Two defeats of SKA, the progress of Avangard and the dismissal of Mironov: what happens in the regular season of the KHL

SKA decline

Less than a week ago, Roman Rotenberg's wards seemed invulnerable.

They were on a nine win streak and haven't lost since mid-October, demonstrating a fantastic margin of safety.

During this period, only Dynamo Moscow managed to create any problems for them and even drag them into a shootout, while all the rest were beaten in regular time.

But last week, SKA unexpectedly overtook the crisis, and the team suffered as many defeats as in the first two months of the tournament combined.

And not from direct competitors, but much less skillful rivals.

With a difference of a day, the Petersburgers first sensationally lost to Admiral, and then to one of the main outsiders of the championship, Amur.

Of course, the result of the confrontation with the Vladivostok team can be explained by a number of factors, including the pathological bad luck of the SKA attackers and the fantastic game of the Admiral goalkeeper.

Nikita Serebryakov gave the match of life and repelled 46 shots, allowing only Nikita Gusev to score.

Alexander Samonov failed to mark such exploits and missed twice by the end of the second period.

True, it is hardly worth blaming him for this.

In the first case, Artyom Gareev and Dmitry Sayustov left all the defense of the enemy out of work and forced the goalkeeper of the army team to rush from one corner to another, and in the second, Ivan Yemets finished off the puck into the net with a penny.

Rudolf Cherveny, who hit the empty net, put an end to it.

As for the failure in the meeting with Amur, here there was no talk of the total dominance of SKA.

Perhaps long flights had an effect, as Rotenberg said at a press conference.

But even in this state, the guests created more dangerous chances and even had a chance to take over in regular time, but Stepan Falkovsky hit the frame.

St. Petersburg did not have enough strength for overtime.

Nobody prevented Michal Jordan from entering a foreign zone and “shooting” Samonov.

“We are not looking for excuses.

Even against the background of fatigue, in any condition, we must always be the best.

It doesn't matter if we slept, ate, flew... We've been flying for 20 hours after the game against Metallurg.

This is life and it makes us stronger.

The worse the worse for us, the better, ”said the mentor of the army.

The crisis of Metallurg

Magnitogorsk residents are also going through a difficult period.

Until recently, they were in the lead in the Eastern Conference and were the main pursuers of St. Petersburg in the race for the Continental Cup, and now they occupy only fifth place in the KHL summary table.

This is due to four failures in a row in confrontations with principal rivals.

In eight days, Metallurg lost in turn to Dynamo Moscow, Lokomotiv, SKA and Avangard with a total score of 8:14.

The last time the team produced such a series was already two years ago.

Then in November he lost five times in a row.

On this segment, the stars of the “foxes” showed themselves extremely inexpressively.

Nikolai Goldobin and Denis Zernov did not score a single point and finished the week with negative utility indicators.

Philippe Maillet and Brendan Leipsik also looked weak, limiting themselves to one assist.

True, the first one only recently recovered from an injury, so it was reckless to expect more from him.

Maxim Karpov and Nikita Korostelev tried to lead their partners, but their strength was clearly not enough.

According to the head coach Ilya Vorobyov, Metallurg fell into a hole, from which you need to get out of character and solidarity.

True, it was possible to interrupt the unsuccessful series rather thanks to a successful calendar.

Metallurg's opponents are Barys, who have won only one of the last eight meetings.

But even the Kazakhs, who are experiencing huge problems, not only imposed a fight, but also led until the 56th minute.

However, the class of Magnitogorsk residents eventually affected.

First, they restored parity, and in the shootout they put the squeeze on their opponent.

Successful series "Vanguard"

In turn, Omsk's success in a principled meeting with Magnitogorsk helped to reach the mark of five victories in a row.

Under the leadership of Mikhail Kravets, their business quickly went uphill, which resulted in a return to the playoff zone of the East.

At the same time, Korban Knight's trio is largely responsible for this, continuing to terrify the enemy's defenders.

Reed Boucher and Vladimir Tkachev stand out in particular, who are currently tied for second place in the scorers race (both with 29 points each).

At the same time, the Russian scored six (1 + 5) of them last week, for which he was recognized as the best striker.

"Chemistry" of the first link?

I think that from the first training it all worked out, and now it is strengthening.

Three excellent masters who play good hockey.

But we also have other units that do their job 200%, ”Kravets said after the victory over Metallurg.

Confirmation of the coach's words was already found in the confrontation with Salavat Yulaev.

The author of the first of the three goals was the striker of the second trio Vladimir Bryukvin, and the second - the defender Ziyat Paygin.

But without the intervention of the leaders of the "Vanguard" was also not done.

First, Knight, with the help of his teammates, equalized the score 101 seconds before the siren and saved the Omsk team from defeat.

And the winning bullet was converted by Bush.

Dismissal of Mironov

But if Kravets so far fully justifies the hopes of the Avangard leadership and can get rid of the prefix "acting" in the near future, then Boris Mironov's credit of trust has ended.

The two-time Olympic medalist headed Spartak on April 30, 2022, but held his post for less than seven months.

The last straw was the defeat from Dynamo Minsk, which extended the red-and-whites' unbeaten streak to six matches.

The coach was dismissed, and the team, already in his absence, sensationally snatched two points from CSKA. 

At the same time, not everyone considered the dismissal of a specialist justified.

For example, Edmonton ex-striker Andrei Kovalenko does not consider it right to blame the mentor for all the troubles of the capital's hockey players, but sees the reasons for the failure in dubious management decisions and mistakes in recruiting the squad.

According to him, in the summer Spartak not only did not strengthen, but, on the contrary, became weaker.

The chair sways even more strongly under Oleg Znark.

On the eve of "Ak Bars" held the 1000th match in the Continental Hockey League and had a great reason to please the fans, but instead there was a beat "Torpedo".

Before the third period, Kazan lost with a score of 3:6 and subsequently managed to only slightly close the gap.

Even the bright play of the leaders did not help.

Stanislav Galiev scored a double, Vyacheslav Voynov, Vadim Shipachev and Alexander Radulov scored two points each.

At the same time, the latter overcame the mark of 600 points in the KHL.