Marking a return from his one-game suspension, Roman Rotenberg brought his team into the Russian capital with aspirations of getting at least a point against a difficult opponent in Spartak Moscow as his crop look to stay competitive in a tight race for the last KHL Western Conference playoff spot, and it looked for a while like they might pull it off. SKA Saint Petersburg led against one of the most impressive teams in the 2023-24 KHL season by scores of 1-0 and 2-1 on the backs of even-strength goals by Marat Khairullin (with assists by Mikhail Vorobyov and Sergei Tolchinsky) and Alexander Kadeykin (assisted by Mikhail Pashnin and Alex Galchenyuk) in their game against Spartak Moscow on Monday, November 6th. However, both leads would be erased, and this team that is usually a giant but is proving to be somewhat star-crossed this year would fall in the most devastating fashion. Upon losing a draw in their own zone with 1.9 seconds left, SKA would concede with a fraction of a second left, with Spartak F Alexander Belyayev ripping one past SKA G Nikita Serebryakov to fall in regulation and leave Moscow without a point to their name. Serebryakov, one of the best netminders in the KHL, had to have felt crushed, as he had stopped 38 of 41 in this game for a SV% of .927 and his team had some timely goals despite being out-shot by 18. However, a team being that thoroughly out-played arguably lends itself to such a result, and it would seem fair to argue that Serebryakov is what prevented this game from being an embarrassment. As such, perhaps SKA did not deserve anything out of today’s game.

One thing that the statistical profiles of these two teams indicate to me is that Spartak’s coaching staff (led by Alexei Zhamnov and assisted by Alexei Kovalev) is ESPECIALLY good at getting the most out of their forward group in a manner that has eluded Roman Rotenberg and SKA this year. Despite not panning out in the NHL with the Sharks or Canucks franchises, Spartak LW Nikolai Goldobin (who had assists on both of RW Pavel Poryadin’s game-tying goals in this game, with his linemate being fifth in the KHL in points) has turned into a ferocious offensive machine in this system. He is not only leading the KHL in points, but has already exceeded his point totals in his two previous seasons with Metallurg Magnitogorsk and posted the most points he has had in a professional season since his 50 points in 51 games with the AHL’s Utica Comets in just 26 games played this year. Meanwhile, while D Alexander Nikishin (CAR, 69th overall, 2020) has been something of a revelation on the blue line for SKA, the forward group is talented enough to where a defenseman SHOULD NOT be their leading point scorer no matter who it is. Next behind Nikishin (who has 21) is LW Vladimir Alistrov, with 19. 19 points being the most by a forward for a team that went all-in and signed Sergei Tolchinsky and Alex Galchenyuk (who both have 17) at this point in the season is not okay and their results have suffered for it.

This team needs to click very soon in order for this year to not be disastrous by the standards of the franchise’s expectations. They are 26 games into a 68 game season and have a record of 12 regulation wins, 1 shootout win, and 13 regulation losses. As it stands, they are now 8th in the Western Conference with Dinamo Minsk and Severstal Cherepovets occupying the 7th and 6th spots, ahead of them by 2 and 4 points, respectively. SKA are also holding onto their lead over 9th place HC Sochi solely by the regulation wins tie-breaker, as they both hold 26 points. With the manner in which familiar face RW Matvei Michkov (PHI, 7th overall, 2023) has really come alive after having a slight bump in the road due to his illness (he was still playing fairly well, but man, he looks like a gamebreaker right now), he could be stealing some games for Sochi soon and helping them surge back ahead of SKA, particularly if the latter’s inconsistency and underperformance continue. We shall see what the next steps look like for SKA when they return home to take on Traktor Chelyabinsk on Thursday, November 9th.