2024-03-22 12:55:00
SKA is the only team in KHL history to win back a playoff series from 0-3. This happened nine years ago. Since then, the army team has been in this situation twice, but they have never been able to repeat that result. And now, for the third time, the St. Petersburg team is “burning” in the series and is one step away from being eliminated from the Gagarin Cup. There is practically no chance of passing Avtomobilist. But still, is there anything that can help repeat the achievement of the team of Bykov and Zakharkin?
It is interesting that Roman Rotenberg’s career as a hockey functionary involved in sports processes in the club began precisely in the 2014/15 season, the year when SKA won the first Gagarin Cup in history, having previously beaten CSKA in the conference finals with 0-3 . Then Rotenberg watched the team’s game from the box and did not interfere with the work of the coaching staff; now he is the head coach who determines the game. There is no point in comparing team compositions. Nine years ago there was no hard salary cap in the KHL; army clubs assembled top teams. Suffice it to say that Artemy Panarin (already a Russian star), Ilya Kovalchuk (in his prime), Vadim Shipachev (one of the best centers in the KHL), Evgeny Dadonov (in his prime) played for the St. Petersburg team. With all due respect to the players of the current SKA, in terms of their scale it is difficult for them to compare with any of the above-mentioned hockey players.
Bykov and his staff had a lot of experience behind them. Bykov’s distinctive feature is calmness and equanimity, always and everywhere. The current head coach of SKA cannot boast of this. After the first defeat from Avtomobilist, Rotenberg made several changes, and after the second, several more. But nothing worked. No matter how much the army team throws at the opponent’s goal, it does not help them win. The Yekaterinburg players catch the army team’s mistakes, use counterattacks and play the score wisely. There is a lot of fuss from the SKA players, stupid sendings off, shots on goal for the sake of shots and little creativity. There are many questions about the current lineup. Was Kadeikin signed for 75 million a year just so he could sit on the podium? For what purpose did they take Galchenyuk for 50 million? To make it to the playoffs? Why did the team’s game rest on one defender, Nikishin, and after his injury everything fell apart? Isn’t 100 million rubles for the Fedotov brothers, who are not even close to the team leaders, too much compensation? Why did the most expensive player of the team, Tolchinsky (77 million rubles), score 0 points in the series with Avtomobilist?
The only successful transfers this year include the exchange of Nikita Serebryakov from Admiral. If it weren’t for the goalkeeper, SKA would have lost in the series with Avto not by one goal, but by a much larger one. He reflects fewer shots than Alikin, but that doesn’t make him any less valuable. He has a 92% save percentage in 8 playoff games.
If you remember the 2015 playoffs, then Dmitry Kvartalnov helped SKA a lot. The head coach of CSKA, after 0-3, began to make changes to the lineup, which in the end only played out as a minus. And in general they say that after three victories the team had a dinner party where everyone relaxed. It was not possible to get together afterwards. It’s hard to believe that Avtomobilist will have something like this. Nikolai Zavarukhin exudes confidence; he realized that he works in his team and this will not change. Colleague Rodion Vlasov accurately noted that the main phenomenon of the team from Yekaterinburg is simplicity. They don’t reinvent the wheel, but they do everything right and on time. And it’s hard to imagine that the army team will be able to break this system in the next four matches. We must remember that St. Petersburg residents no longer have the right to make mistakes.
Over the past nine years, twice SKA was in a situation where the score in the series was 0-3. Both times against CSKA, and both times the St. Petersburg team lost. In the 2015/16 season, they ended up losing 0-4, this happened under Sergei Zubov, it was the playoffs, when Ilya Kovalchuk was suspended. In the 2020/21 season, in the Western finals, SKA lost 0-3 to CSKA, then took two matches, but in the end still lost 2-4. After three defeats to Avtomobilist, despite the fact that they were all by one goal, it seems that the series result of 4-0 in favor of the Urals looks like the real outcome of events. Everything is heading towards the fact that very soon, for the first time since 2014, SKA will be eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.
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