Unfolded trick: Michkov tries to surprise the NHL, Ovechkin on an unpacking move

The NHL went on a two-week break for the Four Nations Tournament - it's time to summarize the interim results and talk about the latest successes of our hockey players overseas. Alexander Ovechkin doesn't score but makes history, Matvey Michkov is trying hard to surprise in lacrosse, Nikita Kucherov continues to drag Tampa, and Vladimir Tarasenko got to the anniversary puck.

Beat the Canadiens

In a home game against Utah (4-5 B), Alexander Ovechkin couldn't come close to Wayne Gretzky in the historic sniper race, but he did perform in the forgotten role of a passer, netting his 17th career (and first in three and a half years) assist hat trick. Thanks to this achievement, Washington's leader moved up to a clear 11th place on the NHL scoring list, leaving the outstanding Phil Esposito behind him forever.

Joe Sakic should be the next victim of the Russian super-sniper, but a rise into the top-10 will almost certainly have to wait until next season.

Three goal assists helped Ovechkin make a solid run in the league's all-time assist leaderboard. In one game, Ovi surpassed two of Canada's famous Jean Beliveau, Scott Stevens and Sweden's Daniel Alfredsson. Alexander is 12 assists away from 55th-ranked Luc Robitaille, and 28 away from Claude Giroux, who is closing in on the top fifty (and continuing his career). By the way, Ovechkin does not hold the Russian record in this category. Evgeni Malkin assisted his Pittsburgh teammates 823 times, which puts him on the 31st line.

Despite a bit of a sniper lull, Ovechkin is still holding out hope to get Gretzky this season. And it's still unclear in which category Alexander will overtake Wayne sooner - by goals (now the difference is 15 pucks) or by games played (the Canadian has 22 more).

Michkov's stubbornness

Throughout the first half of the regular season, John Tortorella struggled with Matvey Michkov's burning and irresistible desire to score an NHL lacrosse goal. However, in December, the Philadelphia head coach admitted he had failed in his attempts to reach his young forward.

This season, Michkov has tried to score at least five times with the trick, which in the NHL is more commonly referred to in the North American and much more consonant with his last name - michigan. However, all of them were unsuccessful.

After finding himself behind the Washington goal early in the third period, Matvey again tried to make a sensation on home ice. And he did it with the score 3-2 in favor of the Flyers, having a double in his account by that time. If the kid from the Urals had hit the right side of Charlie Lindgren's net, he would have caused a frenzy at the Wells Fargo Center, filled all the news feeds and made history - no one in the NHL had ever managed a hat trick like that before.

The problem is that right now, Enhael goaltenders are maxed out on lacrosse whenever Michkov is behind the goal. "I saw him start to go in on the lacrosse and I thought, 'Oh, man, I better get higher to the crossbar. Pretty impressive,'" Lindgren said after the game.

So the more often Matvey gets "knocked" into the helmets of goalies with his head covering the right nine, the more questions not only Tortorella, but his partners as well, will have for him.

- "Michkov will be good, really good," two-time Stanley Cup winner and Philadelphia senior vice president Bobby Clarke told Izvestia. - He's very smart and competitive, and he's only 20 years old. But as good as these guys are, everyone will have to wait to see their true potential. Look at Bedard, he's not lighting up the league and this is his second year. These guys will gain momentum by the time they are 23 or 24. They look good right now, but they are just getting started.

Close to a hundred

Nikita Kucherov had three goals in a 6-3 win over Detroit and became the first Russian player to break the 80-point mark in the 2024/25 season. The Tampa Bay forward, who already made his 11th three-point play in the current regular season, reached that mark for the seventh time in his career. Only Alexander Ovechkin, who has played in the league almost twice as long (20 seasons vs. 11), has scored more than 80 points more often in the regular season. In the spring, Kucherov may catch up with Artemi Panarin (quite realistic) and Evgeni Malkin (unlikely), but Ilya Kovalchuk will forever remain behind the Lightning's leader in this category.

Kucherov is one of three Russian hockey players to own the NHL club record for one of the major statistical indicators. Alexander Ovechkin leads Washington in three of the four categories (Ovi is behind his perennial projectile carrier Nicklas Bäckström in assists), while Ilya Kovalchuk still shares Winnipeg's former Atlanta sniper achievement with Mark Scheifeley. Evgeni Malkin (all-conference) and Alexei Yashin are also in the top three.

One of Kucherov's (955 points) goals for the near future can be safely called getting into the top 100 best scorers in NHL history. The forward is now 113th (and 13th among current players, which includes, among others, Bäckström, who hasn't played in a year and a half). Jason Spezza closes out the top 100 with 995 points, but Nikita needs to look to Brian Propp (1,004) and Lanny McDonald (1,006) as Nathan MacKinnon, whose 1,000th career point is expected in March, and Brad Marchand are above him.

Tarasenko's anniversary

In a meeting with Tampa Bay (3:6), Vladimir Tarasenko broke a 10-game goalless streak and reached the 300-goal mark in the regular season. Prior to the 33-year-old Detroit forward, 11 Russian hockey players celebrated the anniversary. Tarasenko is 14 shots behind Pavel Datsyuk and 37 behind Alexei Yashin, who rounds out the top 10. Among current players, Alexander Ovechkin (1st), Evgeni Malkin (2nd) and Nikita Kucherov (9th) are ranked higher.

This season is turning out to be one of the toughest of Tarasenko's career. In 53 games, the forward has scored only seven goals. The worst results were recorded only in the championships-2019/20 (three goals) and -2020/21 (four), which were spoiled by serious injuries. Rumors have already gone about a possible exchange of Vladimir from Detroit.