Happy New Year!

2 January 2025

The holiday season is best spent with our nearest and dearest, and in 2025 the Dragons start the year with a home stand. But while there’s a party atmosphere in the tribunes, it’s serious business on the ice as playoff rival Vityaz and in-form CSKA come to Mytishchi, sandwiching a meeting with some wounded Tigers.

Vityaz (h), Jan. 3, 1700 Moscow Time

Last time out: The Dragons have something to prove after an unsuccessful first meeting with Vityaz this season. However, the 2-7 loss in Balashikha in October is somewhat anomalous: last term we beat our Moscow Region neighbor in three games out of four.

Familiar faces: Defenseman Ruslan Pedan is the most prominent ex-Dragon currently with Vityaz. Although he joined the club after the start of the season, he’s secured a regular spot on the team and often features on the first pair. Former Red Star goalie Dmitry Shikin is also on Vityaz roster, but last played on Dec. 8. Among our ranks, Yury Pautov was with Friday’s visitor in 2019/20 and 2020/21 while Tyler Graovac helped Vityaz to the playoffs in 2023 with 20 points that season.

Setting the scene: These two teams have a lot in common this season. Vityaz and Kunlun are currently locked on 36 points as they battle for a playoff spot. There’s some ground to make up on eighth-placed Torpedo, but as the Dragons demonstrated before the New Year break, our friends in Nizhny Novgorod are certainly vulnerable this season.

As head coach Pavel Desyatkov navigates his first season behind the bench in the KHL, results have been uneven. Memorable success, such as a 7-1 thrashing of Severstal or home wins over table-topping Lokomotiv and defending champion Metallurg, mix with tough losses – 1-8 against SKA, or a home defeat against struggling Sochi. Part of the problem stems from scoring. The Buchelnikov-Chekhovich-Barach line has been powerful all season, and all three players have topped 30 points. The rest? Well, not so much. Secondary scoring has not been impressive so far, and if the leaders don’t perform it’s down to goalie Maxim Dorozhko to keep his team in contention.

Amur (h), Jan. 7, 1700 Moscow Time

Last time out: Early in the season, a Jake Chelios goal gave us a 3-2 win in Khabarovsk.

Familiar faces: We’ll be welcoming a couple of old friends back to Mytishchi for this game. Goalie Matt Jurusik recently joined Amur as part of the deal that brought us Jan Drozg from the Tigers. He played two seasons with us, winning 17 games and recording six shut-outs. Forward Devin Brosseau, whose 23 goals last season set a KRS club record, is now playing in Khabarovsk as well. However, he’s having a tricky season, limited to just 15 games so far with 10 (7+3) points from them. In our ranks, apart from Drozg (three seasons, 118 games, 58 points for Amur), Yaroslavl Likhachyov has fond memories of Khabarovsk. During a loan spell in 2022/23 he made his KHL debut – and 27 points in his rookie season announced his arrival as one of the brightest prospects in the league.

Setting the scene: this has been a season to forget in Khabarovsk. Amur is rooted to the foot of the standings with just 21 points at the end of 2024. Adding to the misery, the team went five consecutive games without scoring in October and November, setting an unwanted KHL record in the process. Only occasionally have we seen glimpses of what the Tigers might be capable of: 5-1 road wins at Barys and Sibir are the highlights of a difficult campaign.

It wasn’t supposed to go like that. The summer signing of Alex Galchenyuk from SKA felt like a statement of intent. He leads the team in scoring with 26 points, but has not enjoyed much support from his partners. Our old friend Devin Brosseau has missed much of the season through injury, Canadian import Arnaud Durandeau is taking time to adapt to the KHL and none of the local talent has made much impact to date.

CSKA (h), Jan. 10, 1930 Moscow Time

Last time out: Last month we gave an in-form CSKA a real test before falling 2-3 in the third period. And earlier in the season we took the Moscow team to overtime on home ice, only to lose out 3-4.

Familiar faces: Rourke Chartier made a deadline-busting switch to CSKA. He played 38 games for KRS, producing 17 (8+9) points to earn his big move. At the time of writing, he is still awaiting his CSKA debut.

Setting the scene: In complete contrast with Amur, CSKA is on a red-hot streak right now. The Muscovites finished 2024 on an 11-game winning run, marching into second place in the Western Conference. It seems that after a steady start, Ilya Vorobyov has got his new team playing just the way he wants – and the rest of the league is struggling to keep up.

This season has also seen the emergence of a powerful new scoring line at CSKA. Vitaly Abramov, Maxim Sorkin and Prokhor Poltapov started the campaign expecting to play a supporting role. As 2025 gets going, they lead the team in scoring with 93 points between them. That eclipses the contributions of Ruslan Iskhakov and Denis Guryanov, who returning from North America with some fanfare, and also the performance of Ivan Drozdov, signed from Salavat Yulaev with a reputation as one of the hottest prospects in the KHL.