Columbus opened a Russian newcomer – Newspaper Kommersant No. 1 (7446) dated 01/09/2023

The protagonist of the next day of the regular season of the NHL was a young Russian striker “Columbus Blue Jackets” Kirill Marchenko, who made his debut in the North American League only a month ago. He gave his underdog club a victory over the powerful Carolina Hurricanes, scoring a hat-trick in regulation time that ended in a 3-3 draw and scoring a free throw in the shootout.

After that match, Columbus coach Brad Larsen spoke with great pleasure about the hockey player who made the greatest contribution to the success of his club. A success that sounded quite loud, given how much the quotes for the teams that met in the match differed greatly. The Carolinas are the division leader of the Metropolitan, a mighty club that, according to, for example, ESPN experts, is on the shortlist of contenders for the Stanley Cup. Columbus is a hopeless underdog in the same division: one win in ten previous games, the chances of a playoff, although there is still half of the regular championship ahead, can be considered lost. So, Larsen confidently singled out the main, in his opinion, the dignity of Kirill Marchenko – the desire to learn and improve all the time: “And this applies not only to playing in attack.” “You always want to see such a person in the team,” Larsen added.

Marchenko certainly needed an introduction. He is not the first Russian newcomer to the NHL this season, who managed to make himself known. The first was his former teammate in St. Petersburg SKA Andrey Kuzmenko. He immediately, with little or no adaptation, not only established himself at the base of the Vancouver Canucks, but became one of its key players. Kuzmenko has excellent performance: with 34 points (17 goals and assists each), he is the club’s third scorer after Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvath.

But the case of Kirill Marchenko is still much more interesting. Andrey Kuzmenko, who will turn 27 in February, got into the NHL as a seasoned player, accustomed to being seen in SKA. You can’t say anything about Marchenko. He is 22 years old, and in fact, his departure to America looked like a risky step. Marchenko played well at the junior level, was considered an unconditional talent, but at the adult level he did not really have time to prove himself. He constantly shuttled between SKA and his farm club SKA-Neva, spending there, for example, the spring part of last season.

Moreover, in the farm club – Cleveland, which plays in the American Hockey League (AHL), – Kirill Marchenko found himself when he left Russia, signing a contract with Columbus. Both his own good game in the AHL and circumstances helped him to rise in the NHL. Columbus, the eternal middle man, seemed like a club that suddenly gained ambition before this season. They were hinted at, for example, by a contract with bright forward Johnny Gaudreau, who left the quite prosperous Calgary Flames for the sake of the Blue Jackets and a new challenge. But very soon it became clear that Columbus still did not succeed in anything – there was neither a reliable game, nor points.

In the end, the club management seems to have decided that it is necessary to bet on the future, spitting on the gray present, and more actively trust young people, who are many in the team, including in the offensive line. We are talking about Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, Emil Bemström, another Russian Egor Chinakhov. Kirill Marchenko joined this company in early December, and over the past month he convinced me that he would not get lost in it. Before the match against Carolina, the 15th in the NHL, Marchenko had 5 goals in 14 meetings, and this is not so little for a debutant who is given quite modest playing time – 12 and a half minutes on average per meeting. Now, having added three more goals to these, it is possible that he shouted that he was ready to conquer the next step, to fight for a higher status.

At least the performance arranged by Kirill Marchenko was impressive. He threw pucks in a different manner, showing both speed, and the ability to peel off his guardian with a sharp jerk, and a well-aimed, tight throw. And Brad Larsen was so impressed by what he saw that he did not hesitate to entrust Marchenko to open the shootout, although until now he was not on the list of players who were considered the best performers at Columbus. Larsen did not fail: the free throw from the Russian also came out great.

Alexey Dospekhov