Dmitry Orlov from Washington Capitals to » Boston Bruins» has become one of the loudest and most unexpected this season in the NHL. Yes, the capital's problems in signing a new contract with a powerful Russian defender were obvious, but before Orlov's official transfer to another club, the majority had no doubts that Dmitry would remain in the Caps camp. His transfer shocked everyone: the public, fans, and even Orlov himself with Washington captain Alexander Ovechkin. But this exchange was forced.
But at the same time, it was useful for everyone. “Washington” gradually stepped towards the restructuring, “Boston” has acquired a qualitative increase in the decisive part of the season, and Orlov got a real opportunity to compete for his second career Stanley Cup.
““ Dmitry was initially in a little shock. He spent 11 seasons in Washington, won the Stanley Cup. And although he knew that the exchange would happen, he experienced a little shock after the official news about the deal. But Boston, in my opinion, — the favorite in the pursuit of the Stanley Cup. Dmitry has already won the Stanley Cup once, and he wants to do it again. This feeling never goes away, «the agent of the Russian Mark Gandler said in an interview.
Orlov fit perfectly into the new team. Dmitry immediately became one of the leaders of the team, won his place in the special brigade of the majority and immediately began to benefit the Bruins both in defense and in attack. He scored 17 points in 23 regular season games for Boston, 12 of them in his first 10 games. Orlov looked so chic that the fans of the «bears» did not hesitate to compare the Russian with the legend of the club, one of the best players in the history of the league, Bobby Orr. But it is much more important that in the playoffs the Russian not only did not slow down, but also increased them.
In Game 4 of the playoff series against the Florida Panthers, Orlov scored again. The Boston defender himself broke up the Bears' goal attack and supported it in the final stage, performing a magnificent pass to Jake DeBrusk. The pass turned out to be so perfect that: a) Debrusk had only to turn the stick, b) social networks were torn by the number of complimentary messages addressed to Orlov.
This assist was already the fifth for Dmitry in the current playoffs. The Russian scored in all four games of the series and set a new club record for scoring streak among defenders. Orlov is the first Boston defenseman to score points in the first four games of the Stanley Cup. To understand the magnitude of the event, Glen Wesley was still the last defenseman in Bears history to score in each of the first three playoff games in 1988!
Orlov also became the sixth defenseman in the NHL since 1997 to score a point in each of his first four playoff games for the team. Mattias Ohlund (Vancouver Canucks, 2000/01 season), Ryan Whitney (Anaheim Ducks, 2008/09 season), Chris Pronger (Philadelphia Flyers, 2009/10 season), Jack Johnson (Columbus Blue Jackets, 2013/14 season) and Chris Russell (Calgary Flames, 2014/15 season).
By the way, Debrask, who scored from the transfer of Orlov, eventually became one of the main characters of “Boston” in the fourth match against “Florida”. The Canadian scored a double and helped the Bruins extend their lead in the series to 3-1. At the same time, I feel sorry for Sergei Bobrovsky. The acclaimed Russian goaltender is finally back in the Panthers' starting lineup, but his long-awaited comeback turned into four goals against him. Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs (3-4 OT) canceled an important goal of the Lightnings, but in other scoring episodes (with the exception of Debrask's first goal), Bobrovsky frankly did not help out.
Florida responded to Boston's four goals only twice. Especially beautiful and spectacular was the moment with the participation of Matthew Tkachuk. The Panthers star, in an extremely difficult situation, read the episode in less than a second and sent the puck into the goal in the only possible way, inflicting a shot from under his foot.
At the end of the meeting, Ullmark got into a fight with him .
Now the series is moving to Boston, where the Bears can quickly qualify for the next round. Unless, of course, «Florida» will not gather all the forces together.