[Editor-in-chief’s note: Due to an unintentional oversight in the editing phase of this article, SKA Saint Petersburg head coach Roman Rotenberg’s statement on the rationale for Matvei Michkov’s exclusion from the roster was initially not included. It has since been updated to include this.]

I was not planning on publishing an article on SKA’s season this early, but their season opener against Dynamo Moscow presented so many intriguing events and stories that it felt necessary to do so. It also would have come sooner, but I was running on two hours of sleep for most of the day and I did not have enough gas to make that happen until now. In a game where their PK unit got plenty of exercise and tides shifted after finding their footing after a shaky start, SKA defeated Dynamo Moscow 2-1 on the road to begin their 2023-24 campaign, defense of their Continental Cup title, and quest for a third Gagarin Cup championship. To break down the events of today, it makes sense to set the stage for it by talking about the personnel involved and what it could indicate about Saint Petersburg’s narratives going forward and at play here.

Perhaps most notably, the first forward line for SKA consisted of big name signing Sergei Tolchinsky deployed on the left wing, captain and impactful player on last year’s success Marat Khairullin on the right side, and marquee/eyebrow raising for off-ice reasons overseas former NHL star acquisition Alex Galchenyuk playing down the middle. This is a trio of heavy hitters in the offensive category (potentially, at the least) that the team has very high expectations for, and this group did make a mission statement by accounting for all of SKA’s points in the hard-fought victory. After having fallen behind 1-0 just 1 minute and 42 seconds into the game after Dynamo C Eric O’Dell buried his own rebound behind new Saint Petersburg G Johan Mattsson after a backdoor pass from RW Dmitri Rashevsky (with the secondary assist going to D Brennan Menell), the first unit knotted it up early into the second period upon an impressive one-timer by Tolchinsky on a feed by Galchenyuk. The game-winner was scored by Khairullin on an impressive wrist shot 3 minutes and 1 second into the third stanza from just above the right faceoff dot on a cross-ice pass from Tolchinsky. These guys knew the assignment, and they carried it out marvelously in a tight game. A multi-point game/contributing to every goal performance is just what Tolchinsky especially was individually benefitted to facilitate as the former Carolina Hurricanes system member showed signs that he may live up to the five-year contract that SKA gave him this offseason. On the topic of new goaltender Mattsson, while it was unfortunate that he conceded a goal so early into his time with SKA, he played calmly and steadily with great positioning afterwards (worth noting there was effectively nothing he could do about the goal, either) even in light of a fair amount of sustained pressure and possession by Dynamo early on and turned away the remaining 26 shots, seeing to it that the 31-year-old Swede/former Frölunda HC standout begins his time with Saint Petersburg with a .963 SV%.

In the lower part of the roster, the most curious note is that Matvei Michkov began the year as a healthy scratch, with 17-year-old Ivan Demidov (a likely fellow top 10 NHL Entry Draft pick for next year’s class) filling the 13th forward spot and spending some time on the third line. Right now, there is a lot of speculation as to what prompted this decision. Some have suggested that this is meant to send a message/act as retaliation against the Philadelphia Flyers organization, who got into an international contract dispute with HC CSKA Moscow over G Ivan Fedotov that has been well covered, and this game coming off the heels of Fedotov playing on opening night for CSKA against Ak Bars Kazan despite the sanctions handed down by the IIHF. I will not be so hasty to put that forward, however. Michkov had a busy summer and saw extensive playing time in the preseason and this may have been a load management-based decision. It is worth noting, also, that while Demidov has yet to spend any time in the VHL (Russia’s second tier of professional hockey, which Michkov put up 14 points in 12 games with SKA-Neva last season, in addition to his excellent KHL performance on loan with HC Sochi), and did not make a noteworthy impact in his two game cup of coffee in the KHL last year, he did put in impressive work this offseason and turned heads while doing so. Regardless of these points, however, it should be interesting to see how this story continues to develop and what the indications are going forward, as the maze of Russian hockey and the KHL gets more complex with this additional intriguing narrative that says a lot about what situations different relevant governing and sporting bodies find themselves in and how they have elected to respond. I will only report what actually happens in this timeline of events, however, and not offer takes, as this series is meant to offer coverage, not be another place on this site for my op-eds. I will link SKA’s head coach’s statement and let you decide for yourself how you feel about the matter.

Overall, the summary of the game is that it truly was a tight battle, with both teams’ special teams units getting a fair amount of ice though only finding one success total on the power play which ended up being the difference maker. There was a point where it felt as though the teams were exchanging penalties and a stretch where a lack of discipline appeared as though it was going to be SKA’s downfall. In the end, though, the Tolchinsky-to-Khairullin combination put it away. It is also interesting to note that Dynamo ended up with more PIMs, though this was aided by a double minor to LW Ivan Muranov with 2:05 left to play, which effectively ended the game/made a Dynamo comeback win near-impossible, but the PK unit holding firm for SKA definitely was a big difference maker, and much props to Mattsson for performing reliably after a challenging beginning for Saint Petersburg’s defensive game. After a tough start, it appeared as though SKA took primary control of the tempo (though they ended up with only one more registered shot on goal than Dynamo) despite difficulties making too many infractions and were able to withstand the offensive pressure when it came. Overall, while a gutsy win, SKA Saint Petersburg began the year by showing flashes of what this new group is capable of in pursuit of furthering their success from last season, while on the road. It was about as good of a start as you could ask for from head coach Roman Rotenberg’s group.