Ice situation: defeat of SKA and faded intrigue in the fight for the playoffs

Another crushing defeat to SKA, Ak Bars becomes the favorite to win the championship, and Salavat forward Livo approaches Mozyakin's record for goals in a season. It's also worth noting that almost all of the playoff participants have already been determined. The presence of bright outsiders is one of the main characteristics of the current season. Read more in Izvestia's piece.

Swings from SKA

Before SKA's games, everyone is used to expecting flashy hockey - the Army men never play defense and look for happiness in other people's zones. Sometimes this leads to failures like the one that occurred in the game against Ak Bars: the Kazan side tore apart the opponent's defense in the first period and scored six goals, while scoring eight times in total. SKA has scored two or three times this season, but -5 looked too horrific. Zakhar Bardakov was the mastermind of the comeback, first pushing past Alexey Marchenko and scoring SKA's second puck of the game before cutting the deficit to four pucks early in the third period.

SKA might have been able to get closer, but the opponent played competently in the remaining time, and goalie Timur Bilyalov saved the visitors at several points. "Ak Bars played an almost perfect game, but SKA's coaching staff has a lot to think about ahead of the decisive stage of the championship. Only four non-playoff teams in the KHL have allowed more than the Army Men (161): Kunlun, Sochi, Amur and Barys. It's always fun to watch SKA play, but with such failures on defense, the team is in for a quick end to the season.

"Ak Bars - the favorite?

"Ak Bars" had a bright victory in St. Petersburg, scoring eight pucks against SKA. Don't put too much weight on the result for the Kazans - the Army men's defense was simply non-existent in the first period, leaving open zones and allowing the opponent to do whatever they wanted. None of Ak Bars' opponents will play like that in the playoffs, and we need to realize that. All potential first-round opponents are teams that play strict defense, whether it's Admiral, Siberia or Avangard and Magnitogorsk.

The active hockey strategy that Anvar Gatiyatulin is trying to instill in the team has become more and more apparent lately. "Ak Bars is changing its hockey skillfully as the game progresses - it was evident in St. Petersburg, when the Kazan players began to play more carefully at the right moment. And not every opponent has been able to withstand the pressure of SKA, which is coming back for a win this season.

"There's high competition in the KHL, so we'll be ready for a showdown"

Traktor hockey player Sergei Telegin - about the chances of the Russian national team to successfully return to international competitions, the performance of the Chelyabinsk club this season and the level of the championship in the country

Given all of the above, as well as the tandem of high-level goalies, we can give an optimistic forecast. But a few things are still alarming. Naturally, the main factor is the opponents. And we're not even talking about the first round here: Ak Bars regularly beats its conference rivals. But in case of a further passage, the Kazans will face a Western Conference opponent. Recall that Ak Bars lost two games each in the regular season to Dinamo Minsk, Severstal and Lokomotiv.

No more intrigue?

The last few KHL seasons have presented a heated battle for playoff spots. The endings of the championships, especially in the Eastern Conference, were very confusing. Places in the top eight were finalized only in the last rounds, and the gap between the teams remained minimal. This season is unlikely to present a similar showdown. It will be possible to predict the final top-8 in each conference as early as early February.

In the East, everything is going towards the seventh through eighth places being shared by Admiral and Siberia. Neftekhimik and Lada are not far behind, but both teams are losing points, including against direct competitors. Togliatti's situation is also complicated by internal turmoil, a murky future and injuries to a number of players. Perhaps the Volzhans set the stage for playoff contention when they traded their main goalie Vladislav Podyapolskiy to Dynamo Moscow. Nizhnekamsk with Oleg Leontiev has been accustomed to miracles in past seasons, but now that Sibir and Admiral are playing more consistently, Neftekhimik has legitimately fallen out of the top eight.

In the West, the balance of power is more static. Since Severstal was led by Andrei Kozyrev, the Cherepovets have moved up to the top group, leaving the fight with Vityaz and other outsiders for the playoffs in the sad past. "Torpedo" is very unstable in December-January, but the potential of Igor Larionov's team disposes to higher results. At the most important moment of the season, the Nizhny Novgorodians must add value. "Kunlun can only hope that Torpedo's crisis will linger. The Dragons certainly can't beat the Minskers.

Canadian is the top scorer

While in the NHL, Washington's Russian forward Alexander Ovechkin is chasing Canadian Wayne Gretzky's record for goals (894), in the KHL it's the other way around. Canadian Salavat Yulaev forward Josh Leivo is trying to break Russian Sergei Mozyakin's record for goals in a single regular season (48) and is getting closer to it with every game.

As with Ovechkin, the massive chase has not been without injury. Livo's chase was interrupted by a concussion suffered on January 27 in a game against Ak Bars (3:4 OT). Recovery went faster than expected. Before the game against Metallurg, Ufa general director Rinat Bashirov said that the forward would play against Magnitogorsk, and most likely in the All-Star Game on February 8. As a result, the Canadian missed only one game - with Avangard (4:2).

The goal against Magnitogorsk became the 40th for Livo in the current regular season of the KHL. Before him, only three hockey players scored so much - Dmitry Yashkin (40 goals, season-2022/23), Reid Boucher (44, season-2023/24) and, actually, Sergei Mozyakin (48, season-2016/17).