Due to other obligations and more exhaustive projects, this series was unexpectedly suspended for two weeks. However, we return with plenty of developments to report.

SKA Saint Petersburg:

Game 56: Saturday, February 15th

SKA 3-4 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk

Game 57: Monday, February 17th

SKA 5-3 Severstal Cherepovets

Game 58: Saturday, February 22nd

SKA 4-6 Kunlun Red Star

Game 59: Tuesday, February 25th

SKA 2-7 Spartak Moscow

Game 60: Thursday, February 27th

SKA 0-1 Dynamo Moscow

This stretch had a strong bar reached by an important member of the club, as captain, 1D, and talisman Alexander Nikishin reached the 40 point threshold for the season. Per Canes Prospects on Twitter, this makes the future Hurricane the first defenseman in KHL history to record 40+ points in three consecutive seasons. Beyond just his productivity, the 2020 69th overall pick has been an exceptional puck mover, ranking among the league’s most prolific d-men in the category of completed pass attempts even with the time that he missed (obviously being the team’s leader as noted by the graphic and as one would expect).

This has not precluded the team from having a bad stretch. Continuing an established trend, SKA surrendered 21 goals in the 5 games that occurred in the last two weeks. The nadir was reached in the Spartak game, with the team scoring first and drawing level fairly late into the first after falling down 2-1 (with Nikishin scoring both goals to achieve his historic distinction) but then just absolutely collapsing over the course of the rest of the match. It is definitely reasonable to point towards an overarching issue with the goaltending room. However, Roman Rotenberg seems to opine that the situation is that Flyers prospect Yegor Zavragin (only 19 years old at present) is lacking in the mental preparedness (with his volatility perhaps suggesting this) for a high pressure professional situation. He additionally declared, though, that Artemi Pleshkov (who missed time with injury and has only recently returned) was who they were prepping as the 1G for the postseason, but that it will depend on the opponent.

Pleshkov would subsequently get the start against Dynamo Moscow and played well, stopping 28 of 29. However, SKA were never really fully in control of the match and conceded a late goal. This would be the deciding factor. The loss marked the second time in a row that they fell with a chance to clinch a playoff berth. This game was also affected by some matters related to the player personnel situation. Habs fifth overall pick Ivan Demidov was listed as the 13th forward and did not play a single second. Additionally, Evgeny Kuznetsov missed the match due to illness. This was the subject of more intense and dramatic speculation before its true nature was revealed and the rumors were dismissed by his agent. Disregarding that, though, it has been a shame to see the Stanley Cup champion have his return to his home country marred by health issues. SKA will almost assuredly still make the postseason. However, the issues they have encountered and are still dealing with will likely end their Gagarin Cup hopes before they get a sniff.

HC Sochi:

Game 55: Monday, February 17th

Sochi 4-1 CSKA Moscow

Game 56: Wednesday, February 19th

Sochi 5-3 Dynamo Moscow

Game 57: Friday, February 21st

Sochi 3-6 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

Game 58: Monday, February 24th

Sochi 2-5 Kunlun Red Star

In this stretch, there were a couple of wins against strong opponents to start things off. The win in the former was significant, as they cemented their strong control over CSKA in the season series against them. Daniil Seroukh also made history in the latter, scoring all five of Sochi’s goals to have only the second five-goal performance in KHL history. However, this form did not continue to their next two games, as they dropped both of them. With their fate out of their hands, Sochi were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention yesterday. With the team having provided very minimal reason to watch their product, I have decided to pull the plug on coverage of the rest of their season and will not be covering their ultimately meaningless games the rest of the way.

Standings update (SKA only):

Second in Bobrov Division, seventh in Western Conference

Next game (SKA):

@ Dinamo Minsk: Sunday, March 2nd – 9:10 AM EST