In the matchup against their perennial rivals CSKA Moscow on Monday, November 20th, SKA Saint Petersburg had to rely upon their depth, which did get a bit of a boost as fourth line center Zakhar Bardakov returned from the hand injury he suffered against Spartak Moscow. The first unit did not get any points in this matchup. However, their middle-six rose to the occasion, as their second and third lines would tally two goals and account for all points on the individual stat sheet, which was adequate for the result against their Army Derby counterparts at home in Saint Petersburg’s Ice Palace. This combined with a solid performance between the pipes from their marquee starting netminder made a huge difference. With starting G Nikita Serebryakov stopping 29 of 30 shots, SKA would emerge forth with a 2-1 victory over CSKA, who are currently their closest adversaries in the Western Conference standings. Had the result gone the other way, their rivals in the capital city would have drawn level with them in points, therefore making this result very important even though SKA would have had the tiebreaker advantage. They remain in fifth place, just two points behind Lokomotiv Yaroslavl at this point in time, though Lokomotiv do notably have a game in hand. This six-game tear has been great for them re-establishing themselves as a competitor as they are typically thought of. They will have a test, however, when they face Spartak (who currently have the best record in the KHL/are at the top of the Continental Cup race) at the Ice Palace on Thursday, November 23rd. Can Roman Rotenberg’s group make a statement against the best team in the league, coached brilliantly by Alexei Zhamnov and Alexei Kovalev?

In other results around the league, Torpedo Nizhy Novgorod leap-frogged the aforementioned Lokomotiv for the third place spot in the West by defeating Barys Astana 4-2. Metallurg Magnitogorsk, meanwhile, increased their lead for the top spot over Avangard Omsk to three points by beating HC Sibir Novosibirsk. Lastly, Lada Togliatti earned a home victory against Dinamo Minsk by a score of 3-1, which was historic, as it marked their first home win over Dinamo in nearly fifteen years. The news regarding changes to rosters might be more interesting, however. Ivan Demidov has returned seemingly ahead of schedule from his knee injury and immediately made an impact for SKA’s 1946 MHL squad. This was a feelgood moment for the projected top ten pick (to some, as high as 2 or 3) in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, whose D0 year was getting off to a slow start before getting hurt. Maybe this will be his chance to flourish. Additionally, rumor has it that LW Alexander Perevalov (CAR, 71st overall, 2022) will be joining HC Sochi on loan from the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl organization, as he did with Kunlun Red Star last season. It has not been confirmed yet, but this would be an interesting turn of events if it does come to fruition, as it would serve as yet another time this year that a potential star will be sent (either permanently or temporarily) to Sochi to have a better shot at developing his game (with Perevalov joining PHI 7th overall pick in 2023 Matvei Michkov and MIN 37th overall in 2020 Marat Khusnutdinov in this respect). If this comes true, it should be intriguing to see if it pays dividends for both parties involved, as Sochi do indeed need a spark, and Perevalov needs more professional minutes (he has played just 7 games in the VHL this year, to go along with 6 in the MHL).

Lastly in this area, though, there is some news that is quite striking. After much speculation, it was confirmed by Mitchell Miller’s Slovak Extraliga club HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš that he will be departing the team to accept an offer from the KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan. Miller is undeniably a gifted offensive defenseman, with him having tallied 29 points in 19 games in Slovakia this season. However, he will be bringing baggage with him, as the reason for his NHL career not panning out was owed to off-ice character issues coming to light, specifically surrounding his racial abuse and bullying of an African-American classmate by the name of Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, who was a special needs student. These repeated reprehensible behaviors caused the Arizona Coyotes to relinquish their draft rights of Miller and sever ties with him, as well as the Boston Bruins to sever ties after the team had decided to sign him to an ELC just over a year ago. While this is not the first time that such a castoff has been given a chance in the KHL, it certainly is one of the more striking ones. There is no real way to wrap this up beyond flatly acknowledging it as significant news, so I think that brings this article to a close.