The SKA Report: Winning Ugly

This past week wasn't the best of times for the SKA offense, but they still got away with three wins in the four games.  Monday was the team's chance to avenge a loss to Lokomotiv a few days earlier, and much like the previous meeting, SKA struggled to get its offense moving.  Dmitry Kalinin got the scoring started for the good guys, but that would be all they get for the game.  Ilya Gorokhov would tie the game to make it 1-1 after the first period.  It remained that way until the closing minutes of the third period, when Sergei Plotinkov scored the game winner to give Lokomotiv its second win in as many games against SKA.  Alexander Salak was the hard luck loser in the game.  Wednesday, SKA welcomed Severstal, and much like the Lokomotiv game, the offense was hard to come by.  However, SKA was on the right side of the close game, as they would get goals from Roman Cervenka and Evgeny Ketov sandwiching a Severstal goal from Anatoly Nikontsev, making it a 2-1 win for Salak and SKA.  Friday, they welcomed Traktor and like the previous meeting, SKA shut down Traktor.  Evgeny Skachkov, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Maxim Chudinov scored in the first period, and Salak made it stand up, as SKA shut out Traktor again, this time being a 3-0 score.  Sunday, Neftekhimik came to town to exact some revenge, but it was not to be, as Ketov opened the scoring for SKA in the first period.  Nikolai Belov tied things in the second period, but Chudinov netted the game winner to make Ilya Ezhov and SKA a 2-1 winner.

This coming week will be a light time for SKA, as they welcome Atlant on Friday before hitting the road next week.

Dropping Like Flies

The KHL season isn't quite at its halfway point, but already, the KHL has seen six coaching changes since the beginning of the season.  Already making changes were Avangard, Lokomotiv, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, and Atlant.  As of today, you can add two teams that won't make it through the 54-game regular season with just one coach, as Yugra and Neftekhimik announced coaching changes this week.  Yugra announced that Sergei Shepelev was relieved of his duties as head coach and will be replaced by Oleg Davydov on an interim basis.  Davydov was an assistant coach for the team.  Neftekhimik also made a change, as Vladimir Krutinov was shown the door and Dmitry Balmin was handed the keys to the team.

The KHL takes a week off next week, but clearly, the patience of some teams is not high, and of the teams to make a change at coach, only Atlant is currently above the cut-off line for the playoffs, though they are only a mere point ahead of Lev Praha and Severstal.

The SKA Report: Playing West

SKA is coming off a good week in which they amassed five points in two games.  On Tuesday, they finished up a road trip with a game at Neftekhimik.  Viktor Tikhonov opened the scoring to make it 1-0 after one, but a Yegor Milovzorov goal would tie things up early in the second period.  Patrick Thoresen would put SKA up one to close out the second period, and a Roman Cervenka goal would be insurance that they need to end the road trip with three points and a 3-1 win.  On Saturday, SKA returned home to play division rival Dinamo Riga.  SKA jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Ilya Kovalchuk and Tony Martensson, but a Andris Dzerins goal would leave SKA up only one after one period.  Miks Indrasis would score the next two goals to put Riga up one midway through the third, but Tikhonov would force overtime, and while that wasn't enough time, the shootout was SKA's friend, as Tikhonov would score the only goal to give SKA the win.  Dmitry Shikin was the winning goalie in both contests.

SKA finishes out this home stand with games at division rivals, with CSKA on Monday, Lev Praha on Wednesday, and Slovan Bratislava on Friday.

Kharlamov Division

In an effort to get on time for the 2013-14 NHL season preview without too many things going on at once, today and tomorrow, I will run down the rest of the KHL by division as opposed to individual teams.  Today is the Kharlamov Division of the Eastern Conference in the KHL.

Ak Bars plays their home games in Kazan, Russia and was the first KHL champion, as they would go on to win the first two Gagarian Cups in the KHL's existence.  The team's origins date back to 1956, and the team has played under the Ak Bars name since 1995.  Their current roster features WHL alumni such as Shaun Heshka and Tomas Vincour, as well as Alexander Burmistrov.

HC Avtomobilist plays their home games in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and is a relatively new franchise, starting play in 2006 and joining the KHL in 2009.  Players such as Eric Belanger and Sami Lepisto are on the current roster.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk plays their home games in the Chelyabinsk Oblast region of Russia and has been a hockey team since 1955.  The team is notable for the fact that former NHL coach Mike Keenan is the current coach of the "Foxes."

HC Neftekhimik plays their home games in the city of Nizhnekamsk, located in the Tatarstan area of Russia, and have been a team since 1968.  The "Petrochemists" feature players such as Martin Cibak and Nikolai Belov on their current roster.

Torpedo Nizhny Novogorod plays their home games in Nizhny Novogorod, Russia, and is one of two franchises in the Eastern Conference to have been founded in the 1940's (they were founded in 1946).  Tim Brent and Wojtek Wolski are among the players on the current roster.

HC Traktor plays in Chelyabinsk, Russia, and is the second oldest franchise in the Eastern Conference, having been formed in 1947.  They were the runners-up in the Gagarian Cup Finals last season, losing to HC Moscow Dynamo.  The current roster is set to include the likes of Andrei Kostitsyn, Stanislav Chistov, and Jan Bulis.

HC Yugra plays their home games in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, and has been in existence since 2006.  Their KHL debut happened in the 2010-11 season, and their current roster features the likes of Jonas Andersson and Mikhail Yakubov.