Well, decided to open this thread because it would be interesting to see how does this team built primarily from left-overs will sail through the season.
I went to Admiral @ Blues Espoo game yesterday (5-2). It seems that the team plays a very straightforward North American hockey relying mainly on the speed of individual players. I do not think that they ever even tried a play of more than 2 passes: mostly just an opening pass and then praying for individual skill. I am not sure how viable this tactic is going to be on the big ice but apparently their home ice is going to be NHL size, so it might work there.
Team chemistry is still bad. Strangely players do not even try to hint each other during the game. The offense is reasonable and with better chemistry is probably comparable to or maybe even above the weakest offenses in KHL.
The defense is a pure disaster: essentially at the level of the Blues defense or maybe worse. Defenders were extremely slow, constantly lost their positions and were not able to throw the puck out of the zone. The forward Lisin was defensively better than any of nominal defenders. I think the team urgently needs to sign 3-4 defenders or their games going to be a pure massacre. In the second and third periods the defense improved but mainly because players started blocking pucks with their bodies which is not common in training games and I guess surprised Blues. I do not believe this will surprise anybody during the regular season. Goalkeeping was surprisingly ok, maybe average by KHL standards.
It was a bit difficult to follow individuals as Admiral players did not have names stitched on their backs, only numbers (which you had to look from the game booklet and which were sometimes wrong
), but here are my thoughts:
1) In terms of skill Enver Lisin was light years ahead of other players on the ice. Excellent speed and acceleration, great finishing. Also defensively he is very strong: skates back fast and good positioning. Passing is somewhat weak and also in one-on-one situations he usually just tries to run away from the opponent. I am actually a bit surprised how did he end up to Admiral, he could be a third liner in almost any NHL team and a second liner in some. It is somewhat strange to me that Magnitogorsk put him on the expansion draft. The only explanation I see is that he gets paid huge money, which I find somewhat unlikely as he has never been a high profile player. Lisin needs a solid center in order to maximize his offensive output but I think that due to his speed he will be able to individually win some game against the weakest opponents.
2) Joakim Lundstrom looks like a solid goalkeeper by KHL standards: good rebound control and lateral movements (especially compared to “NHLer†Koskinen on the other side). The glove hand seems to be somewhat slow and playing the puck with the stick was often ridiculous. I think he will start most of the games as Ivannikov has almost 0 experience.
3) Alexei Ugarov seems to be the most well rounded albeit a somewhat slow forward and Blues was continuously in trouble with him but I do not think that he will be such a threat in the KHL.
4) Sergei Barbashev is a very interesting playmaker. A lot of smart and technical passes. The problem is that it looks like his chemistry with other team is really bad (even given that chemistry overall was bad). He might also to be too smart for this team.
5) Richard Gynge – occasional flashes of skill but overall very mediocre, does not look like an impact player by any standards.
6) Felix Shutz – completely useless, no skill, no effort, hard to believe he will make the top 6, not clear why to spend a foreign spot on him.
The crowd at the game was 3500+. This is very good because tickets were not free (5-10 euros) and Blues does not achieve that large crowds at a lot of official games. It might show that KHL is of some interest in Finland (or it was just the first home game). The public announcer at the game was a complete clown calling the visiting team AdmiralS all the time.
Overall, my evaluation is that it is going to be the clear last place in the Eastern conference unless the team significantly improves the defense and even if they will I do not see how they can make a playoff spot.
I went to Admiral @ Blues Espoo game yesterday (5-2). It seems that the team plays a very straightforward North American hockey relying mainly on the speed of individual players. I do not think that they ever even tried a play of more than 2 passes: mostly just an opening pass and then praying for individual skill. I am not sure how viable this tactic is going to be on the big ice but apparently their home ice is going to be NHL size, so it might work there.
Team chemistry is still bad. Strangely players do not even try to hint each other during the game. The offense is reasonable and with better chemistry is probably comparable to or maybe even above the weakest offenses in KHL.
The defense is a pure disaster: essentially at the level of the Blues defense or maybe worse. Defenders were extremely slow, constantly lost their positions and were not able to throw the puck out of the zone. The forward Lisin was defensively better than any of nominal defenders. I think the team urgently needs to sign 3-4 defenders or their games going to be a pure massacre. In the second and third periods the defense improved but mainly because players started blocking pucks with their bodies which is not common in training games and I guess surprised Blues. I do not believe this will surprise anybody during the regular season. Goalkeeping was surprisingly ok, maybe average by KHL standards.
It was a bit difficult to follow individuals as Admiral players did not have names stitched on their backs, only numbers (which you had to look from the game booklet and which were sometimes wrong
), but here are my thoughts:1) In terms of skill Enver Lisin was light years ahead of other players on the ice. Excellent speed and acceleration, great finishing. Also defensively he is very strong: skates back fast and good positioning. Passing is somewhat weak and also in one-on-one situations he usually just tries to run away from the opponent. I am actually a bit surprised how did he end up to Admiral, he could be a third liner in almost any NHL team and a second liner in some. It is somewhat strange to me that Magnitogorsk put him on the expansion draft. The only explanation I see is that he gets paid huge money, which I find somewhat unlikely as he has never been a high profile player. Lisin needs a solid center in order to maximize his offensive output but I think that due to his speed he will be able to individually win some game against the weakest opponents.
2) Joakim Lundstrom looks like a solid goalkeeper by KHL standards: good rebound control and lateral movements (especially compared to “NHLer†Koskinen on the other side). The glove hand seems to be somewhat slow and playing the puck with the stick was often ridiculous. I think he will start most of the games as Ivannikov has almost 0 experience.
3) Alexei Ugarov seems to be the most well rounded albeit a somewhat slow forward and Blues was continuously in trouble with him but I do not think that he will be such a threat in the KHL.
4) Sergei Barbashev is a very interesting playmaker. A lot of smart and technical passes. The problem is that it looks like his chemistry with other team is really bad (even given that chemistry overall was bad). He might also to be too smart for this team.
5) Richard Gynge – occasional flashes of skill but overall very mediocre, does not look like an impact player by any standards.
6) Felix Shutz – completely useless, no skill, no effort, hard to believe he will make the top 6, not clear why to spend a foreign spot on him.
The crowd at the game was 3500+. This is very good because tickets were not free (5-10 euros) and Blues does not achieve that large crowds at a lot of official games. It might show that KHL is of some interest in Finland (or it was just the first home game). The public announcer at the game was a complete clown calling the visiting team AdmiralS all the time.
Overall, my evaluation is that it is going to be the clear last place in the Eastern conference unless the team significantly improves the defense and even if they will I do not see how they can make a playoff spot.
