Vladimir BYCHEK
HERO OF THE WEEK
At the All-Star Game, he refused the 94th number, reminiscent of the year of the draft in the NHL, and out of respect for Janick Perrault put on a T-shirt with the unusual combination of "93". For some, dressing like this is a bad sign, inevitably coupled with a loss of luck, but not for Edmonton striker Ryan Smith . After the Dallas ball, the “oilmen" scored five goals in two meetings, and Captain Canada put a club to each! Particularly impressive was his contribution to Saturday's victory over “Los Angeles”, only on the eve of interrupting the seven-match series of defeats - two goals plus two successful passes! In view of these, the record holder of the Maple Leaf Country in terms of the number of matches at the World Championships brought the statistics in the regular championship to 41 points. At this pace, and close to the Enkhael record: the highest achievement of the striker - 70 points in the 2000/01 season.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Having defeated the Toronto before the holidays, the Pittsburgh , which was full of youthful enthusiasm , clung to eighth place in the conference. Grasping with one hand for a ticket to the playoffs, the “penguins” hastened to hide it in their inner pocket after an all-star timeout. Guest victory on shootouts over the “Dallas” added confidence in the feasibility of the mission. The beating of “wolves of the desert” in their own territory contributed to the advance to the seventh row of the table. The main characters of the march are Sid Crosby and Mark Recky, who scored six points in two matches. On Friday, Recca saluted the hospitable Texas with the 500th puck of his career, and Crosby, although he did not realize the shootout (sixth puncture in six attempts in the championship!), Twice assisted the veteran. A day later, both tried not to muddle in front of Wayne Gretzky and gathered the first full-season sold out “Phoenix”. Helped and ... fathers. As part of the family unity campaign, 28 dads accompanied literally from around the world accompanied two Pittsburgh field hockey matches during two away matches. So, the father of Ronald Petrovitsky arrived straight from Slovakia. Ekman Sr. has come a long way from Sweden ... With such a support group, no coyote is scary!
STAR OF THE WEEK
The main event of the seven-day show - The All-Star Show in Dallas - was held with a truly royal scale, but in the spirit of a clear crisis of the genre. It is unclear whether the stars in the Enkhael sky became less, or they categorically refuse to shine in greenhouse conditions. Be that as it may, the battle of the young luminaries left a depressing impression, and the indicators of competitions in speed, strength and accuracy sharply crawled down. The match of all the stars was not so terrible as his little ones. Although the soul did not turn around, and the vicissitudes of the battle between the “East” and the “West” were forgotten the very next morning. I would like to believe that the Russians Eugene Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin, too, did not hesitate to wipe out the Dallas ordeals from memory.
RUSSIAN WEEKS
Two goals of “Chicago” forward Denis Arkhipov in the Sunday battle with “Calgary” not only interrupted the 10-match (!) Series of defeats of “black hawks”, but also, may become the starting point for a desperate assault on the cup peaks. Having transferred the puck to the all-star Mickey Kiprusoff grid 44 seconds before the end of the third period, the Kazan guaranteed his team an overtime. And in an extra five-minute period, he put in her piggy bank the first two points from January 2, finding a loophole among the forest of legs in front of another's gates.
STagnation of the week
Good intentions to change the championship calendar so that each club could meet with all the league teams at least once, did not lead to anything. The upcoming championship will be held in the same way as the current one: eight games with rivals in the division, four matches with the rest of the representatives of their conference and ten fights with people from another conference. Of which there are fifteen, as you know ... The reformers proposed returning the situation to the pre-fall format, when the teams held six meetings inside the division, and eighteen remained at a foreign conference. Alas, the board of directors did not approve the new, old idea. At a Tuesday meeting, it was supported by delegates from 19 of the 30 clubs - before the legislative two-thirds did not have one vote.
BATTLE OF THE WEEK
January 26th. Carolina - Washington. Lightweight Battle: Scott Walker vs. Chris Clark .
FIGURES OF THE WEEK
11 seasons in a row goalkeeper “New Jersey” Martin Broder overcomes the threshold of 30 victories. This is an absolute league record, leaving far behind all the pursuers. The series of the legendary Patrick Roy, for example, consists of eight such championships. "Every autumn I tune in to thirty wins. This is my minimum program. I'm glad that everything happened so quickly. Now we will move on," Broder said on Friday, having mastered the grandmaster norm in the match with Tampa. Well, it's time to swing at the maximum and try to break the record of Bernie Parent, who stamped 47 victories in the championship-73/74.
QI TATA WEEK
“When I play in the NHL on a computer, I always take myself“ Washington. ”I don’t like drafts, so I exchange the right to choose existing league players. Trades are my element. I took Ilya Bryzgalov, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergey Brylin to Capitals, Andrei Markov, Fedor Tyutin. In my virtual world, this is a Russian team, "- forward of Washington, Alexander Ovechkin .
WAITING FOR THE WEEK
At present, Alexei Yashin can meet on an ice rink with Pavel Datsyuk once every three years. Therefore, the Tuesday battle of “Islanders” and “Detroit” is clearly in the center of attention of Russian fans. In addition, the "red wings" are now in a fever, and the "islanders" have nowhere to retreat. On Saturday, the full-time battle of recent team partners at the All-Star Game, Sid Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. In other words, Pittsburgh vs. Washington. That very evening, the strongest clubs in the Western Conference Nashville and Anaheim will compete. As for the birthdays, this week they are completely experienced. Today, the 40th anniversary will be celebrated by Los Angeles goalkeeper Sean Bourke and 42 will hit the goalkeeper of Detroit Dominic Hasek. And on Thursday, 39 years will celebrate the forward of “Pittsburgh” Mark Recky. It will celebrate, by the way, a match with Montreal, the colors of which he defended in 1995-1999.
CM. ALSO
January 27th. Phoenix - Pittsburgh. The prodigy of all of Canada, Sid Crosby scores in the near “nine”, landing on the “fifth point”! Russian Evgeni Malkin is a witness.