Young Russians started the season brighter than veterans

NHL

One of the main heroes of the first full week of the next NHL season was Russian St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko, whose productive play helped the club reach the top of the standings. In general, young domestic legionnaires showed themselves a little better than the celebrities at the start of the season.

Each week the NHL identifies its three best hockey players. And Vladimir Tarasenko made it into the top three for the first time this season, along with Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price and Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin. His numbers are really good. The period in question included four St. Louis matches. In them, Tarasenko scored six points, scoring three goals and making the same number of assists. St. Louis won all the meetings with the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets, placing them at the top of the Western Conference table. And this is an additional plus for Tarasenko.

However, the experts did not see anything surprising in the fact that the young (he is 23 years old) striker was so good in October. In the end, last season Vladimir Tarasenko was the leader, the engine of St. Louis and demonstrated performance at the highest level: he entered the top ten scorers. What was rather surprising was the fact that his peer Artemy Panarin started the season almost as effectively.

In the summer, as you know, for the first time in a long time, a fairly significant group of domestic players - a dozen hockey players - left Russia for the NHL. Most newcomers have some difficulty adapting to the league - difficulties that are quite expected. But you can’t say the same about Panarin.

No matter how brilliantly he played for the St. Petersburg SKA, many doubted that the forward, who did not have the heroic dimensions, would immediately join the team of the Chicago Blackhawks, the current Stanley Cup winner. The potential obstacles were obvious: he doesn’t speak English, he’s never played overseas, and therefore doesn’t know the specifics of local hockey... However, Artemy Panarin jumped right in. In five matches, he has five points, only two less than Tarasenko, and about Chicago’s second line, in which Panarin takes the ice along with compatriot Artem Anisimov, who transferred from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and club superstar Patrick Kane, They say it’s one of the most spectacular and interesting in the league: it amazes with its technique and speed.

In October, Chicago general manager Stan Bowman praised his Russian recruit almost on a daily basis, sparing no words of praise. And he can be understood. In terms of price/quality ratio, Artemy Panarin is, quite possibly, number one in today’s NHL. After all, with Chicago, which was stifled by the salary cap, he signed an extremely modest two-year contract by league standards. Its base cost is $812.5 thousand per year. True, the agreement provides for good bonuses - $2.5 million, and so far everything is going to the point that Panarin will earn them.

The success of the youth, however, does not mean the overall October triumph of Russia in the NHL. For triumph, perhaps, a similar return from its main celebrities in the league is slightly lacking. Almost everyone behaves, let’s say, quite modestly. Goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky from the Columbus Blue Jackets, for example, has terrible statistics: the team still has not scored a single point, lost all five matches when Bobrovsky was in its goal, and he concedes an average of five goals per game. Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, the strongest sniper in world hockey of the past decade, made a splash in the fall not so much thanks to the goals he scored (he has three of them), but rather to a funny incident. Washington coach Barry Trotz recently left Ovechkin out of the lineup for a match against the San Jose Sharks because the striker slept through morning practice. Without him, Washington suffered a crushing 0:5 defeat.

Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, another player who is considered a serious contender for individual awards at the end of the season, has only three points for performance so far. Although this is sheer nonsense in comparison with the troubles experienced by another - Canadian - genius of Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby. It’s unlikely that anyone could have imagined that Crosby, for whom the schedule is a point per match, is a so-so schedule, in his first four meetings he would not be able to score a goal or give an effective pass.

Alexey Dospehov

Tournament table

Eastern Conference

IVPOPSHO

Atlantic Division
1. Montreal	6	6	0	0	20:7	12
2. Tampa Bay	6	4	0	2	19:15	8
3. Ottawa	6	3	1	2	19:17	7
4. Florida	5	3	0	2	16:9	6
5. Detroit	5	3	0	2	15:13	6
6. Boston	5	2	0	3	18:21	4
7. Toronto	5	1	1	3	12:17	3
8. Buffalo	5	1	0	4	9:14	2
Metropolitan Division
1. New York Rangers	7	4	1	2	18:15	9
2. New York Islanders	5	3	1	1	17:15	7
3. Washington	4	3	0	1	13:10	6
4. Philadelphia	4	2	1	1	7:10	5
5. Pittsburgh	5	2	0	3	7:9	4
6. New Jersey	5	1	1	3	8:14	3
7. Caroline	5	1	0	4	11:17 2
8. Columbus	6	0	0	6	13:30	0

Western Conference

IVPOPSHO

Central Division
1. St. Louis	6	5	0	1	21:14	10
2. Dallas	5	4	0	1	19:13	8
3. Nashville	5	4	0	1	14:9	8
4. Winnipeg	6	4	0	2	20:13	8
5. Minnesota	5	3	1	1	14:15	7
6. Chicago	6	3	0	3	14:14	6
7. Colorado	5	2	0	3	16:16	4
Pacific Division
1. San Jose	6	4	0	2	17:12	8
2. Vancouver	6	3	2	1	16:11	8
3. Arizona	5	3	0	2	16:11	6
4. Los Angeles	5	2	0	3	6:14	4
5. Edmonton	6	2	0	4	12:16	4
6. Anaheim	5	1	1	3	5:12	3
7. Calgary	5	1	0	4	10:19	2

NHL Championship scorers

IGPO

1. Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis)	6	5	4	9
2. David Krejci (Boston)	5	4	5	9
3. Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit)	5	2	7	9
4. Jamie Benn (Dallas)	5	5	3	8
5. Kyle Turris (Ottawa)	6	4	4	8

Bombers beyond their age