Kirill Marchenko set a new Columbus Blue Jackets record , becoming the franchise's top scoring player in his rookie season in the National Hockey League. However, the club's fans are not at all happy with the success of the Russian, whose goal brought victory to the «uniforms».
At the finish segment of the regular season of the National Hockey League, the participants of the championship are divided into four camps:
- Clubs that secure playoffs ahead of schedule;
- Clubs that are in a desperate bid for final Stanley Cup trip berths;
- Clubs that quietly finish the season, as they no longer qualify for the playoffs and will not fall to the very bottom under any circumstances;
- The main losers of the season who organize their party at the very bottom of the standings.
The fate of the latter is of particular interest, because the near future of the entire franchise depends on their final position. One of the representatives of the losers of the season is the Columbus Blue Jackets. A few years ago, the club was associated with Artemy Panarin and Sergey Bobrovsky and made noise in the playoffs. Then the attention of the Russians to the affairs of the Blue Jackets was riveted because of Vladislav Gavrikov and Yegor Chinakhov. But today one of the main newsmakers of Columbus is Kirill Marchenko.The 22-year-old Russian striker made his NHL debut in December 2022 and has since rewritten several historic achievements. One of them is in today's match against the Ottawa Senators. Marchenko sent the puck into the Senators' net with a classy wrist shot to give Columbus an overtime victory. This goal was Cyril's 21st of the season. He is also a record in the club's history among rookie franchise snipers. Marchenko surpassed Pierre-Luc Dubois, who shot 20 goals in his uniform jersey in his debut season in the NHL.
However, Marchenko's record-breaking and winning goal elicited a completely different reaction from the Blue Jackets fans than we are used to. Dozens of comments from fans have been published on the club's social networks, scolding the team … for winning. «The worst victory that could only be imagined. You idiots. Terrible franchise, fire the entire management,» — every first such statement. Although there are adequate commentators:
“There are rookies on this team who give their best. You can’t blame them for fighting for their playing time next season, for contracts. These guys show character and play with heart. How can we be mad at them for This?» — asked Twitter user @SkeletonCrew96.
It's a paradox, but the victory is causing «Columbus» is now more harm than good. What is the reason? In the upcoming draft lottery, the winner of which will be able to choose under the first number of the main favorite of the draft, the next “nextuan” Connor Bedard.
The tradition of the so-called «tanking» has long taken root in the NHL, when the team specifically «drains» the season and, taking the last place in the summary table of the championship, practically guarantees itself a victory in the lottery. Due to the victory over Ottawa, Kirill Marchenko's club climbed to 30th place in the table of 32, leaving behind the Anaheim Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks. All three losers played an equal number of games, and «Chicago» at the moment has the highest chance of winning the lottery — 18.5%. The probability of success of “Columbus” is 11.5%, “Anaheim” is 13.5%.
However, even with such a “tradition”, the NHL has long been fighting and making changes to the rules of the draft lottery, because of which the intentional desire of the clubs losing all the matches of the championship becomes almost meaningless. The last place in the regular season formally gives the main loser of the season only a guaranteed right to pick in the draft in the first three numbers. The problem is that the upcoming draft will be split between hunting Bedard and picking everyone else, so getting into second or third place would be a hard flop.