Cup final starts, legend retires — the KHL week in review
The Gagarin Cup is top billing this week, but it’s not the only big story. We say goodbye to the most productive import in KHL history, and welcome back the league’s winningest head coach. Read on for more ...
Gagarin Cup final poised for lift-off
The Gagarin Cup final starts today, and it promises to be a cracker. Defending champion CSKA, whose head coach Sergei Fedorov has never lost a playoff series, faces an Ak Bars team going for an unprecedented fourth title. In coaching terms, it’s a clash of generations: Kazan’s Zinetula Bilyaletdinov brings vast experience for club and country, while Moscow’s Fedorov is in only his second season behind the bench and was still playing when Bill won his first two Gagarin Cups. It’s also a repeat of the 2018 final, won by Bilyaletdinov’s Ak Bars in five games.
Fedorov – No danger of ‘boring hockey’
In the build-up to the final, CSKA head coach Sergei Fedorov hit back at complaints that too many teams in the KHL were playing “boring hockey” this season.
“It’s a final, how can you talk about boring hockey?” he said when questioned by journalists last week. “I see pragmatic hockey, where there’s no time to get the puck to your team-mates because you’re under great pressure. The smaller rinks dictate their own style. Often you’ll see the puck change hands several times in a few seconds, in Soviet hockey, on the bigger ice, that didn’t happen. When you play disciplined hockey, you have to keep any threat as far from your net as possible.”
Radulov targets former club
Ak Bars forward Alexander Radulov is preparing for his third Gagarin Cup final. In 2011 he won with Salavat Yulaev, but in 2016 he lost with CSKA. While he doesn’t think he previous association with the Muscovites has any bearing on the upcoming series, he admitted that this week’s action puts an extra spring in his step.
“It’s always cool to be in a final, that’s why we got into hockey back in the day,” he said. “You need to make the most of it, you can’t assume you’ll always be playing on this stage. I’ve won a Gagarin Cup final and lost one. Plainly speaking, it’s not the best feeling when you lose in a final.”
Lada back in the league
One of the most famous clubs in Russian hockey is returning to the KHL next season. Lada Togliatti, the first club from outside of Moscow to win the championship, will rejoin the league for 2023-2024. This will be Lada’s third spell in the KHL. The team was one of the founder members in 2008 but had to step down to the VHL in 2010 while a new arena was built to meet KHL standards. In 2014-2015 Lada returned to the KHL, but left again in 2018. Next season, Lada will be part of the Eastern Conference, which will run with 13 teams. The composition of the Western Conference will remain unchanged.
Lada included in the 2023-2024 Fonbet Kontinental Hockey League’s lineup
Metallurg announces Razin
Andrei Razin will be the new head coach of Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Always a colorful figure, Razin picked up many plaudits for his success at Severstal during his five-year tenure in Cherepovets. During that time, he transformed the team into playoff regulars and displayed an eye for unearthing overlooked talents to strengthen his team. However, at the end of the season he announced he wanted to move on to a new challenge. Metallurg, a club that expects to be in contention for the Gagarin Cup each season, certainly offers that; Razin’s previous engagements have tended to be at clubs that were not expected to compete for hardware. The new man replaces Ilya Vorobyov, whose contract in Magnitogorsk was not renewed at the end of the team’s season.
Kvartalnov replaces Woodcroft
After a year out of action, Dmitry Kvartalnov is back in the KHL. The 57-year-old, who previously served behind the bench at Severstal, Sibir, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Ak Bars, agreed to replace Craig Woodcroft at Dinamo Minsk. Although Kvartalnov has yet to lift a Gagarin Cup, he is the winningest coach in KHL history, with 515 victories from 809 games. Canadian Woodcroft leaves Belarus after four seasons in charge of the Bison.
Cross-conference playoffs next season
The latest meeting of the KHL Board of Directors in Moscow resolved on a new format for next season’s playoffs. In 2024, we will see cross-conference pairings from the second round of post season. That’s a significant shift from the current system, where teams play in their conferences prior to an East vs West Gagarin Cup final. In the past, only the first KHL season in 2008-2009 featured cross-conference playoff pairings.
Dawes retires
Record-breaking KHL import Nigel Dawes has decided to hang ‘em up following his current team’s elimination from the German playoffs. After Adler Mannheim’s season came to an end at the weekend, the 39-year-old forward called time on a career that featured 10 years in the KHL. During that time, Dawes compiled 505 (267+238) points in 549 KHL games. That’s a record among all foreign-born players (Dawes, although born in Winnipeg, later took Kazakh citizenship during his seven-year spell at Barys). He remains second only to Sergei Mozyakin in goals scored, and is currently fifth on the KHL’s all-time points chart having been overtaken by Alexander Radulov this season.
All square in Junior final
The opening weekend of the Junior Hockey League final produced two contrasting games. In game one, Chaika Nizhny Novgorod powered to a 6-2 victory at Omskiye Yastreby. However, just 24 hours later the scoreline was reversed, with Omsk claiming a 6-2 verdict over Chaika. That leaves the race for the Kharmlamov Cup poised at 1-1 as the teams head to Nizhny for games three and four on Wednesday and Thursday.
