Ak Bars vs Avangard. How Kazan will complete the home series of games?
On Friday, January 20, Kazan's Tatneft Arena will host the next match of the KHL regular championship. Local Ak Bars on the ice of the home arena will take one of the leaders of the Eastern Conference - Omsk Avangard.
Kazanians are gradually getting out of the basements of the standings, where they drove themselves with an indistinct game in the first part of the regular season. To do this, Ak Bars had to decide to change the head coach. Titled, but never found a common language with the Kazan stars, Oleg Znark was replaced by the no less titled Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, who won the Gagarin Cup three times as a coach. There is no talk of any playing beauty in the performance of the Bars now, the result is at the forefront, so now Kazan is demonstrating purely pragmatic hockey, which, however, is bearing fruit.
The results of Bilyaletdinov's work should already be recognized as successful. Ak Bars, under his leadership, played eight matches, won six in six, scored a point in another, losing in overtime, and lost only once in regular time. The absolutely closed style of play is noteworthy, in these matches Barca scored only 16 goals (an average of 2 goals per match), but only conceded 13, and 7 of them fell on the lost match to Metallurg and Siberia. Thus, Ak Bars is almost close to the top three in the East, with 62 points behind Metallurg, which is in third place, by three points.
Avangard
The fate of Avangard this season is in many ways similar to the fate of Ak Bars. Omsk experienced the same crumpled start of the championship, already after a month and a half decided on coaching resignation. Mikhail Kravets can hardly be attributed to the giants of the national coaching school, but it was he who managed to revive the original Omsk club, which looked completely lost after the departure of Bob Hartley.
The one and a half week break in the championship in December turned out to be a turning point for Avangard, after which the Omsk players noticeably improved, giving out a series of seven victories in a row. The leader of the Eastern Conference Avtomobilist twice fell under the hot hand, whom Omsk defeated with a score of 5-0 and 7-1. The avant-garde could well have become the leaders of the conference, but two misfires in the games against Siberia 1-3 and Ak Bars 1-2 did not allow Omsk to lead the standings in the East. Now Avangard is in fourth place, having 64 points in its assets, the Omsk club is four points behind the leading Avtomobilist.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Ak Bars vs Avangard
Ak BarsKazanians are gradually getting out of the basements of the standings, where they drove themselves with an indistinct game in the first part of the regular season. To do this, Ak Bars had to decide to change the head coach. Titled, but never found a common language with the Kazan stars, Oleg Znark was replaced by the no less titled Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, who won the Gagarin Cup three times as a coach. There is no talk of any playing beauty in the performance of the Bars now, the result is at the forefront, so now Kazan is demonstrating purely pragmatic hockey, which, however, is bearing fruit.
The results of Bilyaletdinov's work should already be recognized as successful. Ak Bars, under his leadership, played eight matches, won six in six, scored a point in another, losing in overtime, and lost only once in regular time. The absolutely closed style of play is noteworthy, in these matches Barca scored only 16 goals (an average of 2 goals per match), but only conceded 13, and 7 of them fell on the lost match to Metallurg and Siberia. Thus, Ak Bars is almost close to the top three in the East, with 62 points behind Metallurg, which is in third place, by three points.
Avangard
The fate of Avangard this season is in many ways similar to the fate of Ak Bars. Omsk experienced the same crumpled start of the championship, already after a month and a half decided on coaching resignation. Mikhail Kravets can hardly be attributed to the giants of the national coaching school, but it was he who managed to revive the original Omsk club, which looked completely lost after the departure of Bob Hartley.
The one and a half week break in the championship in December turned out to be a turning point for Avangard, after which the Omsk players noticeably improved, giving out a series of seven victories in a row. The leader of the Eastern Conference Avtomobilist twice fell under the hot hand, whom Omsk defeated with a score of 5-0 and 7-1. The avant-garde could well have become the leaders of the conference, but two misfires in the games against Siberia 1-3 and Ak Bars 1-2 did not allow Omsk to lead the standings in the East. Now Avangard is in fourth place, having 64 points in its assets, the Omsk club is four points behind the leading Avtomobilist.
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