Amur review: Alikin the workhorse and underwhelming imports
KHL.ru continues its review of the 2021-2022 season. Amur went into its 14th season with a new team of imports. However, the new faces failed to get hot and arguably that was the reason that the Tigers didn’t make the playoffs.
There was a lot of optimistic talk in Khabarovsk last summer, much of which now looks rather hollow. The club went into the season with a new coaching set-up (of which more later) and an updated roster of imports. In warm-up games, Radan Lenc and David Tomasek looked like smart acquisitions, but once the season began that initial impression soon dispersed. It wasn’t just the disappointing numbers; none of the foreign players established himself as a true leader on the team.
The opening weeks of the season were not a success and from that point on, the Tigers were always prowling just below the border of the playoff places. The team tweaked its game and was still in contention for a shot at the top eight, only to see those hopes extinguished when the regular season was halted ahead of schedule. It’s fair to see this hurt Amur more than most: the remaining games were kinder to the Tigers than to most of their closest rivals and there was a real chance of making the top eight in the East.
Top players
41 games, 92.9% saves, 2.22 GAA
Apart from the aforementioned Lenc and Tomasek, Amur had high hopes for another Czech, Patrik Bartosak. However, Alikin is no stranger to competing with an import: earlier he took over Marek Langhamer’s starting role and this season he outplayed Bartosak. In this year’s regular season he finished as the absolute leader in terms of shots faced (1260) and saves made (1170). Evgeny’s workload contributed to his consistency: among goalies who played at least 30 games, only Juha Metsola and Lars Johansson had a better save percentage.
25 (12+13) points in 47 games
For the fifth year in a row, Gorshkov scored 20+ points and finished just one short of his personal best. With the Lenc-Tomasek combination failing to deliver, Alexander became Amur’s leading scorer in terms of both goals and assists — and, of course, topped the overall points tally.
10 (3+7) points in 47 games
Compared with last season, Jordan’s productivity halved. Nonetheless, his value to the team is beyond doubt. He finished with the best plus/minus rating (+5) and the best pass completion rate (81.29%).
Coaching
In May 2021, Amur announced Vladimir Vorobyov as head coach. However, due to personal reasons, he was unable to take charge of the team during pre-season. The bad start to the campaign was officially under Vorobyov’s guidance but, in reality, Vladimir Anatolevich only took charge for four of those seven games (including the team’s only victory). Team and coach parted ways, amid some acrimony, and Mikhail Kravets, previously of Vityaz, soon took Vorobyov’s place. Under Kravets, Amur picked up 50% of the available points — a decent return. But in the coming season, Amur will again have a new head coach when Vadim Yepanchintsev takes over.
Best game
At the start of November, Amur had a tricky road trip to Ufa, Moscow and Yaroslavl. A tight 3-2 loss at Salavat Yulaev was followed by a hard-fought 1-0 win at Dynamo and the Tigers used a lot of energy in those two games. At Lokomotiv, Amur found itself struggling — down 0-3 midway through the game — but managed not only to fight back, but to grab a shoot-out win over the Railwaymen.
Young players
Over the course of the season, several youngsters were called into the first team but few of them made a lasting impression. The exception was Roman Bychkov, who was dressed for 39 games and got on the ice in 22 of them. His role varied greatly as well — one night Roman might play 14-18 minutes, the next he might be down to six or less. Even so, his +3 rating was the second only to Michal Jordan among Amur’s D-men.
Off-season activity
The big news for Amur was securing a contract extension with Alikin — probably the best Russian goalie to become a free agent this summer. Another bonus sees Ivan Nikolishin return after a short spell in Finland. Elsewhere, the news is not so good: Gorshkov, Vladimir Butuzov and Alexei Volgin will not be easy to replace. It’s possible that Yepanchintsev will look to build a new strike force around Artyom Antipov, who was leading scorer for the head coach at Ugra last season. Vladislav Gretsky, impressive in Belarus with Neman Grodno last season, is on a try-out contract. However, it’s worth noting that many players have struggled to convert their Belarusian form into KHL success in the past. Statistics from the VHL, where Ugra topped the regular-season standings last term, may be a more reliable indicator.
