Vladimir BYCHEK
HERO OF THE WEEK
A year ago, even before the Turin Olympics, Brendan Shenahan joked that he was ready to retrain for ... bobsledder to participate in the Vancouver Winter Games 2010. Say, in order to slide down the hill on a sled, you don’t need much talent, and the pensioner must have been booked for the path to the Canadian hockey team. Is not a fact. Now the 37-year-old striker, “New York Rangers” with 12 goals scored after 14 matches topped the list of the best snipers of the championship. Last week, his team took scalps from the giants of the Western Conference - Anaheim and San Jose. Shenahan put a stick to three of the four goals at the Utoks goal and marked himself with a control shot at the Shark’s agonizing body. On Thursday evening, “San Jose”, losing 1: 2 in their own walls, replaced the goalkeeper with the sixth field player and pressed the opponent for an hour and a half in an alien zone. How Brendan, who fell into the enemy’s surroundings, contrived with a long-range strike to transport the puck “from side to side”, it’s incomprehensible to the mind! In addition, this man (incidentally, who gave the NHL two decades of his life) fearlessly lies under the puck, regularly goes to the court in the minority, without hesitation, stands up for his younger comrades. In other words, then every cent out of four million dollars of salary works out with blood and sweat.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
A successful tour of the Northwest Division allowed Nashville to remain at the head of the Central Division. Even Detroit could not shake the positions of the “predators,” successively putting Vancouver, Edmonton and Minnesota on the shoulder blades, stamping their wins for six games in a row. Wards Barry Trotz went further: starting the season with three “donuts”, they scored 19 points out of 20 possible in subsequent meetings! We dare to assume that the phenomenal spurt is not some kind of ridiculous malfunction in the NHL program. It is harmonious and regular, like a chess game. Led by unsinkable strategist Trotz, Nashville is ready to swipe at the Stanley Cup, and Arnott, Vasichek, Dumont, and Radulov, who have taken root in the fertile Tennesian soil, are a good help for a garden city to grow here after some seven months.
TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Ghost goals have already happened in the NHL. Last week, the league faced a new paranormal phenomenon - a ghost paz . The grave refereeing error influenced the outcome of the principled battle in Edmonton, where on Friday the Dallas “stars” confronted the local “oilmen”. 4 seconds before the final siren, the forward of the hosts Ales Khemski scored 3: 3, but the referee Mick McJef canceled the goal, fixing an illusory pass with his hand. According to the representative of the hockey themis, Sean Horkoff pushed the puck right with a glove face-off. At the same time, the video replay left no doubt that the player, by all the rules, acted with a club. The first goal of the guests turned out to be very controversial. Moments before the puck shook the net behind Dwayne Roloson, Eric Lindros pushed him rudely, even knocking out a stick from the goalkeeper ... After the match, fans infuriated with the referee's arbitrariness threw the site with lighters, plastic beer glasses and other garbage. And the trainer of “Edmonton” Craig McTavish ran into a fine of $ 10,000 for an unpleasant review of the work of a man with a whistle. Scandal is always expensive.
RUSSIAN WEEKS
Having signed a ten-year contract with Alexei Yashin in 2001, the New York Islanders doomed themselves to the eternal ridicule of competitors and the endless speculation of journalists about the upcoming exchange of the “non-good Russian”. Evil tongues fell silent last week when the captain of the “islanders” put another five points in the goal-scoring system according to the “goal + pass” system and with 17 points topped the list of the most successful team players. Especially successful was Yashin’s Thursday match with New Jersey, in which three of his programs laid the foundation for an away victory over the best club in the Atlantic Division with a score of 5: 2.
BATTLE OF THE WEEK
St. Louis, October 30, Monday. Travis Moen (Anaheim) vs. Jamal Myers (St. Louis). Maughan not only scored a goal in the shootout with the Bluesmen, which ended with a score of 6: 5, but also prettyly beat up the dark-faced tough guy rivals, who, incidentally, is eight years older than him.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Once he reproached Alexander Frolov for indecision at the end of the attacks. The attacker countered by not paying enough attention to details. This Russian is a great thinker. For example, he read War and Peace twice. How else could I“ light ”a fire in the eyes of the attacker, without getting involved in an adventurous argument? They decided this: he adds to the aggressiveness, and I sit down for Leo Tolstoy. I reached page 250 and I think that time will be well spent. Our scout Nikolai Bobrov told me: "To understand the Russian soul, you need to read two books -" War and Peace "and "The idiot." I don’t know if I will ever take Dostoevsky, but getting to the last page of War and Peace is a matter of principle for me, ” Dean Lombardi , General Manager of the Los Angeles Kings, in an interview with Los Angeles Times. And after that, who Some of the Enhael bosses will still complain about the lack of free time!
NUMBER OF THE WEEK
For 89 years, the league did not know a rookie who began his career in the NHL with six successful matches. Before the forward of “Pittsburgh” Evgeni Malkin, a similar anomaly was recorded here in 1917, when, in fact, the “national hockey” was founded. Then, at the dawn of modern times, the opponent's netting with enviable constancy shook the strikers of the Montreal Canadiens Newsy Lalond and Joe Malone, as well as Ottawa Senators sniper Sai Denny trying to keep up with the star tandem. Malone lasted longer than others, whose scoring series stretched for fantastic 14 matches and contained 35 hits on target. The ghost of Joe belongs, by the way, and another eternal record: in 1920 in one of the matches he scored seven goals - an achievement that so far none of the NHL scorers have been able to repeat.
WAITING FOR THE WEEK
Already today, the only rendezvous of the best newcomer in October Evgeni Malkin and Anaheim with Ilya Bryzgalov at the last frontier will be held in the championship. Before the fight with “Pittsburgh”, a native of Togliatti held four meetings this season, in which he missed five goals. On Thursday, we are waiting for the return of another Russian goalkeeper - Nikolai Khabibulin. His “Chicago” will pay a visit to the “New Jersey”, and nowhere to retreat the “black hawks”. After our goalkeeper broke his finger on October 21, the team lost five games in a row and got bogged down at the bottom of the Western Conference. On Friday, the attention of fans will be riveted to the battle of the leaders of the Central Division, “Nashville” and “Detroit”. And the next day, the paths of the Canadian giants Toronto and Montreal intersect, the colors of which protect many hockey players who were born on the territory of the "great and mighty".
CM. ALSO
October 30. Philadelphia - Chicago. Peter Forsberg makes the score 2-0 in favor of the hosts.