Return to the Dragons’ Lair

26 September 2023

We’re back home – and ready for some big tests. The Dragons’ upcoming run of four games in Mytishchi includes meetings with the KHL’s two conference leaders. After an eastern road trip that saw our guys pick up plaudits for some league-leading shot blocking, our rearguard can expect further tests against Avangard and an Amur team that had 57 shots at Jeremy Smith in our recent meeting.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk (Sep. 27, 1930 Moscow Time)

Last season: Least said, soonest mended. We struggled to lay a glove on Magnitka last term, losing both games by an aggregate score of 1-10.

Familiar faces: Artyom Zagidulin got his first look at the KHL during a loan spell in our first season, playing six games and posting his first victory in senior hockey. Since then, he’s been on his travels, making a solitary NHL appearance with Calgary and spending two seasons in Finland with Lukko. Now 28, he’s back at his hometown club looking to establish himself as #1 following Vasily Koshechkin’s retirement. For the Dragons, recent signing Anton Shenfeld won the Gagarin Cup with Metallurg in 2014.

Background: This season feels like a change of era for Metallurg. Ilya Vorobyov, the club’s long-serving head coach, left in the summer to be replaced by Andrei Razin. In addition, the roster got a major makeover: apart from Koshechkin’s retirement, the imports were entirely refreshed. It’s a big season for Razin, a head coach who has a good reputation for taking unfancied players and molding them into teams that amount to more than the sum of their parts. However, with all due respect to the likes of Severstal, Metallurg is a different proposition: expectations are much higher, and the club’s resources mean it can attract established talent rather than guys with a point to prove. So far, Razin’s tenure has gone well: Magnitka leads the Eastern Conference and is tied with Dynamo for the overall KHL leadership. However, the Steelmen come here after back-to-back losses at Severstal and Lokomotiv.

Amur Khabarovsk (Sep. 29, 1930 Moscow Time)

Last time: Didn’t we just meet? Last week’s Far East road trip began in Khabarovsk, where Jeremy Smith had 56 saves as we snatched a shoot-out win over the Tigers.

Familiar faces: Ex-Dragons defenseman Viktor Baldayev played 16 minutes in last week’s game, taking two minor penalties and finishing with a -1 rating.

Background: Not much has changed since we last met. Red Star went on to lose games at Admiral and Lada on the way back home, while Amur suffered back-to-back home losses against Dynamo Moscow and SKA. Tigers head coach Andrei Martemyanov may have some worries about his offense: after rattling in five goals against Avangard on Sep. 11, Amur has not managed more than one goal a game and was blanked against SKA. The absence of injured center Alex Broadhurst has been a blow, but a return of 18 goals in nine games to date is the second-lowest in the KHL.

Avangard Omsk (Oct. 1, 1600 Moscow Time)

Last season: Our trip to Omsk last season lives long in the memory. The Dragons became the first visiting team to win at new G-Drive Arena, and did so with a thumping 4-0 scoreline. Brandon Yip, Devin Brosseau, Parker Foo and Ethan Werek got the goals, Jeremy Smith stopped 33 shots … and shortly afterwards Dmitry Ryabykin was fired as head coach. His replacement, Mikhail Kravets, fared better in the return game, winning 5-2 in Mytishchi.

Familiar faces: Hawks’ forward Ivan Nikolishin was third in team scoring for us in the 2020/21 season, with 23 (8+15) points in 59 games during a disjointed campaign.

Background: After nine games, Avangard found itself bang in the middle of the standings. The Hawks stood twelfth out of 23 in the table, with three regulation wins, three regulation losses and three games going to OT. Goals for, 24; goals against 24. Consistently inconsistent, then. It’s little surprise to see Reid Boucher and Vladimir Tkachyov among the leading scorers for the Hawks, but the current top scorer is Ryan Spooner, a summer signing from Dinamo Minsk. The Canadian has 11 (4+7) points and set a new club record when he picked up a point in each of the first seven games of the season.

Dynamo Moscow (Oct. 2, 1930 Moscow Time)

Last season: Kunlun has still yet to beat Dynamo. But we came closer than ever in our last meeting, producing a rousing fightback from 0-2 to tie the game on goals from Tomas Jurco and Jake Chelios in the last five minutes. Sadly, it wasn’t quite enough: our host squeaked a shoot-out win to maintain its hoodoo over us. Maybe this time?

Familiar faces: Forward Daniil Tarasov began his KHL career with Dynamo and spent six years in Blue and Whites before leaving for Ak Bars in 2021.

Background: One of the features of a packed schedule is regular back-to-back games. There’s no way round it this season: if Red Star is to fit its KHL commitments around the planned Olympic Qualification program for China, the guys have to suck it up and get used to a big workload. October starts with two pairs of back-to-back meetings, and we couldn’t have a tougher opponent for the first of them. Dynamo currently leads the KHL standings and has scored more goals than anyone else. Alexei Kudashov’s men reeled off an impressive seven-game winning streak to hit the summit. On that run they accounted for defending champion CSKA, Moscow rival Spartak and perennial powerhouse SKA. Nikita Gusev, a high-profile summer acquisition from SKA, is doing a great job pacing the Blue-and-White offense and has formed a deadly partnership with Jordan Weal. Between the two, they have 25 points already this season. Staying out of the box will be crucial: Dynamo leads the league with 16 power-play goals at a 32% conversion rate.