Fatigue hampers battling Dragons
11 October 2023
Kunlun Red Star 0 Dinamo Minsk 4
For Kunlun, this was the seventh game in 11 days. It’s a draining schedule that also included two trips to Balashikha and St. Petersburg. Moreover, the Dragons have never had more than two days rest between games this season, and those ‘relaxed’ sequences involved travelling to Khabarovsk then returning from Togliatti.
There’s a reason for this, of course. In February, while most of the KHL continues as normal, Team China is traveling to Cardiff to begin its Olympic qualification program. In order to ensure our guys can fit in a full KHL season, and also prepare to meet the likes of Great Britain and Romania in international play, we need to get through the games quickly at the start of the campaign.
However, whatever the reasons, it makes for a gruelling process for our players. In playoff hockey, and in international tournaments, we’re used to short bursts of intense, day-after-day action. But that is usually a sequence of 7-14 days, not the six weeks Kunlun has endured to date. Today’s game was our 20th, while our opponent, Dinamo Minsk, was playing its 15th. In addition, the Belarusians had four days off ahead of their trip to Mytishchi. All these things make a difference.
That difference can be overcome. But to do so requires a solid start. Today, unfortunately, that did not happen. Dinamo opened the scoring after 92 seconds and led 2-0 in the fourth minute. The game was barely begun and it already felt like a long way back for our guys.
There was no lack of fight – literally in the case of Turner Ottenbreit, who pummelled Timofei Kovgorenya to the ice when the pair clashed in the sixth minute. Sadly, on the night, that was the most notable win for any of our players.
There were a few moments of encouragement. Teemu Pulkkinen got valuable ice time again, and might have scored on his former club with a dangerous one-timer in the second period. But Dinamo had more in the tank and added two further goals late in the middle frame through Sam Anas and Vyacheslav Osnovin.
The third period was goalless, and relatively incident free. Cliff Pu came closest to a consolation goal for the Dragons, but in truth there was little of note in the closing stages from either team.
On the bright side, we now have two days of valuable R&R before our next game. Better still, Saturday’s meeting with Neftekhimik is here in Mytishchi, so none of that time will be lost to travel. Hopefully that’s the boost we need to put the current skid behind us and recover some of that early-season form.
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