The pucks dropped at the same time for SKA Saint Petersburg and HC Sochi in the KHL today (Halloween 2023) and both teams would walk away with regulation losses at home where they had the advantage over their opponent in different statistical categories but still walked away without the W. SKA’s matchup in the Ice Palace in Saint Petersburg was especially frustrating as they entered the second period up 2-1 against visitors Ak Bars Kazan on the back of goals by RW Arseni Gritsyuk (129th overall, 2019 NHL Entry Draft, New Jersey Devils) and C Vasili Glotov (former player in the Buffalo Sabres system). However, the game would be tied by Ak Bars RW Dmitrij Jaskin (who, of course, was SKA’s captain and the leading scorer in the KHL last season) just over 6 minutes into the second period and the lead would be taken by the road team just under 11 minutes in, via the game’s only power play goal by LW Dmitri Kagarlitsky. This would be the final goal of the game. Try as they might (and they sure did, out-shooting Kazan 46 to 21 in addition to having 27 attempts blocked in contrast with blocking 8 shots, as well as having a 36 to 23 advantage in faceoffs won), SKA could not quite win this closely contested matchup. Ak Bars might have lost the possession battle, but they were quite physical with the advantage in hits (23 to 12) and took advantage of the opportunities they had. Head coach Roman Rotenberg’s group has encountered this a few times in the 2023-24 KHL season: A failure to get past a stout defense/goaltender despite throwing many pucks at the net and having the advantage in most areas, as well as failing to convert plentiful chances. With such a struggle being just one part of their overall inconsistent performance, one has to wonder if they will get it together and get a higher playoff seeding before it eludes them.

Meanwhile, HC Sochi went down at the Bolshoy Ice Dome in Olympic Park 5-2 in a second consecutive multi-goal defeat to Dynamo Moscow. In this matchup, the statline was fairly even, with Sochi having a slight advantage with 39 shots to Dynamo’s 30, both teams blocking 10 shots and winning 36 faceoffs each, Sochi barely edging out Dynamo in hits 20 to 19, and Dynamo having 12 PIMs to Sochi’s 8. However, multi-point nights for three of the best players in the league in the form of 1 goal and 2 assists for LW Nikita Gusev (the goal being his 200th in the KHL), F Jordan Weal having 2 goals and 1 assist (putting him 8 points behind Spartak Moscow LW Nikolay Goldobin for the league lead and 1 point ahead of Gusev), and C Eric O’Dell’s 2 assists buried their efforts. There were some good looks for Sochi; RW Matvei Michkov (7th overall, 2023, Philadelphia Flyers), in particular, had some good shots that just happened to be stopped by Dynamo G Maxim Motorygin. However, they were not able to turn enough of them into goals, and they once again were conquered by Dynamo as a result. In good news, however, F Marat Khusnutdinov (37th overall, 2020, Minnesota Wild) and Michkov did combine for points on the power play, with Michkov getting the secondary assist on a power play gal by the former. While not the most direct connection, perhaps the confidence built from the gradually more successful time playing together spent on the second line and in special teams situations will benefit the on-and-off efforts of head coach Dmitry Kokorev in building chemistry between the SKA castoffs.

Dinamo Minsk were defeated 2-1 by Severstal Cherepovets today, ergo there were no standings implications for Sochi and SKA remains unsurpassed by Severstal, though both teams are level on points with these two. With that in mind, both teams will assuredly want to get back in the win column when they face off against Amur Khabarovsk and Avangard Omsk, respectively, at 7:30 PM Moscow time on Thursday, November 2nd at their home arenas in Sochi and Saint Petersburg. In the medium term, both teams will be on the road fairly soon (with SKA heading to the capital region to face Vityaz and Spartak immediately after the Avangard game before returning home to face Traktor Chelyabinsk and Sochi having just their own matchup against Avangard before a three-game road trip that includes one matchup against Salavat Yulaev Ufa and a back-to-back in Minsk against Dinamo). The immediate implication of that is that they will want to capture the points at home before having to take off. Will they be able to pull it off? We’ll see what these groups have in store for us.