The cancellation culture in the US is getting bigger every year. Hockey is not complete without it. Recently, during the course of the season, Florida head coach Joel Quenneville was fired, who assembled a contender for the Stanley Cup from the Panthers. For the fact that one of the coaches of his staff allegedly forced one of the Chicago players to have sexual intercourse during the championship season.

The KHL periodically benefits from such situations. Exiled for racist remarks in the dressing room, Bill Peters led the Avtomobilist throughout the season, but the move did not bring gigantic success to either side. But among the players there is a much more successful example.

Brendan Leipsich / Photo: © Icon Sportswire / Contributor / Icon Sportswire / Gettyimages.ru

Brendan Leipsik was obstructed after footage from a chat in which he insulted everyone was leaked to the network. The wives of other players (he called Tanner Pearson’s wife fat), teammates (Garnet Hathaway and Nick Dowd, in his opinion, losers), rivals (commenting on the photo of Jake Virtanen, called his former club Vancouver the worst team in the league) – there was more Many things. In general, the guy does not differ in philanthropy.

The hockey player is definitely wrong. One could apologize, but instead of repentance, he went into denial, which buried his career in the NHL. And without that, not the most reinforced concrete contender for a place in the “Washington” (3 + 8 in 61 matches) received a wolf ticket – in North America, and, most likely, in Europe, he is no longer expected.

But in CSKA there was a place for him. And Leipsik, realizing that this was one of his last chances to continue his career, began to play. Last season, he reached the final with the army team, playing in conjunction with Andrey Loktionov. True, he did not differ in some fantastic performance and left the team after the season.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Kudenko

And he moved to Metallurg. And here his combination with Philippe Maillet and, first Anatoly Nikontsev, and then Nikolai Goldobin, became one of the best in the league. Largely thanks to the duo of legionnaires, Magnitogorsk quickly soared to the top of the regular season, arranging a series of 22 matches in which they lost only once.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexei Filippov

In the playoffs, Lipsik continues to score points, topping the list of top scorers. Brendan’s double in the fourth match of the East final nailed Traktor both physically and mentally. A couple of important goals for Avangard are also in the piggy bank. Largely thanks to his link, Metallurg set a Gagarin Cup scoring record after two games in the final series.

In the final, Lipsik already has 3+2. In the second match, which became a real thriller, he scored the fifth goal, thanks to which Magnitogorsk got a lead of more than one goal for the first time and did not miss it again.

After the series moved to Moscow, he continued to ruffle the defense of the army team, opening the scoring in the third game. Metallurg crushes CSKA with high-speed attacks and work on the penny, and Laipsik is good at it. Together with Maye, he rushed to the counterattack, received the puck at the far post from a partner from the right flank and sent it to the net of the former team’s goal. I wonder if he’ll say anything about her, too?

Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

This puck marked the beginning of the rout. Then there was Linus Videll’s goal from a dime (yes, another dime) and a great long-range shot from Yegor Yakovlev. On this, the defense of CSKA finally swam.

And Lipsik finished her off. Once at the shift change with Arkhip Nekolenko, he and Goldobin organized an exemplary three-move, which the Canadian closed and secured first place in the list of the best playoff snipers. Right now, Magnitogorsk has the best attack and the best link in the league.

It is clear that the Gagarin Cup MVP is still far away. And there are plenty of contenders for the title – in addition to Leipsik, these are, at a minimum, his teammates Maye and Goldobin. Unless, of course, Sergei Fedorov still does not figure out what to do with them.

But imagine for a moment that an NHL persona non grata becomes the most valuable player in the KHL. Symbolic? More than.

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