Surprise scoring star — the KHL week in review
There’s new name at the top of the KHL scoring charts, with a 31-year-old forward enjoying a best-ever year. Elsewhere, four more teams have secured their places in the playoffs, we’ve had two high profile coaching changes and a referee whistled his way through his 1,000th game in Russia’s top league.
Four more clinch playoff spots
Five of the West’s eight playoff contenders are now known. Last week saw Torpedo, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Dynamo Moscow all join SKA in post season. For three of them – CSKA, Dynamo and Loko – a playoff spot is a standard expectation. All three teams have gone on to reach a Gagarin Cup final. Torpedo, meanwhile, is the exception. Although it’s a playoff regular, the Nizhny Novgorod club has never previously gone past the second round. However, this season has been a game-changer under Igor Larionov. Torpedo has exceeded its best ever KHL goal tally and is poised for its highest regular-season placing – but can it carry that form into the playoffs?
Kruchinin’s a surprise contender
Sibir’s Taylor Beck and Torpedo’s Alexei Kruchinin spent the week vying for top spot in the KHL scoring race, with Dmitrij Jaskin also threatening to join the battle. At present, Beck and Kruchinin are locked on 52 points, with Jaskin and his SKA colleague Marat Khairullin tied on 50. Avangard’s Vladimir Tkachyov completes the top five with 49 points. Of that quintet, Kruchinin’s next is the least expected contender. The 31-year-old made his KHL debut back in 2011-2012, but more than a quarter of his total points (52 out of 198) in the league came this season. It goes without saying that this is comfortably his best single KHL season of a journeyman career that began at SKA, included a long spell with Traktor but also featured short stints with Ugra and Kunlun Red Star among others.
Kruchinin heads KHL scoring race. February 4 round-up
Ak Bars hits the front
In November, Ak Bars was outside the playoff places. Today, it is top of the Eastern Conference. Sunday’s 5-1 win at Kunlun Red Star kept Kazan narrowly ahead of Sibir in the standings, despite a 4-7 loss in a crazy game against its Western Conference counterpart SKA during the week. That clash, settled by four goals from former Ak Bars forward Emil Galimov, was the first regulation time loss for Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s team this year. With eight games left to play, there’s every chance that Ak Bars can complete a remarkable turnaround to claim top spot in its Conference once again.
Ak Bars keeps the lead in KHL Power Rankings
Grishin gone
Spartak announced the departure of head coach Igor Grishin following Friday’s 2-3 loss at home to Neftekhimik. That result left the Red-and-Whites on 59 points, three adrift of eighth-placed Dinamo Minsk having played a game more. Grishin left by mutual consent and is expected to return to Khimik, Spartak’s VHL farm club. In the interim, Alexei Zavarukhin will take over behind the bench. Zavarukhin had one game in charge following Boris Mironov’s departure in November and masterminded a 2-1 win at CSKA. This time, his first engagement comes in Minsk in a must-win game.
Ryabykin leaves Metallurg
As Oscar Wilde might have written, had he been moonlighting as a hockey correspondent, to lose one job in a season might be unfortunate; to lose two looks like carelessness. Yet for Dmitry Ryabykin, that’s precisely what has happened. Ryabykin, a club legend at Avangard, paid the price for the Hawks’ struggles at the start of the season and found his first spell as a KHL head coach cut short after a 0-4 home loss against Kunlun Red Star in October. He wasn’t unemployed for long, quickly moving to a coaching role at Metallurg, another club where he has a long history. However, Magnitka suffered an awful run of form in 2023 and Ryabykin became the victim of the club’s coaching reshuffle. It is believed to be the first time a coach has been dismissed from two clubs in the same KHL season.
1,000 games for Ravodin
It’s not often that the referees make headlines – and when they do, it typically heralds an unwanted controversy. However, this week saw Alexei Ravodin take up his whistle for the 1,000th time in Russian championship hockey. He reached that milestone on Friday, taking charge of the CSKA vs Salavat Yulaev game. No other official has taken charge of so many games in the Russian top league. Ravodin began his top flight career in 2003 and this is his 20th season at this level.
Photo: 03.02.23. Alexei Ravodin 1000th game
