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News Article
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Posted by Kerrzy on Friday, January 20, 2006 |
After scoring what just may be the goal of the year only a few nights ago, Alexander Ovechkin put up a goal and an assist to become the first of this year’s rookies to break the 60-point mark; on the same night, we saw the New York Rangers’ Petr Pruscha win the rookie showdown against Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh scoring two goals to Crosby’s one, tying the two at 23 on the season.
Thanks to the lockout of last season, there are a huge pool of rookies out there this year, any of whom could make a wild card finish at the top of Calder Trophy voting when the annual awards show airs in June.
Colorado rookie Marek Svatos, for instance, has 28 goals this season and is close enough in scoring to overtake Crosby and Ovechkin both if the opportunity presents itself for him.
The NHL’s top team, the Ottawa Senators, are led by rookie defenseman Andrej Meszaros who is among their top d-men and who is currently sitting atop the plus/minus charts for the entire league. Out west, Dion Phaneuf has had an exceptional start with the Calgary Flames, becoming a key part of their power play and tightening up their defensive zone in front of Kiprusoff…but we all know it’s more like to be a big scoring forward than a defensive defenseman.
It has been a tough go lately for Crosby with just about every sportscaster in the game calling him a diver, but his situation is looking more and more similar to that of Ovechkin’s as the offensive power around him is more and more limited by the day. Combine the retirement of the Penguins’ second-highest point-getter this season, Zigmund Palffy, with the fact that Mario Lemieux hasn’t played since December 16th and you begin to see where Sidney Crosby stands.
As for the coveted “fifty goals in fifty games,†don’t count on it coming together for anyone too soon; Ilya Kovalchuk and Simon Gagne are the only two that can realistically reach the mark as they both near 50 games. Kovalchuk leads the league in goals right now with 35 in 44 games while Gagne has 32 in 41.
The only player that still has a believable chance this season is Rick Nash.
Injuries have kept 21-year-old Rick Nash to just nineteen games so far this season, but since coming back in late December, Nash has been on a tear scoring nine goals in his past ten games bringing him to twelve on the year. With 35 games to go for the Bluejackets and linemates like Nikolai Zherdev and Sergei Fedorov, there is a good chance that Nash could come close, if not seal the deal.
Looks like Mr. Gretzky made the right call.
Moral of the Story: As we near the 50-game mark of the season it is interesting to note that if the playoffs started today, the Montreal Canadiens would be the only Canadian team watching Hockey Night in Canada, at least for the first round. |
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