The result cannot be called random. At the beginning of the third half, the hosts were inferior to their rivals in shots on goal (9-29). SKA coach Roman Rotenberg explained this passivity by the physical condition of his players, the result of an inconvenient schedule.
– At some point the trip overlapped: four away games. We didn’t have this last season. Somewhere we need to put in effort at work.
Worse yet, the SKA started the regular season only 15 years ago, in the first KHL season.
Another factor, according to Rotenberg, is the debut of several players who have not yet had time to play together. Among those who played their first game for SKA is Arseniy Gritsyuk, who noisily left his native Omsk Avangard in the off-season. I failed to impress immediately. His fellow trio, Americans Alex Galchenyuk and Alexander Kadeikin, generally seem unimportant at the start of the season. Galchenyuk has two points, Kadeikin has one. And zero goals scored between them.
Let us remember that previously among the causes of the SKA coach’s defeats were refereeing errors and the quality of the ice.
Let’s add that SKA had its worst start in 15 years. The St. Petersburg team started even more modestly only in the first season of the KHL 2008/2009.
CSKA Saint Petersburg currently occupies ninth place in the Western Conference. Only Sochi and the Moscow region of Vityaz are worse. The next rival of Rotenberg’s team will be Dinamo Moscow. The match will be played on Friday in Saint Petersburg.
