A KHL Quest: Traktor Chelyabinsk's Pursuit of the Gagarin Cup

[thrashman]

So the train pulls into Chelyabinsk, Russia and here I am ready to lead a team that hasn't seen much success at the highest level of Russian hockey and desperately wants a winner. The people here know good hockey though because this Ural city is the hometown of Soviet legend Sergei Makarov of the famous KLM line for the Red Army. This is also the hometown of NHLers Sergei Gonchar and Dmitri Kalinin and where Alexander Semin began his development.

Of course none of those players can help us in what could turn out to be either a special or miserable season as the KHL debuts. This team has some talent, but when you look around the league it's clear we're on the lower level of the power scale.

As far as forwards, we have a few NHL veterans in Andrei Nikolishin, Oleg Kvasha, and Pierre Dagenais. Nikolishin is the reliable force with a decade in the NHL under his belt, but at 35 we can't put too much of a burden on him. That leaves me the task of molding Kvasha and Dagenais into the players they just never lived up to be at the NHL level. Each is skilled but has a history of not giving maximum effort. If they show up, we can be good, if not we're going to be killed.

One of the things I'm looking forward to the most is working with two young players who are both from Chelyabinsk named Evgeni Dadonov and Andrei Popov. Dadonov was a 2007 pick of the Florida Panthers and Popov a 2006 pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. Both of these kids have dreams of the NHL and if everything comes together it's a real possibility for each of them. I've heard big things about Dadonov especially, so we'll see what these young guys can do.

On defense we have two massive bodies in Andre Lakos who is 6'7 and Martin Grenier who is 6'5. Grenier spent a small amount of time in the NHL with the Flyers but has mostly played in the AHL. Lakos is a star in his native Austria and signed a deal with the Minnesota Wild but never made it past the AHL level and returned to Europe.

Another guy with AHL experience is Jan Platil, a Czech who was an Ottawa Senators draft pick. He may be the most offensively talented of the blueliners, although I have heard good things about both Oleg Piganovich and Alexander Sazonov.

The season starts soon and we need to get off to a good start to build some confidence. It won't be easy though as our schedule is loaded early with regional rivals and KHL powerhouses like Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Salavat Yulaev Ufa, and Avangard Omsk. Ufa is the defending champion and Magnitogorsk won the title the year before. Omsk has a recent championship too in 2004 and just added Jaromir Jagr to an already stacked squad. For a smaller team like us to make this season something to be proud of, we're going to need some great teamwork and some lucky breaks.

[thrashman]

Forwards
Evgeni Dadonov
Pierre Dagenais
Evgeni Galkin
Ravil Gusmanov "A"
Oleg Kvasha "A"
Andrei Nikolishin "C"
Andrei Popov
Vadim Shakhraychuk
Evgeni Skachkov
Marek Vorel
Denis Yachmenev
Alexei Zavarukhin

Defensemen
Martin Grenier
Nikita Korovkin
Maxim Kuznetsov
Andre Lakos
Oleg Piganovich
Jan Platil
Rail Rozakov
Alexander Sazonov
Evgeni Shtayger

Goaltenders
Andrei Malkov
Sergei Mylnikov


OPENING NIGHT LINES
Kvasha - Shakhraychuk - Dadonov
Gusmanov - Zavarukhin - Nikolishin
Dagenais - Galkin - Yachmenev
Skachkov - Vorel - Popov

Grenier - Platil
Lakos - Korovkin
Piganovich - Sazonov

Mylnikov
Malkov

Scratches: Kuznetsov, Rozakov, Shtayger

[thrashman]

TRAKTOR CHELYABINSK @ METALLURG MAGNITOGORSK
Magnitogorsk Arena - Magnitogorsk, Russia

MAGNITOGORSK LINEUP
Jaroslav Kudrna - Alexei Simakov - Tomas Rolinek
Stanislav Chistov - Evgeny Fedorov - Jan Marek
Denis Platonov - Alexei Kaigorodov - Konstantin Pushkarev
Denis Khlystov - Nikolai Zavarukhin - Maxim Mamin

Vitaly Atyushov - Evgeny Varlamov
Alexander Seluyanov - Vladislav Boulin
Evgeny Biryukov - Karel Pilar

Ilya Proskuryakov


GAME SUMMARY

1st Period
MAG K.Pushkarev SH(A.Kaigorodov,K.Pilar) 15:48
2nd Period
NO SCORING
3rd Period
MAG T.Rolinek PP(E.Fedorov) 3:55
TRA E.Dadonov(O.Piganovich,A.Sazonov) 13:12

Shots - TRA 25 MAG 24

FINAL SCORE - TRAKTOR CHELYABINSK 1 METALLURG MAGNITOGORSK 2

3 STARS

1. Ilya Proskuryakov (MAG) - 24 saves

2. Tomas Rolinek (MAG) - 1 goal


3. Konstantin Pushkarev (MAG) - 1 goal

TRAKTOR RECORD: 0-1-0

[thrashman]

TRAKTOR CHELYABINSK @ SALAVAT YULAEV UFA
Ufa Arena - Ufa, Russia

UFA LINEUP
Alexander Perezhogin - Alexei Tereschenko - Alexander Radulov
Petr Vampola - Andrei Taratukhin - Leos Cermak
Igor Grigorenko - Mikhail Mikeska - Konstantin Koltsov
Vladimir Vorobiev - Alexei Shkotov - Igor Radulov

Vitaly Proshkin - Oleg Tverdovsky
Mikhail Chernov - Miroslav Blatak
Igor Schadilov - Andrei Kutejkin

Vadim Tarasov


GAME SUMMARY

1st Period
TRA A.Nikolishin 3:56
UFA P.Vampola(A.Taratukhin,L.Cermak) 8:17
TRA E.Dadonov PP(N.Korovkin,V.Shakhraychuk) 19:02
2nd Period
UFA A.Radulov PP(A.Perezhogin,O.Tverdovsky) 1:44
UFA A.Taratukhin(O.Tverdovsky,P.Vampola) 5:45
TRA P.Dagenais(O.Piganovich,E.Galkin) 19:56
3rd Period
TRA P.Dagenais(E.Dadonov) 7:45
UFA K.Koltsov SH(O.Tverdovsky,A.Taratukhin) 8:18
TRA A.Nikolishin PP(A.Lakos) 8:49
TRA V.Shakhraychuk PP(E.Dadonov,O.Kvasha) 15:11
TRA A.Popov(A.Sazonov,E.Skachkov) 18:03

Shots - TRA 29 UFA 29

FINAL SCORE: TRAKTOR CHELYABINSK 7 SALAVAT YULAEV UFA 4

3 STARS


1. Andrei Taratukhin (UFA) - 1 goal, 2 assist


2. Oleg Tverdovsky (UFA) - 3 assists


3. Andrei Nikolishin (TRA) - 2 goals

TRAKTOR RECORD: 1-1-0

[Madman55]

Looking good so far. and lmao at Evgeni Galkin.

[GoldenJet]

LOL, Evgeni Galkin, I wonder if he's ever met Evgeni Malkin.

[star king3]

I love how you choose these teams G'luck.

[GoldenJet]

Yes, at first I found it kind of weird, but then I found them much more creative.