“Amur”, to fight: Khabarovsk hockey players are ready to start the new season

Amur hockey players have almost completed their pre-season training and are ready for the start of the new season. Recall that the team faces the most serious tasks – reaching the playoffs. Are the Tigers ready for this?

A few days ago, Amur took part in the pre-season tournament for the Moscow Mayor’s Cup, which has already become traditional for the Khabarovsk team. The matches turned out to be unseasonably hot. In the battle with CSKA, the reigning champion of the country, the Khabarovsk team showed themselves to be real fighters, finishing the fight with a draw score of 3:3.

Yakov Rylov, Alex Broadhurst and Ivan Mishchenko distinguished themselves against the Tigers. For the army team, one of the goals was scored by forward Vladislav Kamenev, for whom this puck became the third at the Moscow Mayor’s Cup-2023, Darren Dietz and Sergey Plotnikov also scored. Overtime teams played very carefully, and did not reveal the winner. But in the shootout, the army team turned out to be more accurate.

The second match “Amur” played with the capital’s “Dynamo”, and here the head coach of the Khabarovsk team gave free rein to the youth. As expected, the team lost. But it’s embarrassingly big, conceding six goals and not scoring a single one. But let us remind you that the tournament is pre-season, and the young players had to feel the intensity of the struggle in the Continental Hockey League. Felt. Or rather, they felt it. As Andrei Martemyanov noted, they sniffed gunpowder. By the way, he was not very pleased with the result of the game. And it’s hard to disagree with him – on the eve of the championship, I would like to see more characteristic hockey, with the desire to win, maybe even at any cost.

The third game is with the Chinese club Kunlun Red Star. “Dragons” went right away with trump cards, opening an account literally in the first minute, the Khabarovsk team equalized in the third, and in the 16th minute they already took the lead. The first period ended on a very optimistic note – 3:1 in favor of the “Tigers”, in the second game segment the score remained unchanged, but in the third the Chinese put pressure on it and managed to put the game into overtime. And both goals were scored in the majority. Extra time did not reveal the winner, but in the shootout the Khabarovsk team lost again.

“I am more or less satisfied with the content of the team’s game,” said at the post-match press conference. Andrey Martemyanov, head coach of HC Amur. – The guys played according to the instructions, tried, fulfilled. Enough shots have been made. We moved the opponent, but the opponents’ goalkeeper was at his best today, especially when he left the bench. The result is what it is. There is little time left before the start of the championship, before the start. The guys are now resting, I asked them to reboot and come to the remaining microcycle before the start with a fresher head and more responsible approach to all moments.

In general, the Amur mentor is also “more or less satisfied” with how the team is approaching the season. Let me remind you that the Tigers played seven exhibition matches in the summer. Having won two, and one in shootouts, losing five, three of them in shootouts. During this time, the players scored 17 goals, conceding 26. This allowed them to gain a foothold in 13th place in the off-season standings. Not a bad result, given that the coaching staff in such matches usually solve their problems, but I would like more victories.

As for the roster, according to Vadim Pokotilo, the general manager of Amur, despite the fact that the market is now quite empty, the team hopes to acquire new promising players who can strengthen both the defense line and the attack line, and even the last frontier – goalkeepers. Signings are expected not only in the pre-season, but already during the championship. In general, the head coach notes that his second arrival in the team is seriously different from the first attempt to work in Khabarovsk. Firstly, providing the team with everything necessary has reached a new, more serious level. All needs are listened to, all problems are solved.

“We are gathering, we are working. Guys work with dedication. There are difficulties with assembly. Many guys choose to play somewhere in the middle lane, in the Urals, in the Moscow region. But the club has a very sensible approach to staffing, let’s put it this way – we don’t waste money. And the guys who signed the contract, I see in their eyes that they are ready to fight for good places, for getting into the playoffs, and set themselves serious tasks. The guys who have gathered here are quite experienced, and those who have expressed a desire, we will go through this difficult path with them. We will try to show decent hockey,” he stressed. Andrey Martemyanov in an interview with Match TV“.

It remains to wait quite a bit to see if this trip will succeed. The KHL season traditionally starts on September 1st. The Khabarovsk team will start the fight on September 2 on the road with a match against Vityaz. Then there will be Minsk Dynamo, Spartak, Togliatti Lada, Avangard, Sibir, and only on September 19 Amur will return to Khabarovsk to play with Kunlun RS.

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