Avangard vs Ak Bars. What will the teams show after the resumption of the championship?
The second part of the regular KHL championship starts on December 19 with a match in Omsk. It is there, on the ice of the local G-Drive Arena, that representatives of the Eastern Conference – Omsk Avangard and Kazan Ak Bars – will meet.
Before the pause in the championship, the Omsk team gained an excellent momentum, managing to win four victories in a row. At the same time, it is worth noting that both the calendar and the level of the opponents played into Avangard’s favor. All of these victories came in home games against teams from the second half of the standings. They beat Vityaz 4-1, Neftekhimik 4-3, Amur 2-1 and Barys 5-1 in turn. The home series of the Omsk club will continue after the break in the championship; Avangard will also play the next three matches at home, but here the level of the opponents will be much higher. In addition to the upcoming match against Ak Bars, Omsk will also play against the leader of the Eastern Conference Magnitogorsk Metallurg.
Having won four victories in a row, Avangard seriously improved its tournament position, managing to get close to the conference leader. Now Avangard and Metallurg have an equal number of points, 55 each, but Magnitogorsk is higher in the standings in terms of additional indicators. As for Avangard’s personnel problems, the participation in the next match of two forwards – Reed Boucher and Igor Martynov – is in question. The third scorer of the championship, American Boucher, fell ill before the pause in the championship and is currently placed on the injured list by the club. Martynov took part in the Channel One Cup as part of the Belarusian national team and will apparently receive a couple of days of rest.
Ak Bars
If in the case of Avangard the pause in the championship rather went negative, knocking the Omsk team off their winning stride, then for Ak Bars the break was needed as a breath of fresh air. It’s no secret that the Kazan team is quite old, so the team will clearly not be able to go through the entire long path of the regular season in one mode. A serious decline overtook Barsov in November - December, when Bilyaletdinov's charges rolled back from the leading positions to the middle of the standings. And if Barca collects their points quite consistently on home ice, the statistics of recent away matches are frankly not impressive. Of the last 10 away matches, Ak Bars managed to win only three times, losing seven times. Now Ak Bars is only fifth in the East, with 48 points scored, 7 points behind the leaders.
The newcomers who joined the team at the end of November are called upon to shake up the team. This is American defender Miller, his compatriot forward Riley Barber, as well as another attacking player, Alexey Marchenko from Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. Barber has already been productive, scoring twice and providing four assists in five matches played for Ak Bars.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Avangard vs Ak Bars
AvangardBefore the pause in the championship, the Omsk team gained an excellent momentum, managing to win four victories in a row. At the same time, it is worth noting that both the calendar and the level of the opponents played into Avangard’s favor. All of these victories came in home games against teams from the second half of the standings. They beat Vityaz 4-1, Neftekhimik 4-3, Amur 2-1 and Barys 5-1 in turn. The home series of the Omsk club will continue after the break in the championship; Avangard will also play the next three matches at home, but here the level of the opponents will be much higher. In addition to the upcoming match against Ak Bars, Omsk will also play against the leader of the Eastern Conference Magnitogorsk Metallurg.
Having won four victories in a row, Avangard seriously improved its tournament position, managing to get close to the conference leader. Now Avangard and Metallurg have an equal number of points, 55 each, but Magnitogorsk is higher in the standings in terms of additional indicators. As for Avangard’s personnel problems, the participation in the next match of two forwards – Reed Boucher and Igor Martynov – is in question. The third scorer of the championship, American Boucher, fell ill before the pause in the championship and is currently placed on the injured list by the club. Martynov took part in the Channel One Cup as part of the Belarusian national team and will apparently receive a couple of days of rest.
Ak Bars
If in the case of Avangard the pause in the championship rather went negative, knocking the Omsk team off their winning stride, then for Ak Bars the break was needed as a breath of fresh air. It’s no secret that the Kazan team is quite old, so the team will clearly not be able to go through the entire long path of the regular season in one mode. A serious decline overtook Barsov in November - December, when Bilyaletdinov's charges rolled back from the leading positions to the middle of the standings. And if Barca collects their points quite consistently on home ice, the statistics of recent away matches are frankly not impressive. Of the last 10 away matches, Ak Bars managed to win only three times, losing seven times. Now Ak Bars is only fifth in the East, with 48 points scored, 7 points behind the leaders.
The newcomers who joined the team at the end of November are called upon to shake up the team. This is American defender Miller, his compatriot forward Riley Barber, as well as another attacking player, Alexey Marchenko from Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. Barber has already been productive, scoring twice and providing four assists in five matches played for Ak Bars.
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