KHL Season 20/21
- Thread starter rohky
- Start date
Rufus T Firefly
Registered User
- Jul 8, 2020
- 290
- 569
Caser
@RUSProspects
CSKA is the clear favorite in the West; East isn't that easy to predict, but lets say Avangard.
If anyone but CSKA wins the West it would be an upset, a pretty big one even.
SKA is getting a not a cakewalk matchup right away with Minsk. Especially given that SKA is far from it's better years.
Dynamo Moscow like SKA should be a heavy favorite in the first round.
Lokomotiv vs. Jokerit is going to be a battle right away.
Say the top 3 advance, then CSKA has a winner of Lokomotiv-Jokerit series to face, but that sounds like a very doable a task for them.
And SKA-Dynamo would be a serious battle.
If anything CSKA could get challenged in the western finals and whoever faces them will have to go through tougher matchups. That's not always a negative, but injuries and stuff...
And CSKA has no weakness. They are strong in goal, their D is the best in the league, their coach has proven to be great at creating a working system with stingy defence and effective offence, their offence may not be the best among powerhouses on paper, but it's deep. They have a very even top 9. Their only little problem might be the loss of Samorukov who has proven to be a very steady defenceman.
In the East even the first round matchups could result in some upsets seed-wise. There will be no easy series in the East. While I think the top seeds will prevail.
But after that we are facing the ususal eastern battle of the eastern powers. Every series will be a battlefield with no possible prediction. It will depend on who stays healthy, whose goalie hits peak form and huge amount of luck.
Last edited:
cska78
Registered User
Of course, all teams facing the mighty Red Army are starting with a negative score, and if they win they are sent straight to Gulag
Uhmmm.... no. I don't even think Akbars will have a free pass in the first round. And after that every team can beat AkBars. It's playoff hockey. It will be completely different from the regular season.And the usual suspects have tons of playoff experience, they will know how to step up their game. As for AkBars itself Kvartalnov is not exactly a playoff success story in the past. The last strech of 7-8 games before the playoffs was awful. Our goalies are changing personalities it seems. Last season Bilyalov was clearly on top, this season the roles reversed. I have no idea how they fare in the playoffs. I have no idea who will start. And that's not a vote of confidence. And goaltending is absolute key in the playoffs. The loss of Azevedo will be costly. He was a proven playoff warrior. Dawes has never been on a real contender and never went all the way. It remains to be seen if he can be one of the leaders on a team to win 4 series. DaCosta has more playoff experience and is more proven. AkBars will rely on him to score. It's not a bad team on paper, but we had much better and they have not always won.
If you think they can be fixed, why won't you bet money?
There will be the ususal fan battles about calls as always, but in the end it all evens out.
SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,357
- 5,307
The whole league is fixed. Players get fixed salary and turns out better teams can afford better players without "other things" having to interupt. Interesting how it works.
Small sample, but during this season (Regular time only) SKA have scored an average of 2,90 goals for both at home ice (small rink 26x60m) and at away. However, at home ice they have conceded 2,10 goals per game and at away only 1,83 per game. Again, this is a small sample size and no conclusions should be drawn from this, but I was just wondering whether some of you have any suggestions on how does the small rink affect SKA and is it an advantage or disadvantage for them.
I am looking forward to the matches played at Dinamo Minsk Arena. The rink there is 30x60. How do you think this will affect the games? More goals, less goals? At least Minskers could have up to 12 000 spectators cheering for them, so that should be a nice little boost for them.
I am looking forward to the matches played at Dinamo Minsk Arena. The rink there is 30x60. How do you think this will affect the games? More goals, less goals? At least Minskers could have up to 12 000 spectators cheering for them, so that should be a nice little boost for them.
SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,357
- 5,307
I stand corrected. Any thoughts in general about the differences, do you think that smaller rink suits skilled players like the ones of SKA better than others? Or just the opposite? And if, why?
Rufus T Firefly
Registered User
- Jul 8, 2020
- 290
- 569
I think it's not so much SKA's offense, but Minsk's defense in that series. It's broken down way too often and at the worst times for Minsk. Hard to win when you're down by several goals for long stretches in games...
