Dynamo season review: following a new direction
KHL.ru continues its review of last season. For Dynamo Moscow, it was a turbulent summer. After slashing the budget and replacing more than half the team, the Blue-and-Whites were not expected to be among the favorites. However, the regular season went better than anyone expected. That sparked hopes of a playoff run, and a first-round exit that would have been predictable six months earlier suddenly felt like a disappointment.
In the summer, Dynamo Moscow announced a “New Direction”. The focus would be on getting better value for the money spent on the team, effectively trying to achieve greater success from fewer resources. The goaltending brigade was entirely replaced. Moreover, five established first-team players — including several undoubted leaders — also departed. “New direction” felt like a euphemism for “crisis”. However, intelligent management from Alexei Sopin and good work from head coach Alexei Kudashov saw Dynamo through this crisis with relatively little suffering. There was only one real slump during the regular season, and that in campaign where even runaway leader SKA suffered a temporary downturn in form along with every other team in its turn.
However, a slump in the playoffs proved fatal. Looking purely at the results, there was no great cause for alarm: Dynamo was up 2-1 in its series against Torpedo but lost three time in OT. That’s nothing unusual in an even match-up. However, in the games it was clear that this was only an even battle for a couple of periods. Dynamo lacked both physical fitness and apparently motivation. As a result, the Blue-and-Whites crashed out in the first round for the first time in five years.
When explaining the new direction, Dynamo’s directors highlighted Severstal as an example of a team that overperformed on a modest budget. In the previous two season, Dynamo twice defeated the Steelmen in the opening round of the playoffs, albeit with some difficulty. Thus, we can conclude that the new direction has achieved its goals by virtue of falling at the first post season hurdle.
Joking apart, it has to be said that by and large the results matched expectations. Most observers were skeptical of the new model, anticipating a season of dull hockey and an even mix of victories and defeats before falling in the first round. It’s true that the team was hardworking, and that it lost at the start of the playoffs. The rest, though, was not the case. Dynamo played some entertaining hockey and produced decent results, picking 64% of the points available. That’s similar to last season’s return. As the season progressed, Dynamo won over many of its critics — at times, the pre-season skeptics even revised predictions to talk about the Western Conference final. Based on where the team was in December, defeat to Torpedo was a disappointment. However, based on its status in the summer, the season turned out pretty well.
Best players
36 (9+27) points in 71 games
Andrei Mironov inherited the captaincy from Vadim Shipachyov and did well in a leadership role. He spent more time on the ice, made noticeably more (and better) contributions to the offense and did not relinquish any of his defensive effectiveness. Mironov had his best ever season for goals and assists. In addition, Andrei was one of the most visible players off the ice, working hard to raise the profile of hockey in general and Dynamo in particular.
38 (21+17) points in 41 games, and 49 (17+32) points in 68
Injury ruled Eric O’Dell out of almost half the season. With him, there’s little doubt that Dynamo would have enjoyed a higher seeding in the playoffs. Dynamo did not just miss Eric’s own contribution; without his strike partner, Dmitry Rashevsky’s form flatlined. Jordan Weal stepped up to supply the goals and he kept up his scoring pace when O’Dell returned to the team. These two were among the few who escaped criticism in the series against Torpedo.
Ivan Muranov, Ilya Kablukov and Maxim Dzhioshvili
18 (10+8) points in 70 games, 17 (7+10) in 74 and 29 (18+11) in 68
Kudashov assembled this line more or less from scratch. Muranov flattered to deceive over the previous four seasons, 35-year-old Kablukov has vast experience and an Olympic medal but also had just seven goals in 230 games prior to this season, while Maxim Dzhioshvili spent the past four years in the VHL. Together, they clicked as an “energy” line, frequently playing against the opposition’s top stars and allowing just 11 goals all season. It was hard to score on them because they never took a step back, putting in the hard yards all over the ice.
Coaching
Alexei Kudashov may not have had the most difficult season of all KHL head coaches, but he was surely in the top five. It wasn’t the new direction that gave him a headache, but an internal power struggle within the club. At times there was an active campaign to discredit Kudashov and his assistant Alexei Sopin. It wasn’t the most sophisticated smear campaign, but it certainly added to the pressure behind the bench. In these circumstances, Alexei Nikolayevich assembled a competitive team from the wreckage of last season’s Dynamo, a task that would have been tough enough without additional pressures.
Despite crashing out of the playoffs in the first round, it’s clear that Kudashov achieved his first objective. The club’s management never formally announced their expectations, but it’s hard to imagine that year zero of the new Dynamo would demand more than a playoff spot. After the end of Dynamo’s campaign, Kudashov found himself in limbo for a month as rumors swirled about his possibly successor. In the end, though, common sense prevailed and Kudashov was offered a new contract along with his full staff.
Best game
By the end of January it was already clear that Dynamo and Torpedo were likely to meet in the playoffs, with the big question being who would have home ice advantage. On Jan. 17, the teams met in Nizhny Novgorod. At the time, Torpedo had two victories to one in head-to-head games this season. The rivals put on something of a show, treating the fans to 10 goals and leaving both coaches frustrated with their defending. One of them was scored by Ilya Konovalov, who became the fifth goalie to find the net in the KHL. Moreover, he’s only the second to achieve this with a direct shot rather than collecting the credit after an unpredictable rebound.
While that shoot-out took place in Novgorod, Avtomobilist beat Spartak 7-4 in Moscow. A couple of days later, Dynamo entertained the Motormen. After his wonder goal, Konovalov was rested and Konstantin Volkov stepped in to silence Avto’s powerful attack and backstop a 3-0 victory that took him to five shut-outs in 21 KHL games.
Youngsters
Dynamo’s average age last season was 26 years, 15 days — only Lokomotiv, Torpedo, Sochi and Severstal were younger. That figure was pushed up by 34-year-old Alexei Potapov, who seldom played. In total, Kudashov used 12 players born after 2000 and seven of them played more than half the games. One of the brightest, not just for Dynamo but in the whole league, was Dmitry Rashevsky. After December he struggled without O’Dell and failed to score in 24 games, providing just six assists in that time (three of them in one game against Torpedo). That slump did not stop Rashevsky finishing second in scoring on his team, sharing the title of top goalscorer. He shared that honor with O’Dell, raising the question of what he might have done if the Canadian had remained healthy.
Andrei Nikonov and Vladislav Mikhailov showed their strength in their checking game, but now they need to add more creativity. Among defensemen, Nikita Novikov had a permanent place on the first team. He didn’t let anybody down, but rarely caught the eye — perhaps failing to live up to increased expectations after his emergence last season.
Summer work
The situation around O’Dell is interesting. For Dynamo, he’s key player; for him, the club is a good fit (and the city is a good fit for his family). However, he wasn’t offered a long contract, less because of the new direction and more due to his injury record. The forward turned down a shorter deal, anticipating offers from elsewhere. However, those offers have yet to materialize and there is a feeling that Eric might be about to reconsider. In the interim, though, the Blue-and-Whites signed Cedric Paquette, a similar type of player but younger and less injury-prone. They also agreed an extension with Brennan Menell. Jordan Weal contract is still in place, so that fills all three import slots.
Apart from O’Dell, Dynamo have largely replaced their losses from the club’s reserves. At the same time, the club acquired the promising Daniil Pylenkov from Severstal and signed Yegor Morozov, Artyom Ilyenko and Yegor Petukhov. There are rumors about bigger names: Igor Ozhiganov, Nikita Gusev and it seems that the pursuit of O’Dell continues.
