The state of Ohio in America is considered one of the most boring regions of the Earth. There are many jokes and memes on this topic on the Internet. For example: “List of things to do in Ohio: 1) get away from there.” This is what Artemy Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky once did, by the way. The local Columbus Blue Jackets club tried its best to keep Russian hockey players in its ranks, but they did not sign new contracts and went to conquer other, much more interesting places.
However, the Russian trace in Ohio has not disappeared. Over time, the Blue Jackets have lured twice as many players from Russia as they did in 2019. This season, the colors of the “uniforms” are defended by four Russians: defender Ivan Provorov, who was traded from the Philadelphia Flyers, as well as forwards Egor Chinakhov, Kirill Marchenko and Dmitry Voronkov. And we don’t yet count goalkeeper Daniil Tarasov, for whom it is much more difficult to break into the main Columbus team.
It's funny that of all the four listed above, Dmitry Voronkov got bored the fastest, although he was actually the last to arrive at the Blue Jackets. In May of this year, the Russian forward parted ways with Ak Bars and signed a two-year rookie contract with the “uniforms”. However, less than a year has passed, Dmitry allegedly already got bored in Ohio. Information spread in the press that the young Russian missed his home and began to think about returning to Russia. This was indirectly confirmed by the Columbus management.
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"We are working on this within the team. It's normal for young players to feel homesick from time to time. If Voronkov insists on returning, Columbus will “We will have to loan the striker to Ak Bars,” said the general manager of Columbus. Jarmo Kekäläinen the day before.
This statement quickly spread throughout both North America and Russia. And while the public was discussing this situation, Dmitry himself got down to his immediate work. In a match with one of the leaders of the NHL, the Boston Bruins, Voronkov scored a goal. It was his fourth in his debut season in the league. So how can you think about saying goodbye to the NHL when your career overseas is going very well? Many can only dream of such a start.
It’s interesting that Voronkov opened Pandora’s box with this puck. Russian Pandora. Then all the Russian field players distinguished themselves for Columbus, making the talk about the “Russian four” relevant.
The baton from Voronkov was intercepted by Ivan Provorov, who performed a cool pass to the goal. Which, by the way, was covered by the same Voronkov – the Boston goalkeeper did not see the Blue Jackets rookie’s throw from behind the Russian forward. For Ivan, this puck became the second in the “uniforms”.
Egor Chinakhov also scored his second goal of the season. For the Russian forward, this rally is going with varying degrees of success, but the ex-Omsk Avangard striker is trying to regain his place in the starting lineup. Today Egor scored several points. After assisting Voronkov's goal, Chinakhov scored himself. The Russian played a great interception and upset the substitute Linus Ullmark, the best goalkeeper of last season in the NHL.
For complete beauty, the only thing missing was the puck of the best Russian sniper in Columbus this season – Kirill Marchenko. And he didn't disappoint. At the very start of the third period, Marchenko realized a numerical majority and closed all questions about the winner of the match. By that time, the score was 4:0, and all four goals were scored by Columbus’s Russian players. Beauty! And what’s most interesting: never in the history of the NHL has there been a case where four Russians from one team scored in one match!
Subsequently, the Blue Jackets scored again, and Boston cleared the score with two goals, but this did not affect the result in any way.
Coincidence or not, such a Russian evening in Ohio had a positive impact on Dmitry Voronkov. Blue Jackets fans presented the Russian with posters in his support, the uniform players recognized the forward as the best at the meeting, and Dmitry himself talked to reporters and admitted that he really thought about returning to Russia, but after such an eventful evening he decided to stay in Columbus “.
Correct decision. He will always have time to return to the KHL. There is definitely no need to rush into such decisions.
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