20-year-old HC Sochi netminder Nikita Tulinov certainly looked out of his depth in his first ever KHL start on Saturday, December 30th, 2023. He allowed 5 goals on 33 shots on net by Dinamo Minsk and was pulled in the final minutes, as he and replacement Maxim Tretyak collapsed and surrendered two quick goals (though they were not helped by the defense) after Sochi had tied the game 4-4 on a 5-on-3 goal by Michal Kristof. Sochi would further allow an empty-netter and fall 7-4 in their final game of the calendar year. There were some bright spots in this game, as RW Matvei Michkov (Philadelphia, 7th overall, 2023 NHL Entry Draft) gathered a brilliant primary assist on a goal by LW Artur Tyanulin, with whom he has formed a fantastic duo with exceptional chemistry that can produce even when the team plays poorly. In general, Michkov did well making plays in open space in this game, but his teammates are still lacking in the finishing department. This is a major contributing factor to Dmitry Kokorev’s group’s downslide to being nearly as bad as they were in the 2022-23 KHL season after a hot start to this year. As it stands, they are actually in the same position they ended last season: Dead last in the league standings. The race for the last seed remains tight, but will they get it together in time to make the playoffs?

Meanwhile, SKA Saint Petersburg were the kings of PDO against Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, shooting a combined 4/28 against Avtomobilist netminders Vladimir Galkin and Evgeny Alikin (with the former getting chased after allowing 2 goals on his first four shots and all 4 SKA goals coming in the first period) and shutting down their offense via great goaltending from both starter Nikita Serebryakov and Pavel Moisevich (who took the reins for the third period to give Serebryakov the rest of the night off in a non-competitive game), as well as good shot suppression, as the two stopped all 27 shots they faced to seal a 4-0 victory. This marked Roman Rotenberg’s squad’s second straight shutout win, third consecutive victory, and sixth win in their last seven games. They further have points in 18 of their last 19. After a slow start, the iconic Russian franchise are living up to their high expectations going into the year.

As it stands, SKA Saint Petersburg is fourth in the Western Conference and, with their recent form and the fact that they have a game in hand on third place Dynamo Moscow (who lost to second place Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2-0 today) and two games in hand on league/Continental Cup race and conference leaders Spartak Moscow (who shockingly squandered a three-goal lead and fell 5-4 in OT to Vityaz), may put themselves in the driver’s seat even more. That said, we won’t know for sure whether they will continue to rise up the ranks until games resume on January 3rd. Indeed, there will be no KHL games on New Year’s Eve, so we will not get to see what happens in their pursuit of an ideal standings position and in HC Sochi’s chasing of their way out of the cellar until 2024 rolls around. Both teams will be in action that day, however, with Sochi taking on Eastern Conference leaders Metallurg Magnitogorsk and SKA facing off with Vityaz. We will see what the 2024 segment of this KHL campaign brings us.