Ak Bars vs CSKA. How will the key match of the day end?
Kazan Tatneft Arena on November 1 will be the venue for the main match of the next game week in the KHL. Local Ak Bars, having a disastrous season, will try to redeem themselves in front of their fans in the game against CSKA Moscow.
Kazan continues to unpleasantly surprise the hockey community, following the problems of the game, putting on public display intra-team conflict. One of the highest paid hockey players of the current squad, Alexander Radulov, who returned from the NHL in the summer off-season, was removed from the main squad by the decision of Oleg Znarka, which once again speaks of the serious problems of the Bars. All this is superimposed on an extremely weak start in the championship. The expectation that Ak Bars will add distance, getting in shape in the gameplay is not yet justified. On the contrary, if in September, in the absence of a well-organized game, Bars scored points due to the high individual skill of individual hockey players, but now this is gone too.
In the last ten matches of the regular season, Ak Bars has only one victory with a score of 3-2 over Metallurg with nine defeats. A weak excuse for Bars is the level of rivals in this segment of the championship. Kazan alternately played with all the leaders of the Eastern Conference, with some even twice. Thus, Ak Bars runs the risk of being outside the cup eight of the Eastern Conference in the near future, now Oleg Znarka's wards are eighth with 22 points scored.
CSKA
The army team also entered the season quite hard, fully tasting the so-called “post-champion hangover”. Just like Ak Bars, at some point the army team was teetering on the brink of the Western Conference Cup Eight, managing to lose even to rivals like the Chinese Kunlun. It was clear that the problems of the army team were temporary, and already in October, Sergei Fedorov's wards reached their usual level, which last season allowed the team to win the Gagarin Cup.
In the last ten matches, the army team lost only once, losing to their teammates from St. Petersburg, who demonstrated an amazing level of hockey in the first part of the season. The army attack started working again, which, coupled with the traditionally reliable defense, became the recipe for a successful performance by CSKA in October. Now the army team has a winning streak of nine matches, which is reflected in the standings. Now CSKA has 33 points and the current third place in the West.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Ak Bars vs CSKA
Ak BarsKazan continues to unpleasantly surprise the hockey community, following the problems of the game, putting on public display intra-team conflict. One of the highest paid hockey players of the current squad, Alexander Radulov, who returned from the NHL in the summer off-season, was removed from the main squad by the decision of Oleg Znarka, which once again speaks of the serious problems of the Bars. All this is superimposed on an extremely weak start in the championship. The expectation that Ak Bars will add distance, getting in shape in the gameplay is not yet justified. On the contrary, if in September, in the absence of a well-organized game, Bars scored points due to the high individual skill of individual hockey players, but now this is gone too.
In the last ten matches of the regular season, Ak Bars has only one victory with a score of 3-2 over Metallurg with nine defeats. A weak excuse for Bars is the level of rivals in this segment of the championship. Kazan alternately played with all the leaders of the Eastern Conference, with some even twice. Thus, Ak Bars runs the risk of being outside the cup eight of the Eastern Conference in the near future, now Oleg Znarka's wards are eighth with 22 points scored.
CSKA
The army team also entered the season quite hard, fully tasting the so-called “post-champion hangover”. Just like Ak Bars, at some point the army team was teetering on the brink of the Western Conference Cup Eight, managing to lose even to rivals like the Chinese Kunlun. It was clear that the problems of the army team were temporary, and already in October, Sergei Fedorov's wards reached their usual level, which last season allowed the team to win the Gagarin Cup.
In the last ten matches, the army team lost only once, losing to their teammates from St. Petersburg, who demonstrated an amazing level of hockey in the first part of the season. The army attack started working again, which, coupled with the traditionally reliable defense, became the recipe for a successful performance by CSKA in October. Now the army team has a winning streak of nine matches, which is reflected in the standings. Now CSKA has 33 points and the current third place in the West.
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