Russian hockey players win Stanley Cup for the fifth year in a row. In 2016 and 2017, Evgeny Malkin won the trophy with Pittsburgh. A year later, Washington’s players Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov became its owners. Last season, the main NHL prize was won by St. Louis strikers Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev.
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NHL season was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic is in the regular season and resumed on August 1 with matches playoffs. All meetings were held without spectators in two cities – Toronto and Edmonton. The final Stanley Cup series took place in Edmonton.
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The format of the Stanley Cup this season has been changed to playoffs 24 teams played instead of the usual 16. A preliminary round and a group stage were added to the draw, in which the seeding of the teams that took the first four places in their conferences in the regular season was determined. Tampa played three group stage matches and finished second in their conference.
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In the first round, Tampa outplayed Columbus (4-1), in the second with the same score, they were stronger than Boston. In the final of the conference, the New York Islanders were defeated (4-2).
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Russian heroes playoffs
In the last Stanley Cup final, seven Russians played – Vasilevsky, Kucherov, Sergachev, Volkov, as well as Dallas players Alexander Radulov, Denis Guryanov and Anton Khudobin. This became a record, earlier participation in the final playoffs The NHL received a maximum of six Russians. The last time this happened was in the 1999/2000 season. Then for the champion “New Jersey” were forwards Sergei Nemchinov, Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Brylin and defender Vladimir Malakhov, and the colors of the loser in the final of “Dallas” were defended by Roman Lyashenko and Sergei Zubov.
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In the 1997/1998 season, there were seven Russians in the finalists’ applications. Detroit had Vyacheslav Fetisov, Dmitry Mironov, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Igor Larionov and Sergey Fedorov, while Washington included Andrey Nikolishin and Sergey Gonchar. However, Mironov did not play a single match in the final series, following which his team won the trophy.
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Kucherov became the top scorer playoffs NHL, in his asset 34 (7 goals + 27 assists) points in 25 games, the last time a Russian hockey player won in a bombing race in 2018.
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Then the first place in points scored in playoffs took the forward of “Washington” Evgeny Kuznetsov, who scored 32 (12 + 20) points. Earlier, among Russians, Evgeny Malkin (2009, 2017) and Sergei Fedorov (1995) succeeded in this. Kucherov also showed the second result among Russian players in the history of the NHL in terms of the number of points in one Stanley Cup – the record belongs to Malkin (36 points, 2009).
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The Russian striker finished fifth in the number of assists in one playoffs. The record for this indicator (31 assists) in 1988 was set by Wayne Gretzky. In 1985, the Canadian gave 30 assists, and in 1987 – 29. Kucherov also surpassed Mario Lemieux, who had 28 assists in the 1991 Stanley Cup.
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Sergachev in the past playoffs scored 10 (3 + 7) points in 25 matches. Volkov for the first time in playoffs appeared on the ice in the final match of the final series. He spent just over nine minutes on the court and earned a sending-off, after which Braden Point scored the winning goal.
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The main discovery playoffs became the goalkeeper of “Dallas” Khudobin. The Russian goalkeeper played 24 matches, in which his team won 14 victories, and reflected 91.7% of shots on his goal. Radulov scored 18 (10 + 8) points, on account of Guryanov 17 (9 + 8) points for performance. Guryanov became the main character of the 1/8 finals series playoffs with Calgary, when in the sixth match he designed poker and secured his team an exit to the next round.
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Vasilevsky’s records
Vasilevsky set an NHL record for the number of wins in one playoffs – 18. This achievement of the Russian goalkeeper cannot be surpassed by anyone until the format changes playoffs. In the standard formation, the goalkeeper can win a maximum of 16 meetings in one playoffs. The pupil of “Salavat Yulaev” set a record for the number of playing time in one playoffs – 1 708 minutes and 12 seconds.
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“Vasilevsky deserved the prize for the most valuable player playoffs, but this is not for me to judge. For Ufa fans and the Salavat Yulaev club, he is the most valuable player in the final series and of all playoffs. I watched almost all the games playoffs with the participation of “Tampa”, Andrei played in an outstanding way. I think that at the moment he is the best goalkeeper in the world, “- told TASS General Director of Salavat Yulaev Alexander Kurnosov.
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In the sixth match of the final series, Vasilevsky for the first time in his career played “zero” in a meeting playoffs. He became the second goalkeeper in NHL history for the first time in playoffs played “zero” in the winning Stanley Cup final. The first goalkeeper for this indicator was Tom Barrasso (1991).
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“My first” cracker “in playoffs, and immediately in the decisive match for the Stanley Cup, finally. We talked about it in the locker room, it was an unforgettable experience, we played very well. The opponent had some great moments, so I’m happy with everything that happened today. This is the most important time in my life, ”Vasilevsky noted.
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For the first time since 2007, a Russian goalkeeper has won the Stanley Cup. Earlier, only two domestic goalkeepers managed to win the trophy. Nikolay Khabibulin won the Stanley Cup in 2004 with Tampa, and Ilya Bryzgalov took the title in 2007 with Anaheim.
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Super Three and Most Valuable Player playoffs
The whole playoffs “Tampa” spent without their captain Stephen Stamkos. The Canadian forward in the regular season was the second most effective player on his team after Kucherov, gaining 66 (29 goals, 37 assists) points. The injured Stamkos took to the ice in the third match of the final series (5: 2), largely to get his name engraved in the Stanley Cup. The forward spent 2 minutes and 47 seconds on the court, but during this time he managed to score with an abandoned puck.
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In the absence of the captain, the Tampa strike troika took over the leadership role. Kucherov, Point and Ondřej Chambers for three in matches playoffs scored 31 goals. Point became the best sniper playoffs, scoring 14 goals, four of which were in the final streak.
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Top three attacks throughout playoffs assisted by defender Victor Hedman. It was he who became the owner of the “Conn Smythe Trophy”, which is awarded to the most valuable player playoffs. The Swedish defender has 22 (10 + 12) points in playoffs with indicators of usefulness “+13”.
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He became the third defender to score 10 goals in one Stanley Cup season. In 1994, Brian Leach of the New York Rangers scored 11 times, and the record for this indicator was set in 1985 by Paul Coffey of Edmonton (12). Hedman becomes the third Swedish ice hockey player to win the Most Valuable Player award playoffs, after Niklas Lidström (2002, Detroit) and Henrik Zetterberg (2008, Detroit).
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Tampa head coach John Cooper won the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career. Eight years ago, the Canadian specialist won the Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals and became the eighth coach to win the main trophies of the American Hockey League (AHL) and NHL.
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In addition to Cooper, Fred Shero, Al McNeill, Mike Keenan, John Tortorella, current Avangard coach Bob Hartley, Peter Laviolette and Barry Trotz were able to do this.
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The new NHL season is slated to kick off on December 1st. On October 6, the NHL Rookie Draft will take place, which will select the future stars of the league. The favorite among European goalkeepers according to the rating of the central scout bureau is 18-year-old SKA goalkeeper Yaroslav Askarov. The main favorite of the draft is Canadian Alexis Lafrenier, who will be chosen by the New York Rangers with almost one hundred percent probability.
