By Valentin Orlov
The Canadian team has been unsatisfied with his results this season (13 matches with no goals). However, in the second match with his new team, Kostitsyn managed to open the score against Buffalo: his 100th puck with the National Hockey League. Moreover, he earned an ‘assist point’ in the middle of the third period. Interestingly, Kostitsyn is Belarus’ top performer with the NHL, having played 381 matches and scoring 99 goals with Montreal (over 379 matches and seven seasons).
Mikhail Grabovsky is the second most successful Belarusian in the NHL, also playing forward (82 goals over 304 matches) and Vladimir Tsyplakov is third (69 goals). The latter ended his performance abroad in 2001, after playing 331 matches with Los Angeles and Buffalo. Andrey Kostitsyn’s younger brother, Sergey, is close behind, with 62 NHL goals to date.
Interestingly, Sergey also plays for Nashville, where he moved two years ago from Montreal, after a series of failures. He is now playing much better, showing himself to be a team leader. Mikhail Grabovsky has also broken his ‘goal drought’ of 14 matches. In the last minute of the match against strong Montreal, he scored twice, bringing victory to his team and allowing Toronto’s new coach, Randy Carlyle, to debut with a victory.
