On 5 September Lokomotiv opened the season at home to Traktor. Today, 21 September, all 22 clubs have five to seven games behind them — time for first conclusions. They are short: SKA are starting as if last spring never happened, Ak Bars with Kevin Hayes are playing the most structured hockey in the league, and champions Lokomotiv are showing working hockey — no collapses, but without the spring ease with which Yaroslavl twice lifted the Gagarin Cup.
SKA: best start in five years
The army men took 13 points in six games and conceded the fewest in the Western Conference. The new head coach cut the excess: Petersburg hold the puck less than last season but create more chances in less time. This is not a revolution. It is a coach who looked at the roster and saw fast people, not static ones. Conclusions are premature, but Dynamo and Spartak have already left the SKA Arena without points.
Ak Bars and Hayes: the working test passed
After last spring's final, where Lokomotiv took the series 4-2, Kazan rebuilt its centre. Kevin Hayes, after twelve NHL seasons, has 7 points in 6 games — not a scoring fire but a steady working line: a power-play goal, a shorthanded assist, 54 percent on face-offs. This is what a veteran who has nothing to prove looks like. Ak Bars have lost once, in overtime to Avtomobilist, and hold first place in the East. Chelyabinsk's Traktor, who opened the season in Yaroslavl, are erratic: three big wins, two heavy defeats. A team that knows how to start loud has started loud again. The question is whether it knows how not to sag by November.
Lokomotiv without luxury
The champions have 10 points in six games and the sense of a side running at 80 percent. Two defensive leaders left, and it shows on the power play: Yaroslavl convert at 14 percent, the worst mark among the top-half teams. But under Marek Zdenek Lokomotiv have twice proven that the regular season is a draft for them. With 68 games ahead, the first two weeks show no favourite, only a layout: SKA and Ak Bars set the pace, Lokomotiv accumulate. Next up, the game of the week — Yaroslavl host SKA on Saturday. This is no longer just a September game.
