I played poker: Ovechkin and Khusnutdinov light up in January

The Russians have had a great start to 2026 in the NHL. Alexander Ovechkin extended the series of productive matches and approached the mark of 1,000 goals scored, while Marat Khusnutdinov, who made poker in the match against Boston, gave the main performance in January. It is also worth noting the bright return of Evgeny Malkin, the anniversary of Ivan Provorov and the magnificent performance of Nikita Kucherov. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Moving towards a thousand

Washington alternates wins and losses in the last stretch. Gradually, Spencer Carbery's team solves the game's problems and gets out of the crisis. By the way, Alexey Protas, who missed a week and a half, returned to the squad in the last match against Chicago. Tom Wilson, who has been called up to the Canadian Olympic team, is on the way. The other good news for the Capitals is that Alexander Ovechkin scored a phenomenal run and put goals on stream.

It was the great sniper who opened the scoring in the match against Nashville (scoring in the fourth match in a row). Most of them cannot be attributed to the strengths of Washington. The Capitals occupy the penultimate place in the league in terms of sales, ahead only of Calgary. However, this evening the special teams worked. It all started with Ovechkin's signature throw from the office. This goal did not allow the capital club to win (a 3-2 defeat), but Alexander reached the mark of 20 goals in the regular season and updated another achievement.

This result has been achieved by the Washington captain in each of his NHL seasons. The magnificent series has been going on for 21 years. Ron Francis settled on 20 seasons, but Gordie Howe scored 20 goals 22 times. However, for 26 seasons. Ovechkin has a slight advantage against Hou in absentia. In the year of his 40th birthday, Mr. Hockey only scored the top twenty for the 20th time, confirming his sniper qualities at both 41 and 42 years old.

As for the total number of goals, Ovechkina is 22 goals behind Wayne Gretzky (994 against 1016). Whether the remaining time in the 2025/26 season will be enough to close the 22-goal gap is a big question. The Capitals have 36 games left until the end of the regular season, and the fight for a place in the playoffs is still ahead.

Malkin's Return

Evgeni Malkin missed more than a month due to injury. The Pittsburgh leader has not played since December 5 and returned to the lineup only on January 9. In the very first match against the Devils, the recovered Russian was incredibly focused on the goal and realized one of his moments. You can't think of a better return than a dropped puck.

Malkin was not without points in the next match against Calgary: he scored an assist, which, however, did not help the Penguins — they lost with a minimum score. And in the next game against Boston, the entire Pittsburgh attack failed: Malkin's team left the ice without goals and lost dry.

Ivanovo means: the results of the regular season before the break in the NHL

Demidov is the best rookie, Ovechkin stopped scoring, and a Russian link appeared in Minnesota.

Kucherov rushes into the bombardier race

At the beginning of the regular season, it might have seemed that Nikita Kucherov had dropped out of the usual race for the Art Ross Trophy, awarded to the league's top scorer. The performance leadership was shared by Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid, and the young leader of San Jose, McLean Celebrini. However, in recent weeks, the Russian has hinted that it's too early to write me off. In nine matches since December 21, Kucherov has scored a total of 23 points. The games against San Jose (a goal and four assists) and Philadelphia (a double and two assists) were particularly successful. After an inspired segment (which, by the way, continues) Nikita moved up to fourth place, five points behind Celebrini.

Khusnutdinova Poker

Marat Khusnutdinov began his North American career in Minnesota, which drafted him. The Wild system gave the talented forward time to get used to the new league, but at the end of last season he was traded to Boston. Over time, Marat won back his place in the Bruins.: His playing time increased, and he was also often used with the leaders, including in the top three with David Pastrniak.

Khusnutdinov played the real match of his life on January 10 against the Rangers. New Yorkers have to cope without the injured Igor Shesterkin, and in the game against Boston, his relievers suffered in full. Marat made a poker game by hitting the gates of both Jonathan Quick and Spencer Martin, who started this season back at CSKA Moscow. For understanding: during the previous part of the season, the striker scored five goals, and during the evening with the Rangers he almost fulfilled this norm.

"I tried to score five goals today, but four wasn't bad either, it was fun," Khusnutdinov said after the match.

Provorov's Anniversary

It is impossible to imagine the Columbus defense without Ivan Provorov. In terms of performance, he can't compare, say, with Zach Verensky, but the Russian is the team's leader in terms of usefulness among defenders. However, this does not mean that goals and assists are not interesting to him. Provorov has made three assists in the last four games, and an assist in a recent game against Utah allowed him to break the 300-point mark for his NHL career. It took 741 matches for the Yaroslavl native. Thus, Ivan entered the top 10 Russian defenders in terms of performance and may soon surpass the achievements of Boris Mironov and Oleg Tverdovsky.