SKA Saint Petersburg, it can now be declared, have begun the 2023-24 season 2-1 as they embark upon their Continental Cup defense/quest for their third Gagarin Cup title with four consecutive road games (their home opener is on Tuesday, September 12th against Spartak Moscow). While exhibiting fairly good form and having put in performances they can largely be content with (in the process beating a team they were very much expected to beat, as well as winning a close win in the season opener against a very respectable opponent), there have been some questions raised, such as why it has taken so long for highly touted prospect and 2023 NHL Entry Draft seventh overall selection (Philadelphia Flyers) Matvei Michkov to play. Further, it is possible that Wednesday, September 6th’s 4-3 defeat to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod showed some weaknesses for the team, as well, such as difficulties sustaining pressure and some questionable power play unit performance. Let us examine these two performances and see what some of the takeaways are.

In their second outing of the season on Monday, September 4th, SKA faced HC Lada Togliatti. Lada are expected to be minnows upon their readmission to the KHL this season, as they are generally regarded as a smaller club and have twice been expelled by the KHL/effectively “relegated” to the VHL, once in 2010 for a lack of a satisfactory arena and again in 2018 as a cost-cutting measure. Correspondingly, one of the biggest teams in Russian hockey put in a fantastic performance, winning 3-0 on the back of goals by LW Vladimir Alistrov (who further had two assists), LW/former NHLer Brendan Leipsic (who had 1 assist), and C Ivan Zinchenko, as well as a 30-save shutout performance by backup G Sergei V. Ivanov. This game marked the first instance of SKA chasing a goaltender this year, as Lada’s Vladislav Podyapolsky was pulled after allowing these three goals on 23 shots, with replacement Alexander Trushkov subsequently turning away all four shots on net that he faced. While this game was likely never going to be very challenging for Saint Petersburg, they did more or less exactly what they should, and it was good for Ivanov to get a good look and put in a performance that should instill confidence where he did not allow a goal to a team that should be considered an easy win.

The next stop for SKA was a matchup with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in the latter’s barn. While Saint Petersburg got out to an early lead, it was quickly equalized. Subsequently, the team seemed to have difficulty sustaining pressure and therefore a lot of responsibility was placed on G Johan Mattsson to keep them in the game (he ended up with 35 saves on 38 shots, many of those stops quite high quality – A busy night for the Swede). SKA further also seemed to not be capable of creating meaningful scoring chances while a man up throughout this entire game. As a result of their offensive impotence and inability to control the possession and tempo, the visitors entered the third frame down 2-1, which is where there was plenty of excitement for those with a flare for the dramatic. Five minutes in, a would-be GTG for SKA was swept off the goal-line, in perhaps what ended up being a “What could have been?” moment. A little over halfway through the final stanza, Torpedo’s Kirill Voronin rifled a feed by Vasily Atanasov into the back of the net, a shot that simply could not be denied, to make the score 3-1. This was narrowed to 3-2 by SKA C/former Buffalo Sabres prospect Vasili Glotov with just over three minutes remaining. At the 2:30 remaining marker, head coach Roman Rotenberg called a timeout and pulled Mattsson for the extra attacker. This initially proved ill-fated, as the score was increased to 4-2 by Torpedo winger Nikolai Kovalenko (son of former NHLer Andrei Kovalenko, one of two high-profile second generation players on Torpedo’s roster alongside Igor Larionov II, son of head coach Igor Larionov)’s impressively angled empty net goal while he was in the process of being checked by SKA D Alexander Nikishin (who perhaps somewhat questionably opted to launch himself into Kovalenko along the boards rather than make a more concentrated effort to disrupt the movement of the puck). Interestingly, however, this check by Nikishin did start a testy series of events leading to a 4-on-3 power play for SKA, where they narrowed the deficit to 4-3. Alas, they were not able to subsequently draw the score level despite their aggressive attacking efforts, and found themselves leaving Nizhny Novgorod with a tight loss.

While a difficult defeat, one bright spot came in the form of Matvei Michkov making his very highly anticipated 2023-24 season debut. Michkov played on the third line, and while he did not play a significant number of minutes, he did show some impressive playmaking/passing prowess and defensive tenacity, at one point arguably making a play in the slot of his own zone that prevented a Torpedo goal. While this did not put the matter to bed for some, it was good to see the projected NHL superstar get some ice time and show some prowess/the payoff of his offseason training. However, on the whole, this evening’s performance perhaps left something to be desired. Though SKA had the advantage in faceoffs won (40-29), blocked shots (19-14), and hits (18-13), they lost the possession battle, were largely inadequate in creating scoring chances, and walked away with the loss. It is arguable that Saint Petersburg should have lost by even more than they did and that Johan Mattsson stood on his head to prevent further embarrassment. Hopefully, Roman Rotenberg, his staff, and players have meaningful takeaways from this fall in their third outing.