A quick first international break writeup.
Team is in limbo. Not good enough to win it all. Too good to fail completely.
Positives:
Tkachev is back to normal.
Sekac is still the best foreigner signing of recent years. Not too flashy, but effective in his role on the foreigner line and on the PP.
Klinkhammer's grit and net presence will be even more valuable in the playoffs.
Lukoyanov contnues to impress as a bottom 6 role model. Works his arse off every shift. Wouldn't mind him on Tkachev's wing.
Yaz'kov starts to look promising. Looks like a very good callup now.
Sidorov should contnue to grow. Speed is crucial for today's game and he has that. He could outgrow our stalled "young" "promising" Yarullin and Musin(can we dump him on a road trip?)
Third line of Glinkin - Popov - Glukhov is perfect. Wouldn't change a thing.
Malykhin close to the net is deadly
Why he is on Bill's 4th line is the Great Mystery of Bill.
Like the Kosov trade. Too early to tell, but I always liked the player. Not solving any major problems, but he should fit in well.
Limbo:
Foreigner line.They are good... then they they are invisible. That on and off is really troubling. I pin it to Azevedo. He basically drives the line as he should and he seems to be inconsistent from game to game.
Lander is not anything special. Your middle of the pack swedish forward. If only he could shoot...
Negatives:
GOALTENDING! A team like AkBars can't afford such mediocrity as Garipov in net.
We still need at least one top line forward. Klinkhammer on Tkachev's wing is okay, but I'd like t see him on a shutdown line more with major minutes on the PP to park his body in front of the net.
Galiev is riding Tkachev's coattails. Hard to imagine what Tkachev could do with an actually skilled winger.
Markov is out of gas. Period.
The three on the D. Abrosimov, Musin, Zaharchuk. Pretty useless.