SKA Saint Petersburg:

Games 3 & 4: September 9th/12th

SKA 0-2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl

SKA 0-3 Traktor Chelyabinsk

There just isn’t anything to say about Roman Rotenberg’s forward group at this point. The finishing isn’t there, and most of the time, the chance creation isn’t there, either. Even when it is, the former comes back to bite them by blowing the good look. In correspondence with this, Ivan Demidov has been bumped down to line four as he struggles to make the most of his looks and is still wrangling with how to make professional level reads and quick decisions. He also appears to be chasing his first goal, which may pay off eventually but will be an inhibitor as it entails forcing the issue in an inorganic manner, as can be evidenced by angles that he attempts to hit at times (see: one shot turned away by Traktor G Zach Fucale that was headed towards the side of the iron anyways and probably was never not going to).

The good news for SKA is that both their offense and the defensive core got their arguable/clear in the latter case talisman back in the form of Alexander Nikishin in the game against Traktor, though his return went less than swimmingly as he was beat on a couple of assignments. While his strength is not typically in defensive zone coverage as is, it is also just a growing pain yielded by coming back after not seeing any competitive ice for half a year. We will have to give the Hurricanes prospect some time before we start to make any judgments about how his 2024–25 campaign goes.

Next game:

Sunday, September 15th vs. Lada Togliatti – 10:00 AM EDT

HC Sochi:

Games 2 & 3: September 9th/September 14th

Sochi 4-5 Vityaz Moscow Region

Sochi 1-4 Traktor Chelyabinsk

Blue Jackets draft pick Sergei Ivanov’s night in net was very brief against Vityaz, as he was pulled after allowing 3 goals on 7 shots. This paved the way for Flyers prospect Yegor Zavragin to make his KHL debut. While he’d get saddled with the loss in an official capacity, he was clearly the better goaltender, stopping 29/31 for a .935 SV% as the game proceeded to turn into a true battle. Artur Tyanulin brought the “Leopards” within 1 late, but it was ultimately not enough. The team would get throttled on special teams against Traktor, allowing a power play goal and two shorthanded goals. It was a team loss, but with Ivanov posting a posting a sub-par save percentage (while it’s worth noting he faced 45 shots and his team was incapable of preventing zone entries by the Traktor attack or from creating great chances, a .911 isn’t satisfactory statistically in this league, which is highly defensive with goaltending being a key part of that) a game after hitting the showers early, it’s at least worth asking if Sergei Zubov should give Zavragin the next start and to give him more looks in general. We’ll see how the coach responds to the data and events in front of him.

Next game:

vs. Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod: Monday, September 16th – 12:30 PM EDT