SKA St. Petersburg 2013/2014 season talk

[Peter25]

SKA plays in the region that never really was a hockey hot bed, it's not South Ural where hockey is everything or Moscow with its old prestige schools. You can't grow talented and dedicated youth out of thin air. Nonetheless it remains to be one of the most popular teams in Europe and ivests a lot of money to grow the game. At the same time Ak Bars has 56% attendance, Magnitka – 79%, Dynamo – 64%.

Grebeshkov was traded in October. Prucha is out too. The biggest new signings not counting Kovalchuk (who can be put out of the cap, unless they suddenly changed the regulations) and Poni are Cervenka and Salak (who isn't a Russian or an NHLer to be overpaid much). I'm not eager to buy the info on the big Ketov-Shipachev contacts that was denied by the SKA management. And Making Russian passports (even if he gets one) is not just the SKA thing either, see the latest Kostitsyn news.

Leningrad did produce some fine players even though the quantity was not so great: Nikolai Drozdetsky, Alexei Kasatonov and Alexei Gusarov to name a few.

 

[obskyr]

Leningrad did produce some fine players even though the quantity was not so great: Nikolai Drozdetsky, Alexei Kasatonov and Alexei Gusarov to name a few.

And even those players owe their careers to CSKA rather than Leningrad. It couldn't be any other way since SKA was technically a CSKA farm, sure, but the point stands still.

 

[Jussi]

To vorky, salary cap's purpose in US pro leagues is to create a level playing field and enable all teams to make a profit in the environment. No law says they have to make one. It's purely common sense on their part. CBA's on the other hand must follow certain laws when it comes to employer/employee relations. Or as Wikipedia puts it:

Several sports leagues have implemented salary caps, both as a method of keeping overall costs down, and to ensure parity between teams so wealthy teams cannot entrench dominance by signing many more top players than their rivals.

No law forces the NHL to have one, it's the because the owners want to have a financially healthy league.

Apologies to all the other posters for having to bare this off topic crap again.

 

[ozo]

How can one hate a team that made NJ Devils their farm club?

 

[jaco]

Ponikarovsky is already on the official roster (http://www.khl.ru/clubs/ska), but Kovalchuk not.. Any reason for this?

 

[vorky]

Ponikarovsky is already on the official roster (http://www.khl.ru/clubs/ska), but Kovalchuk not.. Any reason for this?

ask IT guys To be serious, maybe his contract is not registrated, nothing serious.

 

[Mimico]

Does anyone have an idea of what SKA's opening night lineup will look like?

I was thinking something like this...

Kovalchuk-Tikhonov-Ponikarovsky
Cervenka-Martensson-Thoresen
Panarin-Shipachyov-Ketov
Burdasov-Kucheryavenko-Makarov

Alexandrov-Dallman
Kalinin-Chudinov
Semenov-Ryasensky

Salak
Ezhov

 

[Vicente]

Does anyone have an idea of what SKA's opening night lineup will look like?

I was thinking something like this...

Kovalchuk-Tikhonov-Ponikarovsky
Cervenka-Martensson-Thoresen
Panarin-Shipachyov-Ketov
Burdasov-Kucheryavenko-Makarov

Alexandrov-Dallman
Kalinin-Chudinov
Semenov-Ryasensky

Salak
Ezhov

Looks very nice. I am sure the real line up won't look too different.

 

[crik]

But SKA need two u22 players... one of them is Andrei Sigaryov and second?

 

[seeep]

But SKA need two u22 players... one of them is Andrei Sigaryov and second?

1 d-man: Alexandrov or Yudin imo

 

[Mimico]

But SKA need two u22 players... one of them is Andrei Sigaryov and second?

Oops! Forgot to take that into consideration. Here is an updated guess at the Soldier's lineup...

Kovalchuk-Tikhonov-Ponikarovsky
Cervenka-Martensson-Thoresen
Panarin-Shipachyov-Ketov
Sigaryov-Kucheryavenko-Makarov

Y.Alexandrov-Dallman
Kalinin-Chudinov
Semenov-Ryasensky
Kuteikin-D.Alexandrov

Salak
Ezhov

Extras: (D) Yudin, (D) Berdyukov , (RW) Burdasov

 

[obskyr]

Does anyone have an idea of what SKA's opening night lineup will look like?

I was thinking something like this...

Kovalchuk-Tikhonov-Ponikarovsky
Cervenka-Martensson-Thoresen
Panarin-Shipachyov-Ketov
Burdasov-Kucheryavenko-Makarov

Alexandrov-Dallman
Kalinin-Chudinov
Semenov-Ryasensky

Salak
Ezhov

I wouldn't be so sure about Ponikarovsky. He hasn't proven anything so far. So it may be Cervenka instead. I honestly wish him a happy trade to Donetsk, this team doesn't really need his services.

