SKA Saint Petersburg:

Game 5: Sunday, September 15th

SKA 4-3 Lada Togliatti OT

Game 7: Saturday, September 21st

SKA 4-3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

This past week was bookended by one goal wins wherein two different players were the story. Ivan Demidov was the headliner for the matchup against Lada, as he scored his first ever professional goal in this matchup (the Canadiens prospect nearly had his second, but it was waved off upon review). The hero role, however, was reserved for Valentin Zykov, who had the overtime tally to seal the victory after Lada had climbed back into it with two goals in the third period. LW Sergei Plotnikov was the story of the matchup against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, as he had two goals to his name in this matchup, wherein SKA were contested heavily by a perennially well-coached machine despite having the significant advantage in shots on goal (47-30). The team seems to be finding their offense and going on something of a run, which is fortuitous. The questions that were beginning to need to be asked early on were worrisome, but apparently, they will not last for long. Game 6 will be covered towards the end of this update, as it intersects the narratives of both teams of focus in this series (narrative structure matters even in sports journalism!).

HC Sochi:

Game 4: Monday, September 16th

HC Sochi 5-3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

At last, we had G Yegor Zavragin take the start, and he rose to the occasion. While the Torpedo duo of Vasily Atanasov (hat trick) and Igor Larionov II (three assists) was a threat throughout and delivered remarkable performances, the Philadelphia Flyers prospect was more than impressive. We saw his trademark aggressive style make quite a number of impressive highlight saves, stopping 32 of 35 to clinch his first KHL victory. That said, Sochi were also adept at pressing and driving the play up the ice to keep pressure off of him at a fair number of turns. Jesse Graham provided the primary offensive support with two goals. Zavragin’s sample size to this point was small, but pretty remarkable. It was certainly an encouraging sign, even if a lot remained (and still does remain) to be seen.

Game 6: Saturday, September 12th

HC Sochi 2-5 Ak Bars Kazan

The group as a whole seemed to have difficulty preventing rushes and penetration (as evidenced by the 43-22 SOGs disparity), but I cannot completely absolve G Sergei Ivanov from blame here. He seemed to over-commit on certain reads and find himself out of position and burned and you just couldn’t count on him to make that miracle save when they needed it, either. I think the group also perhaps went to the box at the wrong times, as well. One good thing that came out of it was Khafizov scoring a shorthanded goal approximately halfway through the third period as part of a two goal night for him. Overall, though, this is a group and goaltending performance that cannot afford to be replicated if the team has serious competitive aspirations this season.

De facto Gazprom Cup, part I:

Thursday, September 19th

(H) HC Sochi 4-7 (A) SKA Saint Petersburg

The teams seemed to be exchanging blows in the opening stanza, with this exchange punctuated by back-to-back assists on goals by defensemen Alexander Nikishin (marking the first by the Hurricanes prospect since his return from injury) and Stepan Falkovsky by Ivan Demidov. This sequence opened the floodgates for the second period sequence in which the lead was grown to 5-2, which ended Ivanov’s night in between the pipes for the “Leopards.” Sochi was not able to shift the energy by substituting in Zavragin, as he allowed in a laser beam to Demidov shortly thereafter. Ultimately, Demidov would score again with 1:20 remaining in regulation, making him the youngest player in SKA history with a four-point game (which the organization commended, along with noting that Matvei Michkov is still the youngest player in team history with a three-point game). He had some fortune on his side in this matchup and was up against a weak opponent, but that’s hockey, you can’t control these things, and Demidov did look more in control of his game than usual and is growing in confidence. One has to imagine that this game will serve him well in pursuit of further cultivation in his D+1 campaign. As for Sochi, the only thing for them to be content with was another two goal game by Khafizov. The opening phases of their 2024-25 campaign has been up and down, but as of late, they’ve had more to be discontent with than happy. Hopefully, head coach Sergei Zubov uses this as a teaching moment for his players and staff and can alter the course that they are headed down.

Off-ice developments:

After much speculation about his future and whether or not it was going to continue to be in the NHL, we now know for certain that D Tony DeAngelo (notably formerly of the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, and Carolina Hurricanes and also of the Arizona Coyotes) is now indeed a SKA player. As Christian and I have documented on this site a couple of times, the New Jersey-born OFD… is a pure OFD. He is a defensive black hole and the metrics enforce this (see: his -15 defensive GAR in 2022-23) but is capable of superstar offensive production on a whim. He will certainly be a spark plug to the blue line core and perhaps allow Nikishin, who is still early in his return to action, to be lightened of some of the burden of carrying the majority of offensive responsibility for the defensive core. To give some props for a moment, though, much respect has to be given to HockeyNewsHub on X for being on this story at the beginning of last month. His devotion to reading Russian language sources and interviews is commendable and has given his followers many fantastic scoops ahead of the curve. His Patreon followers get all the best content first and a lot of exclusive material so I highly recommend subscribing to it – The top tier is only $4.50 a month.

Next games:
SKA Saint Petersburg: vs. Avangard Omsk – Today (Monday, September 23rd), 12:30 PM EDT

HC Sochi: @ Sibir Novosibirsk – Tomorrow (Tuesday, September 24th), 8:30 AM EDT