Vladimir BYCHEK
HERO OF THE WEEK
Life is not always fair. Or almost always unfair. Perhaps Death was lurking behind that bend, and you are the next on its long list. Or your best friend ... Teemu Selanne felt the cold breath of a ruthless old woman with a scythe in the telephone when he dialed the number of a longtime friend. A trembling voice at the Finnish end of the wire told the terrible news: "I have brain cancer. Maybe we won't see each other again." He asked only about one thing: to make a hat-trick and send a happy puck by mail. Good luck. Selanne, who has not scored three goals in a match since March 2001, complained that the likelihood of such an event was extremely low, but promised to try. 36-year-old striker Anaheim kept his promise in the next match with the Dallas. Perhaps, for the first time in a long career, a hockey master did not give him joy, and every goal scored, instead of a feeling of euphoria, brought inexpressible sadness. The veteran did not notice how he got into the best snipers of the championship.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Ottawa would not have been happy if it were not for ... the injury of the two leading center forwards. Paradoxically, without Jason Spezza and Mike Fisher, the “senators” scored 19 points out of 22 possible and came close to “Montreal,” the fourth-ranking team in the Eastern Conference. Missing stars from the sky, Chris Kelly blended so well between their lords, Daniel Alfredsson and Dani Heatley, that Ottawa in a matter of weeks reminded who, in the 2005/06 season, most often lit the red light outside the gates of others. In three victorious matches of the week, wards of Brian Murray scored 19 goals!
RUSSIAN WEEKS
Forward “Detroit” Pavel Datsyuk , in turn, earned at least two scoring points in each of the three seven-day games. The guy tried especially hard on Thursday’s battle with the legendary Wayne Gretzky’s team: two abandoned goals and three assists with a barrier blocked the road to the Phoenix, which was dispersed to a seven-match winning streak. Datsyuk’s phenomenal rate of fire didn’t go unnoticed by the Red Wing leadership - last week club manager Ken Holland met with the hockey player and his agent twice to renew the contract.
JUSTICE OF THE WEEK
There was no sensation, and the candidate from the overseas proletarians - the defender of Vancouver Rory Fitzpatrick - safely flew past the Match of All Stars. 550177 votes collected in his support through an unprecedented advertising campaign on the Internet would more than be enough to achieve the goal in the East. However, the West is a much more delicate matter, and Fitzpatrick was unable to move Scott Niedermeier’s blue blood winners with Niklas Lidström to the tormenting lonely point in the championship. Even with the active assistance of a whole clownish army.
WRONG JUSTICE OF THE WEEK
Dominic Hasek is also not invited to the “All-Star Game”. Goalkeeper “Detroit”, who missed the least in the championship - an average of 2.03 goals per game, preferred Mickey Kiprusoff (2.28) from “Calgary” and Marty Turko (2.34) from “Dallas”. “I'm upset,” Hasek said on this occasion. “I was hoping to be in Dallas.”
RETURN OF THE WEEK
When Besson's newcomer Phil Kessel was diagnosed with a chilling cancer in early December, the fate of a 19-year-old seemed to hang in the balance. Fortunately, American technology has gone so far that a terrible disease, detected early on, capitulated in record time. Not even a month after the removal of the malignant tumor, the boy returned to the “bear” den. Last Tuesday, he went on the ice in a duel with the “Ottawa” and received a noisy ovation from Canadian fans.
DEBUT OF THE WEEK
24-year-old Yutaka Fukufuji became the first native of Japan, “lit up” in the NHL. The goalkeeper of “Los Angeles” took the last frontier in the third period of the Saturday match against “St. Louis” and repelled four of five shots. It’s not thick, however, there’s no one to choose “kings” from: Matthew Garon broke a finger of his right hand, and Dan Cloutier underwent hip surgery.
BATTLE OF THE WEEK
January 9. Calgary - Minnesota. Called out of the American Hockey League, Eric Godard quickly found a council for one of the championship’s best fighters, the 120-pound savage Derek Bugard . The two-meter giant was injured and left the site.
NUMBER OF THE WEEK
The 500th point in the NHL championships was scored on Tuesday by Montreal captain Saku Koivu. Is it a lot or a little? For the striker, who entered the eleventh season, of course, not enough. Paul Kariya, for example, drafted in the same 1993, exceeded eight hundred ... But for almost the most distressed soldier in the history of world hockey - there are extremely many. An endless series of wounds and diseases irrevocably deleted 244 matches from the track record of Saku. Cancer of the lymphatic system almost put an end to life, not to mention a career. A random swing of the stick of Justin Williams from “Carolina” in April 2006, and Saku was almost left without an eye ... A warm place in the “Hockey Hall of Fame” is the smallest way to evaluate the unstoppable character of the Finn. Although, in fairness, the living symbol of the Canadiens has long earned a monument in the city center.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I’m not going to sit in this booth without comment and comment on each shift. So you can go crazy. Moreover, most of the time what is happening on the site does not deserve any comment. If I see a dumb game, I’ll talk directly about it,” - ex forward Calgary, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit and Phoenix Brett Hall , who made his debut as an NBC hockey observer last week.
WAITING FOR THE WEEK
On Thursday, fans' attention will be riveted to the remake of the last final of the Western Edmonton Conference - Anaheim. Last May, “oilmen” turned out to be stronger in five matches, but now the best championship team has a chance to take revenge and at the same time kick the offenders away from the playoff zone. On Saturday, the Montreal League’s most Russian-speaking club will clash with the flagship of its division and the entire Buffalo East Conference, whose colors are defended by Russians Maxim Afinogenov and Dmitry Kalinin. That last night, the last two Stanley Cup winners - “Carolina” and “Tampa” - will face off. Sunday is a weekend ahead of the all-star show in Dallas. Free day is just the right time for Ottawa striker Dany Heatley and Calgary defender Andrei Zyuzin, who are preparing to celebrate their 26th and 29th birthday, respectively.
CM. ALSO
January 9. Colorado - Detroit. Henrik Zetterberg's victorious red-wing forward bulletin is in the best traditions of compatriot-Swede Peter Forsberg!