Despite the stage being set well, HC Sochi RW Matvei Michkov (PHI, 7th overall, 2023) was not able to make quite the last statement that he might have (I cannot speak for him) wanted to against the franchise that had loaned him out to a club he did not want to go back to for personal reasons. Through no fault of his own, as we did see quite a bit of his usual game (hindered by his linemates not positioning themselves well or just simply missing passes) and the team as a whole just appeared overwhelmed, HC Sochi was demolished in the grand opening of SKA Saint Petersburg’s brand new, state of the art, world’s largest home venue SKA Arena, 8-1 on Sunday, February 11th. There is little point in writing about the events of a game so one-sided, so this will be boiled down to simple statistics. Sergei Tolchinsky, Alex Galchenyuk, and Marat Khairullin (once a trio that was underperforming at the beginning of the year, while HC Sochi appeared as though they might go on a miracle run) all had two goal games with the latter also tallying one apple. Further, Mikhail Vorobyov had two assists, Vasily Glotov had 1g 1a, and Artyom Zemchyonok had 1g 1a, marking six SKA players with multi-point nights. Additionally, 15 SKA players had at least one point. Sochi were out-shot by SKA 50-23, with the biggest gap being the 21-7 difference in the second frame. The disparity in the two teams was most apparent, however in the third period, with SKA scoring five goals in the final stanza on just 13 shots (marking a 38.46% team shooting percentage in the last 20 minutes). After the third of these (his sixth allowed of the night on 42 shots against), Sochi G Mikhail Berdin was yanked by bench boss Dmitry Kokorev in favor of backup Maxim Tretyak. The grandson of Soviet hockey’s finest ever netminder fared no better, allowing 2 goals on 8 shots. There was just no stopping the bleeding tonight. As a result, the last statistical chance we could see HC Sochi in the postseason was erased, as they can no longer get the eighth and final seed for the Yuri Gagarin Cup playoffs. Additionally, HC Sochi will have to settle for a 2-2 split in the season series with SKA, though you would not guess it based off of the stark goal differential (+10 in favor of SKA). However, Matvei can say he won 2 of 3 games he played against them this year and averaged a PPG against them, despite only tallying points in the first matchup. Not much solace to be found in that for them as a group, however, as the hot start and short miracle runs was not enough to overcome them playing underwhelming hockey for huge chunks of the season.

Four of HC Sochi’s six remaining games (with the other two being against fellow Western Conference minnows Kunlun Red Star, who have an outsider chance of making it into the final spot with Dinamo Minsk falling 3-2 in regulation against Severstal Cherepovets today, but it is very minimal with them only having one more point for the moment) are against teams occupying a playoff spot, with two games against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and one each against Eastern Conference squads Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. This stretch gives them a way to at least avoid what the Cleveland Browns have often been prone to doing in their many failed seasons and have some impact on what the race looks like in the final stages of the regular season. Hopefully, they at least pull that off.

SKA Saint Petersburg, meanwhile, has their concerns rest upon protecting their spot as the first seed in the West. They also have the top spot in the Continental Cup race for the moment, a title they won last year, and may seem to defend their championship. Their next matchup is an interconference battle with Lada Togliatti on Tuesday, with their next intraconference game being against Torpedo a week from today. Can Roman Rotenberg’s group finish off the year in dominant form?