2020-2021 Salavat Yulaev review. A superb trio and a bad playoff
KHL.ru continues reviewing the 2020-2021 campaign for the league’s 23 teams. Salavat Yulaev Ufa had an outstanding regular season, primarily thanks to its Finn line of Teemu Hartikainen, Markus Granlund, and Sakari Manninen. However, in the playoff, Ak Bars managed to close down the games, and a 0-4 first-round exit made Salavat Yulaev’s season look blurry.
The 2020 offseason was an eventful one in Ufa, with Salavat Yulaev changing its head coach, losing half of its defensive corp, and losing the franchise’s face, Linus Omark. However, if the first aspect could give some uncertainty in its outcome, the second and third ones were considered losses for the Bashkortostan franchise.
However, the situation didn’t change at all for Salavat. The game didn’t change, as well as the results. The most striking change was an increase in scored goals: if Ufa scored from 151 to 158 goals in the previous three seasons, Salavat Yulaev found the back of the net 181 times this year. That said, the first line had an even more significant impact, with only two players surpassing the 20-point mark if excluding the first line and productive D-man Philipp Larsen. The Finns were incredible in the regular season, producing 63 goals for the team (counting only those when all three were on the ice simultaneously), some ten more than Dynamo Moscow’s top unit. However, in the playoff’s second round, Ak Bars managed to solve the puzzle, and the Green Derby was over in just four games.
Best players
62 games, 70 (32+38) points
It’s been several years that Hartikainen is among Ufa’s leaders, but he reached a new level this year. He established new records for the most goals and points in a single KHL season by a Finnish player. Moreover, he was also the only Salavat Yulaev player in 13 KHL seasons to pot four goals in a single game. This happened during a Green Derby against Ak Bars, only raising the importance of these goals.
59 games, 61 (26+35) points
It wasn’t easy initially for Granlund since he had to replace Omark. Naturally, the two are very different players, but he was going to fill the gap in the team’s first line. In the end, Granlund couldn’t have a better season; he scored more than twenty goals for the second time in his pro career, and for the first time, he passed the 50-point mark. Moreover, he had the best +/- rating in the team (+27), surpassing Hartikainen by ten.
64 games, 57 (21+36) points
Similar to Granlund, it was Manninen’s second time to score more than twenty goals and the first time that he produced more than fifty points for his team. Maybe Manninen’s breakthrough season was shadowed by Granlund and Hartikainen’s performance. Yet, he scored at an excellent pace and trailed only Vyacheslav Solodukhin for the most blocked shots by a Salavat Yulaev forward.
Best game
In the latest few years, hardly any other clash has more intrigues than the Green Derby. Kazan won the first two this year, both with a 4-1 score. However, when the teams met for a third dance, Ufa took its revenge and a 7-3 victory. Moreover, Kazan was in top shape, with ten wins in a row, three shutouts, and two goals or fewer allowed in the seven remaining games. Between Dec 3 and Jan 8, Ak Bars netted 41 goals, allowing only 10. Ufa managed to score them 7, including four from Hartikainen alone.
Head coach
Last year, the Ufa boards decided to flip flop Nikolai Tsulygin and Tomi Lamsa. The move was a bit of a surprise, considering Tsulygin’s excellent results in 2019-2020. However, considering the 2020 offseason moves, it can be said that Lamsa was even better. But it only concerned the regular season. In the first round, Ufa struggled to get the best over Traktor, and in the series against Kazan, the team could not find the key to the opposition and lost four unanswered games. When it was clear that Ak Bars managed to block Ufa’s leading unit, Lamsa failed to make the necessary adjustments. The boards signed the coach to a new one-year deal in February, and thus Lamsa will have a chance to show that he learned the lesson.
“We had an excellent regular season — probably one of the best for Salavat Yulaev in the latest few years. In the playoff’s first round, we played in a structured way, and I was satisfied with it. In the series against Ak Bars, we played well, but we couldn’t win, and this kind of gave our season a bitter taste. However, I think that we played some good hockey, and the players worked hard,” Lamsa said after the season.
Offseason moves
Ufa’s primary task this offseason was to create an effective second line. Thankfully, the team only had to resign Manninen to preserve the first unit. Sergei Shmelyov joined Ufa after a breakout season in Sochi, while Viktor Tikhonov will try to improve his production after his stint in Kazan. They should compensate for Dmitry Kugryshev’s loss, and if Lamsa can take advantage of their best qualities, they can form a solid second unit for Ufa. In the bottom six, Vladimir Zharkov and Solodukhin will be replaced by Stepan Sannikov. Juha Metsola’s backup will be former CSKA netminder Alexander Sharychenkov. In the defensive line, there were no changes, and probably there won’t be any at all. Alexander Alexeyev, who had a strong season last year in Ufa, returned to North America. Tomi Lamsa will undoubtedly try to develop further some of the most exciting players from Tolpar Ufa.
