Dynamo Moscow hosts SKA in today’s lone game

Only one match is on tap today on a light KHL Sunday. Dynamo Moscow welcomes SKA as Leonids Tambijevs’ men try to dig out their hole after six straight losses, while the St. Petersburg franchise tries to revert the trend after two consecutive defeats.

The Blue-and-Whites were certainly expecting more from their season back in September, but now they are languishing outside the playoff places in the Western Conference’s standings after six straight defeats. Most recently, Dynamo had two losses to CSKA (3-4 SO, 2-5), interposed by a loss to the Shanghai Dragons on Wednesday (2-3). The season is still early, but it’s imperative to lose too much ground from the other Western Conference’s teams. Moreover, with 15 games, Dynamo Moscow played more than any other team in the West, and this can potentially mean that the gap could be stretched even further in case of a loss to SKA today. It will be the second meeting between the two sides in the current season, with SKA claiming an early 5-2 win. The St. Petersburg side is also not in its best moment, with two consecutive losses, to Severstal (2-5) and Dinamo Minsk (2-4), respectively. After the setback, SKA slipped down to seventh place in the Western table. Today’s game both teams have a chance to revert the trend and return to victory. The match will count for the First Cup’s standings.

17:00: Dynamo Moscow (5-8-2, 9^th W) vs SKA (8-4-0, 7^th W)
About the game

Dynamo Moscow ends a three-game home series on a six-match losing streak.

SKA, who defeated Dynamo Moscow earlier in the season (5-2), enters the second game of a four-match road trip following two consecutive defeats.

Dynamo Moscow’s forward Nick Merkley is on a four-game scoring streak, with 4 (3+1) points over that stretch.

Dynamo Moscow’s defenseman Daniil Pylenkov had at least an assist in each of his previous three matches, totaling four helpers.

Injury list

Dynamo Moscow: Yegor Rimashevsky, Nikita Tertyshny.

SKA: Zakhar Bardakov, Trevor Murphy, Linus Weissbach.

Milestone alert

Dynamo Moscow’s goalie Maxim Motorygin may record his 10^th career shutout.

Dynamo Moscow’s forward Igor Martynov and SKA’s forward Vasily Glotov line up for their respective 400^th league appearance.

SKA’s forward Daniil Aimurzin may record his 100^th career assist (currently at 99).