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Review of the season: Sochi. Dramatic trade leads to Black December
KHL.ru continues its rundown of the 2023-2024 season with a trip to Sochi. The Leopards made a strong start to the season but lost key players and struggled to keep the pace.
At the very start of the season, Sochi suffered back-to-back losses but quickly clicked into form. In the first six weeks of the season, the team compiled 23 points from 17 games. There were memorable victories over Ak Bars, Lokomotiv (5-0), Severstal (three times), Traktor, Spartak, Torpedo and SKA. By the end of September, Sochi was in the top four in the overall standings.
However, that success drew attention from elsewhere. Leading forward Borna Rendulic was traded to SKA and with him went the heartbeat of the team. It’s hard to explain exactly what went so wrong, so fast. The loss of an individual player, even one as influential as the Croatian, should not undermine any team quite so dramatically. Indeed, while Rendulic was a leader, he was ably supported by the likes of Artur Tyanulin, Matvei Michkov and Michal Kristof. Moreover, he was replaced with Marat Khusnutdinov, another forward who, on the face of it, seemed well suited to the task.
Nonethless, from mid-October, Sochi’s game evaporated. In early November the team dropped out of the playoff places, never to return. In December the Leopards could not win a game and the losing streak carried on into the new year, totalling 15 games.
Best players
41 (19+22) points in 47 games
Michkov played 16 games fewer than Tyanulin, which is why he was only second in team scoring, four points behind his colleague. He led the team in goals and, unlike many of his team-mates, he a strong + / - rating. It’s significant that the long losing streak mentioned above coincided with a month-long injury for Michkov and the games that he played during that skid coincided with him trying to recover full fitness.
50 games, 16 wins, 91.1% saves, GAA 3.29
Berdin’s stats might not be all that impressive, but that is substantially due to the challenges of playing behind an unimpressive defense. Mikhail faced 1,774 shots on his goal – not just the most of any goalie in regular season, but almost 300 more than the next busiest rival. Given that workload, an average goalie would have worse stats and allow rather more goals per game. Berdin won plaudits for his technical ability, but faced questions over his temperament: sometimes he would be tempted into high-risk plays and on occasion got into fights with opposing forwards. That might have reduced his effectiveness, but it made him all the more entertaining to watch.
45 (17+28) points in 63 games
This was only Tyanulin’s third KHL season, so it’s not surprising that he achieved new individual records. However, he also set two club records for total points and assists in a single season. Previously, Robert Rosen had Sochi’s best assist tally in 2019 and Andre Petersson had been the top scorer since 2016.
Coaching
Dmitry Kokorev completed his first full season as a KHL head coach. Results did not come, but his team played attractive hockey. Given the tight budget and the lack of top-class players, that’s already quite an achievement. At the end of the season, Kokorev moved to Vityaz as assistant to Pavel Desyatkov. Sergei Zubov returned to Sochi, where he led the team to the playoffs in 2018 and 2019.
Best game
During that September surge, Sochi visited eventual cup finalist Lokomotiv and handed out a 5-0 win in Yaroslavl. While it’s true that Loko was not on top of its game in the fall, it’s also true that the Railwaymen had not suffered such a heavy loss for a long time. You have to go back to Oct. 2017 for the last such hammering, and that defeat cost then head coach Alexei Kudashov his job.
Youngsters
Sochi is usually one of the youngest rosters in the league and this year was no exception: only Torpedo and Severstal had younger line-ups. However, while those two rode youthful exuberance into the playoffs, Sochi’s kids were less effective. As discussed above, Michkov played a major role. Khusnutdinov, although inconsistent, was also prominent, as were Amir Garayev and defenseman Fyodor Kroshchinsky. In total, Kokorev used 21 under-23s, but the remainder featured intermittently or played minor roles. Nonetheless, it means a lot of prospects gained valuable experience of playing at KHL level.
Summer work
It seems unlikely that Michkov will return for a third loan spell. Berdin has gone to Avangard, while Tyanulin has yet to sign a new contract and is currently a restricted free agent. Khusnutdinov left for North America, while Danila Galenyuk is returning to SKA. The other losses are marginal figures. Among the pluses, goalie Sergei Ivanov is well capable of replacing Berdin while forward Alexander Suvorov could be a handy acquisition if he can overcome his injury problems. He’s missed almost 18 months, but when fit he looked no worse than rising star Ilya Ivantsov when they played together at Severstal. Another forward, Denis Vengryzhanovsky, faces questions about consistency: at his best, he can be terrific; too often, though, he is anonymous.
There are genuine hopes that Rendulic might be tempted back to lead the offense. However, the big thing for Sochi has to be strengthening the D core. So far, though, there are just two new faces, both from the VHL and one of them on a try-out contract.