The biggest question is where Tikhonov should be. Their line with Kovalchuk and Tarasenko was great, but he was so much more productive as a winger for MÃ¥rtensson-Thoresen. And Jalonen is well aware of that. I can imagine a Kovalchuk - Cervenka - Tikhonov combo too.

There's also a possibility that in the future he will reinforce the Ketov-Shipachov line (they even played together shortly in Cherepovets). But at this point it's Panarin, yeah, he fits just fine. They tried Skachkov lately, but he probably will be in the 4th line. The bottom line is hard to predict given the departure of the certain role players and the pre-season rosters that lacked the biggest stars.

On the blue line the first pair is a lock. Kalinin is likely to get Ryasensky, I believe. Semenov and Kuteikin work really well together as a solid stay-at-home pair.

 

[obskyr]

Well, that's it, according to Kravets they want a Russian center to play in the same line with Kovalchuk and Tikhonov.

(Disregard the Sochi part, that's just silly)

 

[Mimico]

Well, that's it, according to Kravets they want a Russian center to play in the same line with Kovalchuk and Tikhonov.

(Disregard the Sochi part, that's just silly)

So doesn't that leave Shipachyov as the only option? I would not be against having him on the first line, he is an excellent player. Also, Jalonen has been praising the play of defenseman Yudin lately so I'm assuming there is a good chance that he will be the other u22 player on the squad (the other being Sigaryov).

 

[obskyr]

So doesn't that leave Shipachyov as the only option? I would not be against having him on the first line, he is an excellent player. Also, Jalonen has been praising the play of defenseman Yudin lately so I'm assuming there is a good chance that he will be the other u22 player on the squad (the other being Sigaryov).

It does.

Although that leaves you wondering who's going to center the bottom. Seems like losing Nepryayev was the biggest mistake of the off-season.

 

[Mimico]

It does.

Although that leaves you wondering who's going to center the bottom. Seems like losing Nepryayev was the biggest mistake of the off-season.

Is creating an "All-Russian" first line really worth opening up a gaping hole on the fourth line? It seems clear now that they want to keep Tikhonov on the wing; a much more practical forward lineup would look like this...

Kovalchuk-Cervenka-Tikhonov
Panarin-Martensson-Thoresen
Ponikarovsky-Shipachyov-Ketov
Sigaryov-Kucheryavenko-Burdasov/Makarov

This way we could role 3 lines... sort of a Line 1A, 1B, and 1C approach. The first line would obviously still be very solid considering the fact that Cervenka is a goal scoring machine. On the second line, I would love to see Panarin given the opportunity to play along side catalysts like Martensson and Thoresen. The third line reunites the Shipy-Ketov duo that was dynamite is Cherepovets while adding a big body like Poni to work the wall and sit infront of the net. However, if they figure out the 4th line center issue then I am 100% for having Shipy center the 1st line.

 

[obskyr]

Is creating an "All-Russian" first line really worth opening up a gaping hole on the fourth line?

Oh yeah, it doesn't really look like they're sure about that themselves. I hope Tikhomirov gets a shot in the future, but neither him nor Virolainen were even invited to the camp this summer.

So at least we already know what to expect from the deadline sale.

 

[obskyr]

I was late for the game.

Did they shuffle the top lines a bit in the second period (at the start it was supposed to be the import line and IK-Shpachov-Tikhonov) or something?

 

[Kshahdoo]

Well, rare thing nowdays when a team has four scoring lines. Something like CSKA of old. Sure, players aren't as good, but anyway.

 

[ozo]

This beauty of a move deserves some more love. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzky0h-wyQU&list=UUwJ3S2Ix7aI1BhHexDJlmEg

 

[obskyr]

Here we go, a new record for a winning streak to start the season.

 

[Vicente]

SKA with their 6th consecutive win to start the season. IMHO all lines are looking pretty well and they - together with Dynamo Moscow - have one of the teams with the greatest depth in their roster. As we could see once more against Dinamo Minsk today they don't even need Kovalchuk or Ponikarovsky to easily dominate all their opponents.

I like especially hard working guys like Tikhonov, Thoresen and Martensson.

 

[malkinfan]

I think the loss to Donbass validates Ezhov's caliber, which is not of starting quality. Yeah SKA was due for a loss, yeah their offense was snake-bitten... But what better preparation for playoffs than a game like that? Just like last years POs, when SKA offense runs into a hot goalie, their own goalie was never able to come up big and steal a game for them. Outshoot the opponent by 2x and still lose... Thank God for Salak!

 

[Jussi]

Is there anyone on this board that admits to being a fan of SKA? You know, long time, not just after Kovy went there.

 

[Mimico]

Is there anyone on this board that admits to being a fan of SKA? You know, long time, not just after Kovy went there.

I started watching KHL hockey in 2010-11 and became a SKA fan once Afinogenov joined the club. I could care less about Kovalchuk as I like Panarin, Martensson, Thoresen, Cervenka and Tikhonov ALOT more as hockey players.