a fly. With almost complete Russian calm, even the light waves driven by the Islanders forward Viktor Kozlov are a joy. In each match, he added at least a point to the scorer piggy bank. The most successful for the striker was the Monday match with “Pittsburgh”, where Kozlov scored a goal and assisted with another goal. In addition, the Islanders are now on the move - they climbed to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
SCREW OF THE WEEK
At the meeting of general managers of all NHL clubs in Florida, the idea of awarding three points for winning in regular time was strongly rejected. In February 2004, a potential innovation was included in the list of "promising". However, the lockout and the reforms that followed it dramatically changed the opinion of hockey leaders. There are two main reasons for this. First, overseas people do not believe that three-point bonuses will significantly affect the nature of matches. Secondly, they do not want to injure the psyche of fans who have already suffered enough from the reforms.
UNIQUUM WEEKS
On Monday, in a match with the Islanders Pittsburgh striker Ryan Malone became the author of a unique hat-trick: he scored in the first minutes of each period! More precisely, then at the 45th second of the starting third, 49th second of the second twenty minutes and 48th second of the third! Hurry - you will surprise people ...
FINISH WEEK
On Sunday at around 495 matches, the super series of Colorado defender Karlis Skrastins was interrupted . That is how many consecutive games the Riga resident spent in the NHL regular championships until a knee injury knocked him out of the marathon. “I knew that sooner or later it would end. Nothing lasts forever,” Skrastins said philosophically. Now the longest acting series belongs to the forward of “Vancouver” Brendan Morrison - 492 matches. And the absolute record remained with Doug Jervis - 964 meetings in a row.
FIGURES OF THE WEEK
The 600th victory in the NHL in the coaching field was celebrated on Tuesday by Ottawa coach Brian Murray. Thus, the 64-year-old coach entered the elite club, where only four came to him - Scotty Bowman (1244 Victoria), Al Arbor (781), Dick Irwin (692) and Pat Quinn (657). When asked how he feels on this holiday, the hero of the day answered shortly and sadly: "Too old." Indeed, Brian Murray is the oldest active league coach who has not yet won the Stanley Cup ...
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"I will sign one-year contracts with Chelios until he is fifty. Otherwise, they will fire me," Ken Holland , general manager of Detroit.
“If I feel fifty as I am now, I will continue to play until fifty-one,” 45-year-old Detroit quarterback Chris Chelios .
WAITING FOR THE WEEK
The transfer market closes in the NHL on Tuesday. A year ago, St. George's Day became the most exchangeable in the history of the league - 25 transactions involving 40 hockey players were recorded. The current shaking of the compounds promises to be no less intense. "Nashville" will spend a week on a tour of California, staying in turn at the "San Jose", "Los Angeles" and "Anaheim." Does something else mark the new “predator” Peter Forsberg? Well, the beginning of the seven-day period will be held in anticipation of the conquest of the 100-point milestone by Canadian child prodigy Sid Crosby. The holiday may come tomorrow, when New Jersey comes to Pennsylvania.
CM. ALSO
On Thursday, Tampa striker Vincent Lecavalier was the first in the league to score the 40th goal. In this regard, we offer the Top 10 goals and assists of the Canadian in the NHL. A master class from the best sniper - a tasty dish for hockey gourmets!