The recent match between Avangard and SKA became one of the hottest in the regular season of the Kontinental Hockey League. In total, the teams scored 14 goals, and more than half of them ended up in the goal during the third period. And although the victory of the Omsk team in itself was worthy of discussion, after the game the focus was on the conflict between the two head coaches over a power move, as a result of which one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg team, Sergei Tolchinsky, was injured.
The episode involving the SKA forward occurred at the end of the second period. At that time, the guests were losing with a score of 2:3 and were trying to organize another attack. Despite the harsh pressure, Tolchinsky dragged the puck into the middle zone and threw it to his partner exactly an instant before Nikita Kholodilin slammed him into the boards with a crushing force. The collision turned out to be incredibly violent: Sergei literally ricocheted off the protective glass and remained lying on the ice. He never managed to get up on his own and left the site only with the help of his teammates, while Kholodilin went unpunished. Except for the mutual fine for a fight with Alex Galchenyuk.
The incident caused a huge resonance and divided the public into two camps. The first of them was headed by SKA coach Roman Rotenberg. In his opinion, the hosts’ forward “wanted to kill” Tolchinsky and deliberately injured him. The coach called for an investigation into what had happened and recalled how quite recently the same hockey player hit Ak Bars veteran Artyom Lukoyanov in a rather rude manner. True, then the judges reacted immediately and gave the offender a five-minute penalty.
Avangard head coach Mikhail Kravets held a diametrically opposite point of view. He considered the situation purely a game, which was confirmed by the lack of reaction from the referees. He also called the accusations against him “offensive and incorrect.” Thus, Rotenberg suggested that Kholodilin acted on the instructions of a mentor, who allegedly previously demanded that his players injure their opponents.
As a result, SKA supported their mentor and appealed to the league’s Sports Disciplinary Committee (SDC). At the same time, they especially focused on the serious condition of Tolchinsky, in which he remained after the collision with Kholodilin. As the statement says, the athlete “was unconscious,” “did not remember anything,” and was in shock.
“He was lucky that he avoided serious injury and could play hockey at all after that. A few millimeters, and Sergei could become disabled,” the club told Match TV.
However, the KHL did not agree with the opinion of the St. Petersburgers. On Thursday, a statement from the SDK was published on the official website of the league, which did not see anything prohibited in Kholodilin’s actions. Perhaps this was partially influenced by the words of the agent of SKA forward Shumi Babaev. As he reported the day before, Tolchinsky avoided serious injuries and could return to duty before the start of the playoffs, starting on February 29.
“Based on the materials presented, it was decided not to impose sanctions on Avangard forward Nikita Kholodilin under Article 28 of the KHL Disciplinary Regulations,” the committee decided.
However, opinions regarding the league's verdict are again divided. According to the former head coach of the Russian national team, Vladimir Plyushchev, even if there was no malicious intent in Kholodilin’s actions, he fully deserved to be removed.
“Was there a foul on his part? I think it was a push in the back or a push on board, as you wish. It is difficult to comment on the decisions of the KHL KFOR, since they are not always logical and it is unclear what is guided by them. They believe that there was no violation and, accordingly, no one needs to be punished. Based on this logic, if they had made the opposite decision, in this case they would also have to punish the referees who missed this foul, but the honor of the uniform always exists. Although the question is precisely this, why a push in the back is not regarded as a foul,” said RT’s interlocutor.
Neither former KHL referee Leonid Vaisfeld nor ex-mentor of Metallurg Magnitogorsk Fedor Kanareikin agreed with him. In his opinion, Kholodilin did not break the rules, but only “completed the episode.”
“Tolchinsky was working with the puck at that time, and Nikita, who was nearby, went to the end. I don’t see any rudeness or intentionality in his actions. I agree with the decision of the KFOR, since in this case no hands were raised, and Sergei went straight on board and did not protect himself in any way,” the specialist noted.
But if the incident with the collision between Tolchinsky and Kholodilin can be considered settled, then the conflict between the coaches is unlikely. Avangard was deeply outraged by Rotenberg’s statements and called on SKA to publish a refutation of his words that Kravets allegedly repeatedly instructed his players to “kill” opponents on the ice. However, the residents of St. Petersburg hardly put an end to history with their answer.
“We received a letter from Avangard and sent an official response to Omsk explaining our position. Unlike our colleagues, we do not consider it acceptable to make the essence of the response letter public. Let us add that in the flash interview, the head coach of SKA used value judgments rather than statements, and his words were caused primarily by concerns regarding the player’s health... We are confident that the common task of all clubs is the development of hockey players and their health, especially before the important stage of the season,” TASS quotes the army press service.