This series took a bit of a reprieve during the American Thanksgiving/Black Friday season to be rejuvenated and under the impression that most of our audience wouldn’t have much time to read about Russian ice hockey. I will do my best to catch the readers up on the most interesting and impactful events since that time, in a somewhat quick manner

SKA Saint Petersburg’s victory streak has now grown to eight games on the back of impressive victories against Spartak Moscow, whom they defeated 3-2 on Thursday, in a game that was decided by an impressive highlight reel shorthanded goal by elite defenseman Alexander Nikishin (CAR, 69th overall, 2020) and an improbable 4-3 shootout victory over Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday, which saw them erase a 3-0 deficit in the third period. Head coach Roman Rotenberg’s squad are now just one point behind Torpedo for the fourth place spot in the Western Conference. The first couple of months of SKA’s season were inconsistent to say the least, but they are on a tear now and appear poised to be the competitive team you expect them to be every season. It seems as though the forward group has started to gel, Nikishin continues to dominate, and Serebryakov and Mattsson have become the goaltending tandem they wanted.

Elsewhere in the league, Avangard Omsk had their 10 game win streak snapped this past week by Salavat Yulaev Ufa, having lost 3-1 in a game that never felt as close as the final scoreline suggested. This outcome made sense, as Ufa and Ak Bars Kazan appear historically prone to playing spoiler for strong and streaking clubs. More on the latter momentarily.

HC Sochi’s week was somewhat frustrating until today (Sunday, Nov. 26). While they did see Alexander Perevalov make his debut against Admiral Vladivostok on Friday after his loan from Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was made official, they lost that game 3-1, as well as the match before it against HC Sibir Novosibirsk 5-2 on Wednesday. In those two losses, RW Matvei Michkov (PHI, 7th overall, 2023), the team’s undeniable best player, registered no points, as it appeared that he and C Marat Khusnutdinov (MIN, 37th overall, 2020) would connect on good plays multiple times a match but none that yielded a goal. However, this changed today in their game against Amur Khabarovsk, as Michkov had two assists in a 5-2 victory (including one on the eventual GWG) which saw Sochi erase a 2-0 deficit headed into the first intermission via three unanswered goals in the second stanza and two insurance goals on the empty net in the final minutes. It’s unsurprising that one of the best prospects in the world had such an effect on his club getting back in the win column, in a game which Jesse Graham described in an intermission interview as very important as it pitted two teams trying to stay in the playoff picture for their respective conferences.

Lastly, off the ice, the terms of the buyout and contract for Mitchell Miller by Ak Bars Kazan have been confirmed. It’s clear that his productivity in Slovakia made an impression on the team and they were very determined to bring him onto the roster. They are getting a very impactful playmaking defenseman, but one that is very eyebrow raising due to his past racist abuse of disabled black classmate Isaiah Meyer-Crothers. Such a move is not beyond the KHL, as has been discussed many times. While it is an interesting narrative, it is definitely for all the wrong reasons, even if it is something you have come to expect.