Another Russian scored a hat-trick in the NHL! Will St. Louis now sell Buchnevich at a higher price?
Dmitry Storozhev February 23, 2024, 09:45 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Pavel helped the club set a new record and win the game against the Islanders.
“St. Louis” continues to fight for the right to enter the eight cup of the Western Conference of the NHL, although the defeats in the last two games did not help much. Today the islanders came to visit them, who, of course, have not yet given up hope for a wild card, but at the same time they are not in the most advantageous position.
After the meeting with the “bluesmen”, this situation worsened a little, although for a long time nothing foreshadowed it: before the start of the second half, neither team was able to open the score, and the game was more or less the same. But in the initial stretch of the second twenty minutes something happened that, perhaps, no one expected at all.
The Islanders somehow managed to completely ruin a very short period of time, which, as it turned out, became key in this match. It all started with Brandon Saad’s power goal. There were only 10 seconds left before the fined Kyle Palmieri was released, when the American forward found free space in the New York team’s backfield and responded to Oskar Sundqvist’s pass.
The lost puck affected the visitors in the worst way: Les Bleus won the following faceoff, quickly entered the rival zone and doubled their lead. The Islanders again missed a player on the spot, but this time it was Pavel Buchnevich, who scored for the second game in a row and for the third time in the last four games.
But that’s not all: in the same turn, St. Louis was able to execute a quick counterattack and hit Semyon Varlamov’s goal for the third time! The accurate shot was scored again by Buchnevich, who hit his compatriot from the right service circle.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
The home team’s three goals were separated by just 32 seconds, a new record in St. Louis history. Saad and Buchnevich improved by four seconds on the previous achievement, which dated back to 1993. Pavel himself scored a double in 25 seconds, which was the best result for the Blues players in almost 24 years; In 2000, Pavol Demitra did it at the same time. But both are far from the Club’s absolute record: in 1982, Joe Mullen spent just eight seconds on two goals.
However, this fact hardly bothered Buchnevich, who before the end of the match managed to score a hat-trick: midway through the third period, Patrick Roy removed the goalkeeper and Pavel was able to score into an empty goal. This is his first natural hat trick in the NHL; today turned out to be really special for him.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can see it on the NHL website.
Taking into account the growing rumors about a possible trade for Buchnevich on the eve of the deadline, the match with the Islanders, which ended with a score of 4:0 (the Islanders could not break the score with 38 shots on goal), should be an excellent advertisement for Pavel for potential buyers. It’s true that St. Louis can now sell him at a higher price. However, the Russian will be very useful for the “bluesmen” themselves: thanks to the victory, the 2019 Stanley Cup winners were able to avoid losing their place in the top eight of the West – the fight for a ticket to the playoffs here promises be extremely interesting.
