2021-2022 HC Sochi review: promising youngsters and Nazarov’s return
KHL.ru continues its review of the 2021-2022 season. For the third year in a row, Sochi missed out on the playoffs but still made a good impression. This team was far from hopeless and, on the contrary, there are promising signs for the future given the age of many of its players.
There weren’t many who expected Sochi to be among this season’s contenders, but the campaign began with back-to-back victories. Then, however, a run of defeats cost head coach Evgeny Stavrovsky his job by the end of September. Despite losing 10 out of 13 games, the decision seemed a little hasty — the Black Sea team was rarely overwhelmed, with eight of those 10 losses coming by one or two-goal margins and only CSKA (4-1) and Dynamo Moscow (4-0) proving a class above.
Nonetheless, the coaching change proved successful. In addition, Sochi’s subsequent highlights all came at the end of the month. In October there was a five-game run without a defeat in regulation (including three successive victories); in November, a four-game winning streak; in December, four straight losses. As expected, Sochi did not get to the playoffs but generally played some interesting hockey. Given the lack of household names on the roster, this season was at the very least satisfactory and, by some measures, can even be viewed as a success.
Top players
37 games, 91.7% saves, GAA 2.42
The familiar saying about the goalie being half the team is often an exaggeration, but not in Hellberg’s case. He was a real lifesaver: five shut-outs (more than in both his two previous seasons with SKA), sixth in the league for the number of saves (among goalies who played at least 30 games) and seventh by save percentage. His 172-minute shut-out streak was the fourth longest in the regular season.
24 (13+11) points in 43 games
In only his second full season in the KHL, Glotov made good progress and can now be regarded as one of Sochi’s leaders. He emerged as a key player in mid-October and since then he’s played at least 20 minutes in 19 of his 31 games (including 11 in a row). In the rest, his game time never dropped below 17 minutes. That helped Vasily to become his team’s leading scorer.
23 (8+15) points in 42 games
Nikolayev gave most assists and was second in scoring on the team in his first full season in the KHL (in two previous campaigns he played fewer than 20 games). Artyom was just one point behind Glotov, perhaps because he rarely formed part of the power play unit. So it’s reasonable to conclude that there could be more to come if Nikolayev can find himself a role on the special teams.
Coaching
Andrei Nazarov spent a long time out of the game — it was back in 2018 when he last worked with Neftekhimik. Taking charge at Sochi his first job was not as a tactician but as a motivator, trying to imbue his players with greater commitment on the ice. The improvement was obvious, and those who could not or would not improve dropped out of the team. Overall, Nazarov led the team for 34 games, winning 14, taking three more to overtime and losing 17, usually by narrow margins.
Best game
On Dec. 12, Sochi entertained Severstal and was down 0-4 midway through the game. However, the Leopards battled back to tie the scores, then grabbed a winner in the 59th minute. Defenseman Ivan Mishchenko was the hero of the hour, potting a hat-trick and adding an assist. Only the game-winner was scored without his contribution.
Young players
Only Severstal had a younger roster than Sochi’s, where the elder statesman — 33-year-old Yury Alexandrov — would not make the three oldest players on 14 of the other 23 KHL teams. Both Stavrovsky and Nazarov put their faith in the youngsters and, as a result, these prospects raised their game. Apart from the afore-mentioned Nikolayev, it’s worth pointing out the team’s second goalscorer, Amir Garayev, as well as Danila Galenyuk, Nikita Zorkin and Ivan Morozov. And that’s not all: we could also talk about Alexander Zhabreyev, Kirill Melnichenko and Andrei Bakanov. And most of the remaining players aren’t much older, notably 24-year-old Glotov.
Pre-season work
By April 30, Sochi had successfully concluded contracts with more than half its players, including Glotov, Nikolayev, Kirill Petkov, Zhabreyev and Maxim Tretyak. Morozov left for North America and that, of course, will be a loss. However, it doesn’t put a big hole in the team, since Ivan played just five games last season. Incoming players include 23-year-old goalie Alexei Melnichuk, who returns from across the Atlantic, and 22-year-old forward Sergei Popov, Canadian born, based in Finland last season, and heading for his first campaign in Russia. Artur Tyanulin joins from Torpedo, Mikhail Abramov arrives from Kunlun Red Star and experienced defenseman Nikita Pivtsakin comes in from Amur.
