Women’s Hockey Update: August 28th, 2018

Agidel Ufa players and coaches receive their gold medals as 2017-18 Champions of Russia in a ceremony on Tuesday.

We have hockey games to talk about! Both Russian women’s national teams (Senior and Under-18) played their first tournaments of 2018-19 late last week, and, well, fortunes were mixed.  Read on, for full recaps of those tournaments, major transfer news from the Women’s Hockey League, a sneak preview of the teams that will take part in the amateur national championship, and some other notes!

2017-18 KHL Splits

As I mentioned yesterday, the 2018-19 KHL team previews start this week, and one of the things I’m going to add to them for this go-round is each team’s quarterly splits (by pts%) for the 2017-18 regular season.  And here is the full chart of same for the KHL last season, sorted by final overall points percentage.

Each KHL team played 56 games last season, so the quarters were each 14 games long with 42 available points per team.  Quarters marked in green mean that the team was in the top five in the league (plus ties) for that particular 14-game segment, and red means that the team was in the bottom five (again, plus ties).  This coming season will feature a 62-game campaign for each team, which does not divide evenly into four quarters, but I will figure something out when the time comes.

You can see (and sort) the spreadsheet here.

 

Women’s Hockey Update: June 27th, 2018

The Russian women’s team celebrates gold at the World Ball Hockey Championship in Dmitrov last week.  There were some very familiar names on that Russian roster, too!  (Image Source)

It has been a little while since our last Women’s Hockey update here, for the simple reason that with the off-season lull in full effect, there simply has not been much news (beyond Olga Sosina deservedly winning the Women’s Hockey League Most Outstanding Player awared).  However, with the 2018-19 season drawing ever closer, stirrings have begun once again; read on, for a big signing, some re-signings, and some actual hockey, although not of the usual sort!

This and That (Updated)

Players and staff from the Ural State Mining University celebrate winning the 2017-18 championship of the Student Hockey League.  (Image Source)

I think we will take this evening to get caught up on a few things going on in the world of Russian hockey right now!  The past few days have seen some interesting coaching news in a couple of different leagues, as well as some tidings relating to the 2018-19 KHL goaltending picture (we were just talking about that, too!).  Read on, for those stories and a few others!

KHL Goaltending Last Season and Next: The East Conference

2017-18 KHL Goalie of the Year Pavel Francouz waves farewell to the Traktor Chelyabinsk faithful after the team’s elimination in the East Conference Final.  (Image Source)

On Tuesday, we took a rough look at how the goaltending and defences shaped up in 2017-18 in the KHL’s West Conference, with the aid of a couple of interesting (well, I think so) graphs.  Time, then, for the East Conference, so read on — I have re-posted the graphs, and provided a little write-up on each Eastern team.  And we will find among the other things the answer as to how Traktor Chelyabinsk got as far as they did!

Season’s End

Pavel Datsyuk (at right) won a special “lifetime achievement” sort of award, presented by IIHF President René Fasel at Wednesday’s KHL Awards Ceremony.  Full details of the unprecedented reason for the award are below!  (Image Source)

A big day in the KHL today, as the league’s Board of Directors met to discuss the season just finished, and look ahead to 2018-19.  And not only that — the BoD meeting was followed by the traditional Awards Ceremony that formally closed the 2017-18 KHL season.  Read on, for quick write-ups of both events!

KHL Goaltending Last Season and Next: The West Conference (Updated)

Ilya Sorokin takes to the ice for CSKA Moscow. (Image Source)

Time to take a look back at the 2017-18 KHL season, and in particularly at what the goalies and defences of the league’s teams got up to!  Which defence groups were being bailed out by their goalies, and which blueliners were doing the bailing?  Today we start with the West Conference clubs, and we will also be glancing ahead to 2018-19, and the netminding tandems that are taking shape amongst the various teams.  Read on, for there will be charts and the like…

 

Wrapping Up Team Russia’s Worlds

Russian national team Head Coach Ilya Vorobyov at work during the World Championship quarterfinal game against Canada. (Image Source)

The 2018 IIHF Men’s World Championship came to an end yesterday in Denmark, as Team Sweden collected their second straight gold medal via a surprisingly difficult 3-2 shootout victory over a pesky Swiss side.  Earlier, the Americans had claimed the bronze medal, defeating Canada 4-1.  But what of Russia?  Ilya Vorobyov’s side were already spectators by the time the medal-deciding games came around; read on, as we discuss what happened and what to make of the 2018 Worlds.

Rivalry Day at the Worlds

Russian goalie Igor Shestyorkin turns away Slovakia’s Tomáš Jurčo during Monday’s group-stage game at the World Championship in Denmark.  (Image Source)

It’s “cards on the table” time for teams at the World Championship in Denmark, or at least for the eight that have advanced to the knockout round.  The quarterfinal games will be played on Thursday, and, as we talked about here last time, Team Russia will be among the contestants.  Read on, for a look at how their group stage wrapped up, and what might be in store for tomorrow.

Women’s Hockey Update: May 15th, 2018

The players of Grad-1 Moscow celebrate winning the team’s third straight amateur national title!  (Image Source)

The on-ice portion of the 2017-18 Russian women’s hockey season wrapped up over the past couple of weeks with a couple of tournaments, and at the same time preparations for 2018-19 began in the Women’s Hockey League.  Read on, for the crowning of the amateur national champions, and some other bits of news as well!