Young, but a sniper – Newspaper Kommersant No. 199 (7400) dated 10/26/2022

One of the main Russian heroes of the starting segment in the regular season of the NHL was the Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Andrey Svechnikov. The young forward, with seven goals in six games, is at the top of the scoring hierarchy, and his productivity is among the reasons that make Carolina a real contender for the Stanley Cup.

NHL regular season regular season game in which the Vancouver Canucks conceded – 2:3 – “Carolina Hurricanes”, the leading North American media resources have allocated, first of all, drawing attention to the team that was the hostess of the site. Indeed, something strange is going on with Vancouverians. The club, which is not bad in principle, is the only one out of 32 in the league that has not yet managed to open an account with victories in the championship. He managed to lose all seven matches, and in the first four he lost, leading along the way with a difference of two goals. In general, a mysterious and dramatic story.

But attention, of course, deserved and “Carolina”. Even before the start of the season, this club, albeit cautiously, was included in the shortlist of those that can fly high, high. And the October speeches even forced experts to get rid of cautious reservations. For example, the most recent release Power Rankings ESPN – a rating that ranks teams in terms of strength at a given particular moment – he sent Carolina to the top line. The reasons are quite clear.

Carolina was not bad last season. Balanced, fast, she won the regular season in her by no means weak Metropolitan division, and in the playoffs she snapped in the second round in an essentially even seven-game streak against the New York Rangers. So, now Carolina, which won four victories in six meetings and was defeated only once in regular time, looks, perhaps, even stronger than last year.

There are several components to progress. ESPN emphasized how well experienced defenseman Brent Burns, who moved from San Jose in the summer, fit into the game of the Carolinas. But other analysts, describing the possibilities of the club, often mention the Russian striker Andrey Svechnikov.

Not to say that he claims to be the unconditional revelation of the season. In the NHL, Svechnikov, despite the fact that he is only 22 years old, is already in his fifth season. The striker secured the role of one of the leading Carolina hockey players, while still a debutant of the league, and in his second championship he entered its history by performing a trick that no one in the NHL has yet succeeded in. We are talking about the puck thrown by the lacrosse technique – when it is placed on the hook of the stick and literally brought into the goal.

Svechnikov’s statistics also progressed. Last season, she was already really cool, at the level of elite forwards: in 72 matches, the Russian scored 30 goals and scored 69 points, hitting the top 50 in the scorer classification. And in the current season, Andrey Svechnikov seems ready to make a very obvious leap forward. At least its beginning hints at it.

Many Russian NHL celebrities look great in the fall. But in terms of brightness, in terms of productivity, Svechnikov’s competition, perhaps, is still only one Artemiy Panarin from the Rangers. Panarin leads the scorer list with a dozen points, and Svechnikov, having opened the scoring in the match with Vancouver, climbed with seven goals to the first position in the sniper list (though sharing it with Tampa Bay Lightning veteran Steven Stamkos).

At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that Andrey Svechnikov’s successes are based not on some random circumstances, but on something much more fundamental. He really added.

Let’s say, it used to be customary to admire mainly his power passes, the ability to cut a corner, pushing opponents back with his body. Now everyone has seen that Svechnikov also has a reference – sharp, with a minimum of preparation time – a wrist throw, thanks to which he became the author of a hat-trick in a recent match with the Edmonton Oilers. And the role of the Russian in the team has definitely become more significant. This can be judged at least by his playing time. In October, Svechnikov spends on the court an average of almost 18 and a half minutes in each match (only two of the Carolina forwards are longer on the ice – Martin Nechas and Sebastian Aho, but Aho, actually the club’s core player, is only a few seconds ). This is just a minute more than it was in the previous championship, the personal achievements of which the Russian, apparently, is going to block with a margin.

Alexey Dospekhov