Alexey Yashin Back to the Center
Last week was extremely good for Alexey Yashin and Ilya Kovalchuk, Russian stars of the NHL. Yashin’s New York Islanders won three victories in a row where he scored his 300th career goal. Kovalchyuk was called the league’s Offensive Player of the Week. Another Russian, Alexey Kovalev had bad news – he is soon to go under the knife.
Yesterday’s match between Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders came down in the history as the one with the longer shootout of 18 shots. Islanders coach Steve Stirling moved Alexey Yashin back the center. The Russian had earlier played leftwing a few matches, which was not a success. Yashin got his 300th career goal scoring the first in the game to become the fourth Russian, after Alexander Mogilny, Sergey Fedorov and Pavel Bure, to surpass the 300-goal notch. The figure is not that impressive given that he has played in the NHL since 1992. On the other hand, Yashin has never been an offensive player though he has always excelled at the defense.
Alexey Kovalev, the leader of Montreal Canadiens, who chalked up his 400th assist in the game against Maple Leafs, decided to go under the knife. Kovalev will be sidelined for three or four weeks with the impending knee surgery. He is to be operated in Pittsburgh tonight.
The NHL announced the best players of the week following yesterday’s matches. Ilya Kovalchuk from Atlanta Trashers, who had had two brilliant games last weekend, was called Offensive Player of the Week. He began his week with two assists in Atlanta’s 5-0 triumph against Pittsburgh, then helped his team to win over Tampa Bay 5-2 with a career-best four goals. The next day, he added two tallies in a 9-0 road rout of Carolina Hurricanes. Kovalchuk’s six goals in consecutive games set a franchise record. Dallas Stars goalkeeper Marty Turco was named Defensive Player of the Week.
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All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 16, 2005
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