There was not a lot of action in the 2023-24 KHL season on Tuesday, November 7th, as only three games were played. Barys Astana and CSKA Moscow were both shutout at home by Ak Bars Kazan and Traktor Chelyabinsk, respectively, by scores of 3-0 and 4-0 (with the latter result being particularly historic as it marked the first KHL shutout for Traktor G Zachary Fucale, remembered by some as a Canadiens draft pick and for his time in the Capitals organization, as well as Traktor’s first shutout win against the vaunted CSKA franchise in 15 years). The remaining game was the only one wherein the home team did not lose and where the losers scored a goal. Alas, unfortunately for the readers who have an emotional investment in HC Sochi at this point, they fell victim to this phenomenon, as they were unable to defeat a tough Eastern Conference opponent in the form of Salavat Yulaev Ufa on the road. They mustered just 16 shots on net as they were very much losers in the fight for superior puck play and unable to get off many good attempts (a microcosm of this comes in the form of RW/Philadelphia Flyers 7th overall pick Matvei Michkov getting just 7 shot attempts off and only 2 on net, which was very atypical for him as he has been a phenomenal shot generator this year with many of those shots being high quality, as well). The final score of 3-1 flatters Sochi a bit considering their poor attack, even though one would expect that their superiority at the faceoff dot (defeating Ufa 29 to 16 in draws) would’ve lent itself to better usage of their possession. However, this did not occur; in fact, Ufa had nearly 10.5 more minutes of time on attack than Sochi did. It is surprising that there wasn’t more offensive productivity from Ufa than the 1 and 2 goals respectively by forwards Alexander Sharov and Yegor Suchkov; however, they also were not particularly aggressive at getting shots on net, either, registering just 27. All in all, D Danila Galenyuk’s goal to bring the final deficit to just 2 assisted by F Marat Khusnutdinov (37th overall, Minnesota Wild, 2020 NHL Entry Draft), combined with some fortune coming from their opponent’s form, prevented this defeat from looking worse on Sochi’s part.

With there being no manner in which today’s games could’ve possibly affected HC Sochi’s place in the Western Conference standings (even if one or both of Kunlun Red Star and Vityaz Moscow Region had been on the schedule), Sochi hold their ninth place spot behind SKA Saint Petersburg on the regulation wins tiebreaker. It is unfortunate that they were unable to gain ground and get back into a playoff spot, however. They will attempt to do so again in their road back-to-back against Dinamo Minsk on Thursday and Friday (11/09-11/10) in Belarus. They’ve got their work cut out for them as another Flyers prospect in the form of G Alexei Kolosov (78th overall, 2021 NHL Entry Draft) has served as an excellent backbone for Minsk this season, making a great case for himself as this year’s Best Goalie Award recipient. We shall see if head coach Dmitry Kokorev’s group will rise to the occasion and if Michkov can put up some valuable points against his future teammate (and hopefully get a few for his team).