The National Hockey League took a traditional short break in the championship for Christmas holiday time in North America. During this period, clubs are prohibited from conducting training sessions and in any way involving hockey players in the work process. For everyone, this time is an official weekend, an opportunity to recharge their batteries and spend time with their family and friends.
The resumption of the season was marked by a big hockey festival, which included as many as 14 matches. Almost every game is a scoring feast and a high-profile event. The New York Rangers, for example, went through the Washington Capitals and did not allow Alexander Ovechkin to continue his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky. At the same time, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers had a hot southern derby, where Andrei Vasilevsky and Sergei Bobrovsky had a glorious goaltending duel, and Nikita Kucherov broke the 300-goal mark in his NHL career.
But the meeting between the New York Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins turned out to be truly grandiose. Even surprising. Pittsburgh, which has noticeable problems in the game in attack and, in principle, is not stable in terms of results, crushed the bones of a team with one of the best goaltending teams in the entire league. The Islanders scored seven unanswered goals! Moreover, six of them happened in just ten minutes of the second period. After this, the Islanders headquarters gave Ilya Sorokin a break.
Evgeni Malkin also upset the Russian goalkeeper of the “islanders”. For Gino now, every goal is a big event. Not in the sense that things are difficult for the legendary Russian with them. Just the opposite. From the very start of the season, Gino put the car into fifth gear and raced towards a destination called the 500 Club. Already this year, Evgeniy can become an honorary member of this elite company of hockey players, who reached the mark of 500 career goals in the NHL championships.
But we still have to get there. But in the match against the Islanders, Malkin achieved another significant achievement and rewrote great history. Before the match in New York, the Pittsburgh veteran was only one goal away from second place in the list of the best Russian snipers in league history. Gino not only reached this position in one fell swoop, but also secured it for himself for many years. With an interval of just over three minutes, Evgeny scored a double.
For Malkin, these goals became the 483rd and 484th in his NHL career, respectively. First, the Penguins forward caught up with the great Sergei Fedorov (483 goals in 1248 matches), and then surpassed him. Story! From now on, Evgeni Malkin is the second best Russian sniper in the history of the league. Only Alexander Ovechkin is higher, but no one will catch up with him in the foreseeable future. What can we say, Malkin himself is unlikely to be “disturbed” by anyone in the next few years. Among active hockey players, he is followed by Nikita Kucherov.
And again we are forced to remember the unfair decision of the league to leave Gino behind hundreds of the best players in history. NHL, what's wrong with the face?
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