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Lada: Podyapolsky’s strong play, Bratash’s successful debut, and problems with OTs
KHL.ru continues reviewing the 2023-2024 season for the league’s teams with a trip to Togliatti. Lada returned to the KHL after six years and clinched a playoff spot right away – they were among the season’s sensations.
At first, the return of Lada to the KHL after a six-year hiatus was met with, to put it mildly, a lack of optimism. It seemed that even a year earlier, there were more favorable forecasts for Torpedo and Admiral. Nobody predicted that they would make it to the elimination stage, and most agreed that it would be a success if they managed to avoid the last place in the conference. The preseason games did little to change these assessments, although Togliatti performed quite successfully, collecting around 70% of the points and ranking in the top six in this regard. Among others, they defeated the reigning silver medalist Ak Bars and the future champion Metallurg, both times rallying from behind.
The start of the regular season hinted that the August results shouldn’t be given too much importance: Lada lost their first three home games with a combined score of 3:10. However, things got much more interesting after that: 12 consecutive games with points (eight wins and four OT losses). From mid-September, Togliatti firmly settled in the playoff zone and never leaved it, even briefly leading the standings of not only the Eastern Conference but the entire league at the end of October. Lada had its shortcomings, but they didn’t significantly affect the results: power play efficiency, OT performance, and the number of shots on goal were higher for all other teams, including the bottom dwellers.
Lada didn’t have enough gas to sustain their performance throughout the regular season. This could be attributed either to physical fatigue or a sense of complacency from realizing they had already exceeded expectations. Visually, their gameplay didn’t change, so it’s likely the latter. At the end of January and most of February, Lada suffered seven consecutive losses and formally secured their playoff spot as the second-to-last of the 16 teams—thanks more to a loss by their competitor, Neftekhimik, rather than their own success.
It seemed that any remaining motivation should have evaporated after this, but the opposite happened: at the very end, Togliatti pulled together and won three straight matches, including an away game against Avangard, their upcoming playoff opponent. However, there wasn’t much of a contest in the elimination stage. There was some fight in the second and fourth games; in one instance, Lada secured a convincing victory, and in the other, they sent the game to OT. But, as mentioned earlier, extra time play was one of their three main weaknesses this season.
Best players
52 games, 18 W, 92.84%, GAA 2.53
Lada’s hockey style last season wasn’t the most defensive, but overall, it was rooted in strong defense. In such conditions, the role of the goalie is extremely important, and Podyapolsky handled it excellently. During the regular season, he ranked among the top ten goaltenders for games played and was in the top five for save percentage. He also recorded six shutouts, just one less than Timur Bilyalov and Alexander Samonov, who led the league in this category.
19 (3+16) points in 72 games
The 33-year-old Berezin has been playing in the KHL since its second season, and in all that time, he has only once scored 19 points in the regular season, nearly ten years ago. Now, he has matched his personal record for points and was second on Lada in average ice time (20:59 per game). Additionally, he led the team with a +16 differential.
36 (13+23) points in 72 games
In September, Troy Josephs was outstanding, scoring goals in five consecutive games and earning points in eight straight. Although he ended up being Lada’s top goal-scorer, the winter and especially spring versions of Josephs were quite different from the autumn version, and not in a good way. Safin, on the other hand, had a more consistent performance throughout the regular season and became Lada’s top point-scorer. However, like Josephs, he failed to make an impact in the elimination stage.
Coaching
Lada returned to the KHL after a six-year absence, and Oleg Bratash returned to club hockey after seven years. In the 2015-2016 season, he was one of Alexei Kudashov’s assistants at Lokomotiv, after which he worked exclusively with different Russian national teams. At the club level, Bratash achieved success as a head coach, but that was even earlier, in the JHL, when he led MHK Spartak to the Kharlamov Cup in 2014.
In the 2023 summer, Bratash was appointed to Lada, and his debut in the KHL can be considered very successful, based on preseason predictions for the Togliatti team. Nevertheless, at the end of the season, there was uncertainty about his future, and it was only a couple of weeks ago that it was announced that the coach would remain at the helm of Lada.
Best game
Throughout the season, the Togliatti side failed to secure a single victory by a large margin, and only eight with a difference of three or four goals. Most of these were against teams that finished below in the standings, but two stand out, and they happened consecutively. On Dec 26, the future champion, Metallurg, was defeated 5:1, and on the 28th, it was the future regular season winner, Dynamo Moscow (4:0). It’s noteworthy that Lada won four times out of six against those two powerhouses. And they lost once each — naturally, in extra time.
Youngsters
In terms of average age, Lada was towards the bottom of the table, but it still didn’t make it into the most veteran-heavy top five. However, while more experienced teams like Ak Bars and Salavat Yulaev had 11-12 players born in 2001 or later, Lada had only four in its lineup Among them, goalie Danila Ovcharik played only 26 seconds. The other three — defensemen Gleb Bulychyov and Karim Vafin, and forward Alexey Vasilkov — got a bit more time, but it was still mostly symbolic. Nonetheless, Vafin and Vasilkov managed to score a goal each, while Bulychyov even netted two.
Summer work
Since Bratash actively used rotation, it’s practically impossible to identify a clearly defined top six in defense. However, out of the three most active players — those spending at least 20 minutes on the ice — only Berezin remains in the lineup, as the blueliner was inked to a new deal in the offseason. And the departures of Georgiy Solyannikov and Alexey Volgin will likely be replaced by Denis Barantsev from Avtomobilist and Ziyat Paigin from Sibir; perhaps, Yegor Morozov, who was the top scoring defenseman for Sokol of the VHL, will also join the competition.
The forward line has been bolstered by Rafael Bikmullin from Neftekhimik, Arkhip Nekolenko from Metallurg, and Yegor Chernikov, who at 21 years old became the fourth top scorer for Yugra of the VHL.
Maxim Tretyak, who moved from Sochi, will try to compete with Alexander Trushkov for the role of Podyapolsky’s backup. These are the acquisitions for Lada for now.