Because it's a tandem of pretty equal goalies. Reideborn wasn't perfect in the first, so Bilyalov got the start in the 2nd. I gues it will depend on how it develops. If Bilyalov keeps winning, he will start.
SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,357
- 5,307
It's really difficult to make any conclusions above the level of pure speculation.
I think it's wrong to say smaller ice suits skilled (as we understand in this context) players more than others. It suits teams that work hard, that's for sure. Depending on how much skill you have you can then adjust things but teams like Severstal or last year's Barys show you don't need exceptionally skilled players to be very successful. You need hard work and a system that would help you to make quick decisions regardless of your skill level.
Small rinks ususally favor a less skilled north-south game. Skilled players thrive more on the bigger rinks. If you go into detail though it gets more and more complicated. For example if you dissect skating big rinks are where smooth and fast skaters prevail as they have more room. Good edgewotk on the other hand is what makes you dangerous in the phone booth of the small rink. Smaller rinks mean more physical contact, i.e. players who shy away from it are doomed on the small rink, but can somewhat have success on the bigger rink if they are fast enough. Defencemen on the bigger rink use the stick more as opposed to taking the body. Obviously for the simple fact that they have a lot more rink width to cover. If you take the body on the big 30m rink you might be several meters further away from the next play, net etc. On the other hand corners and borad battles are further away from the net too, so there is less posibility a lucky bounce of a short pass out of that battle ends up in a dangerous scoring area.
In the SKA series I would even take into consideration that Bragin has a lot of experience on small rinks and knows how to built his strategies for the small rink with the players he has.
SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,357
- 5,307
That's where it gets complicated. Nothing is cut and dry here.
In general, Atas obviously makes a couple of good points but, for example, there is little to no evidence that fast skaters benefit from larger rinks. And yes, more space and all that but in reality, it's not about the space and speed but about the geometry of the rink. As counterintuitive as it would seem, large rinks make it more likely that Mr. The Fast Player will get the puck in the dead zone of the ice which will only make it easier for the defenceman to cut of the angle as opposed to creating immediate separation. Guys like Grabner, that have the speed to burn and little else, subsequently are much more dangerous on the small rinks, no doubt about it.
Anyway, I really don't think SKA gets an edge due to the rink size.
In general, Atas obviously makes a couple of good points but, for example, there is little to no evidence that fast skaters benefit from larger rinks. And yes, more space and all that but in reality, it's not about the space and speed but about the geometry of the rink. As counterintuitive as it would seem, large rinks make it more likely that Mr. The Fast Player will get the puck in the dead zone of the ice which will only make it easier for the defenceman to cut of the angle as opposed to creating immediate separation. Guys like Grabner, that have the speed to burn and little else, subsequently are much more dangerous on the small rinks, no doubt about it.
Anyway, I really don't think SKA gets an edge due to the rink size.
Will Bill Peteres be Avto coach in the new season? He was eliminated in the first round of the Gagarin Cup, but the team played well throughout the season. Next season could be better IMHO
SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,357
- 5,307
Hopefully not, the team underachieved massively, had historically bad PK for a good while, had a losing stream of historic proportions (for no objective reasons like injuries, covid, etc.), and showed little improvement throughout the season. Furthermore, he was probably the one who asked for Holzer who was just a tremendous waste of both an import spot and money.
From November 14, when the honeymoon ended, Avto had 13-5-18 record. 31 points in 36 games. That's actually a worse point pace than Amur or Sibir had in their season. That is not playing well, definitely not when you have a team that has a roster to compete for P3 in the conference and avoided all the force major crisis other teams suffered from. Like legitimately, if Amur didn't have to start the season the way they did, they could have beaten Avto in the standings. Which is absolutely ridiculous to even think about.
SoundAndFury
Registered User
- May 28, 2012
- 11,357
- 5,307
Across 8 series. That salary cap working as intended.
Ghost of Ethan Hunt
The Official Ghost of Space Ghosts Monkey
Just sharing, don't know if this was posted elsewhere.
Ad
Latest posts
-
-
Series Talk: ECQF: Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs (BOS Leads 2-1)- Latest: Zegs2sendhelp
