Play-off will ask strictly – Newspaper Kommersant No. 24 (7469) of 02/09/2023

The regular season of the Continental Hockey League (KHL), the final matches of which will take place on February 26, has reached the finish line. Things are still very confusing in the Eastern Conference, and not a single club has lost a chance to participate in the playoffs. In the Western Conference, the tournament situation is more understandable, and five teams have already staked out places in the coveted eight, however, the intrigue in the dispute for the highest seeding numbers also remains here.

The next regular season of the KHL is coming to an end, which can be safely called one of the most interesting in the 15-year history of the league. When was it that in the same Eastern Conference all clubs were desperately fighting for tickets to the playoffs, including the Far East Admiral and Amur, which, as a rule, played the role of notorious outsiders. Now both teams are in the top eight, and the team from Vladivostok even has a certain margin of safety. Moreover, they still have very modest financial capabilities – at a level slightly above the so-called salary floor in the amount of 315 million rubles.

“Siberia”, occupying in the East with its budget only about 495 million rubles. (according to the publication “Sport Express”) only seventh place, and completely became the leader of the conference.

Andrey Martemyanov, the head coach of Novosibirsk, with the help of club management, managed to put together a surprisingly combat ice squad. Under his leadership, the Canadian Taylor Beck, who had been plowing the KHL for a long time and already familiar, suddenly shone again. With 53 points on the system “goal plus pass”, the 31-year-old striker leads the race of top scorers. And the current Sibir is dragged by another Canadian, the second-highest-scoring defender of the championship, Trevor Murphy, who scored 43 points, and forward Alexander Sharov, who, with 28 goals, is one of the top three snipers. Until recently, Novosibirsk shared first place with Ak Bars, stuffed with stars like Alexander Radulov, Vyacheslav Voinov and Vadim Shipachyov, but lost in shootouts to Traktor, which is teetering on the verge of missing the playoffs. Nevertheless, Sibir, with 78 points, was the first in the East to officially qualify for the playoffs.

Kazan took advantage of the competitor’s misfire and, having defeated Neftekhimik, single-handedly topped the standings with 79 points. However, Ak Bars, which before this season assembled a tough team with an eye on the Gagarin Cup and placed the titled Oleg Znark over it, had to return 67-year-old Zinetula Bilyaletdinov to the post of head coach to break through. Despite the fact that the master had not been actively involved in hockey for three years before, he immediately managed to straighten the course and stabilize the results. Bilyaletdinov took over Ak Bars at the end of December, when they were only seventh in the East with 49 points. The progress is obvious, although the Kazan club has yet to compete for the first seeding in the playoffs, and not only with Sibir. Avtomobilist (75 points), Metallurg (74) and Avangard (72), which also have matches in hand, may well run to the finish line.

In the Western Conference, apparently, no one and nothing will prevent SKA from finishing first, which should win the entire regular season with its current 93 points. The St. Petersburg army team has the strongest attack in the league, the leaders of which are Dmitry Yashkin, who broke the club record of Ilya Kovalchuk with 32 goals in the 2016/17 season, and Alexander Nikishin, who became the KHL scoring record holder among Russian defenders. Yashkin has already scored 33 goals and is again close to being awarded the title of the best sniper, and Nikishin with 50 points goes to the title of the best defender-scorer. Marat Khairullin, who has 51 points, is also having an excellent season, and Nikita Gusev, who missed almost half of the championship, showed a decent rate of fire – 42 points in 33 matches. In a word, SKA is traditionally in order, despite the fact that it does without legionnaires, and for his coach Roman Rotenberg this is the first full season.

But, of course, in the West, Torpedo’s standings and the work of Nizhny Novgorod coach Igor Larionov, who made his debut in the KHL, are most striking. His team is, of course, the main discovery of the current regular season.

If we compare the almost minimum salary budget with the place of the club in the table, then Larionov shows simply fantastic results. With 82 points, Torpedo was in second position in the conference and in the league until they suffered a humiliating home defeat from Admiral. Now the venerable Lokomotiv and CSKA are ahead of him in additional indicators, and Dynamo Moscow is only three points behind, but Nizhny Novgorod has already performed a miracle, confidently solving the problem of reaching the playoffs.

But even Larionov’s wards, among whom there are no stars from the word “absolutely”, try to play attractive attacking hockey. Only SKA and CSKA score more goals in the KHL from Nizhny Novgorod. The best period in his career is going through 31-year-old Alexei Kruchinin, who once grew up to SKA, but over time has ceased to be of interest to serious clubs. He is now the league’s second scorer with 52 points. Mykola Kovalenko made a sharp progress, with 48 points to his credit, and the same number, by the way, from Radulov himself. Like Sibir, Torpedo is an absolutely coaching and managerial team that achieves success even at low financial costs.

Alexander Ilyin