Saturday, 13:00, Arena-2000. The reigning Gagarin Cup holders, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, open the season against Traktor Chelyabinsk. There is no standalone Opening Cup this year: the KHL throws a full gameday at the calendar. Six matches on 5 September, not one ceremony. For Lokomotiv this is not the first whistle after a holiday. It is a title defence, a second in a row — they beat Ak Bars 4-2 in last spring’s final.
What else is on day one
After Yaroslavl: Avtomobilist vs Dynamo Moscow, SKA vs Lada, Spartak vs Torpedo, Severstal vs Salavat Yulaev, Ak Bars vs Sibir. Kazan starts without opening-night theatre, but with a new import: Kevin Hayes signed a one-year deal after 12 NHL seasons. He is not a saviour. He is a working forward on a look. Sibir away to that group is a September exam, not a May final.
Twenty-two clubs. Sixty-eight games each. The regular season runs to 20 March 2027 — 748 games, 182 gamedays. Playoffs from 23 March, Game 7 of the final pencilled for 23 May. Dry numbers until you lay them on Lokomotiv: a side that has closed May twice now has to look fresh at 13:00 in September, not “we’ll get going in December”.
Why 13:00 in Yaroslavl is not decoration
A daytime start is for television and for visitors from the Urals. Traktor in recent years have known how to start loud and fade by spring. Lokomotiv have been the other way: spring has been a working month twice. The first game does not prove that. It asks whether Yaroslavl still holds the level when the other bench is an ordinary September Traktor, not a final series. The answer is Saturday. One training day left before the whistle.
